Elan +2 Headlights

As you might have seen with my other post, my headlights busted recently on my Elan +2. The bolt holding the metal bar going across both headlights snapped off. So I got a new one, tapped out the old one, and put it all back together like I thought it should be.

Now the headlights are fully up with lots of pressure. I can push them down flush, but it seems like a lot more effort than it should be. Before the bolt broke, the headlights were just kinda mushy and halfway up, but could be pushed down or pulled up without problem.

Did I maybe put the springs on backwards? They just seem to have way more spring up than engine vacuum could hold back down.

How much 'up force' should they have when the car is off / hasn't been driven for a long time?

Thanks!

Hegg

Good question. On my S2 there are two vacume pods, but the principle is the same. Since the spring on yours is what holds the light pods up, it should be pretty stiff to stop them from bouncing on rough roads.

The halfway drooping thing sounds like weak springs for sure, but you never said if that was running or motor off... maybe you just finally got it right. The engine should make more than enough vacume to suck them back down, even with a really stiff spring.

In a perfect world, the vacume left in the system should hold the lights down forever with the motor off, but really it depends on all the vacume connections and such as to how long they actually stay down. I would say you need to hear from some people with your system to find out an average.

Engine off mine stay up, but i never leave them that way for long, as I don't want to strain my vacume diaphrams too much.

hope that helps /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

That makes me feel a little better. It makes most sense that the spring would have to be that strong to hold them up while driving. I didn't even consider that.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hegg