Focusing Headlights

Post by **Humblej** » Thu Aug 31, 2023 7:44 am

I had removed my bar mounted 26-27 headlights some time ago to repaint the buckets and never got around to properly focusing and aiming them. Marked up the garage door and driveway with chalk for the aiming points as shown in the Ford Service Bulletins and went out after dark last night to see where it has been all this time. Surprisingly the aim for one bucket was right on, and the other one was very close, but the focus was way off. Wow what a difference focusing does. A non focused beam lights up the area like a bare bulb, focusing brings the light to a round pattern then flattens it to a narrow rectangular beam. Turning the adjusting screw in and out can actually fine tune it to a 30 inch high rectangle about 4-5 ft wide. Tonight I will make a slight adjustment to the aim for one and will be back to Ford specs. No wounder I couldn't get the road to light up, and brighter bulbs were not helping. I was running 50-32 cp at one time and still couldn't see, swapping back to 32-6 cp bulbs properly focused did it. The 6 cp DIM setting will allow me to run with lights all day as driving lights without a battery discharge. I may have to try 24-4 cp bulbs for my next experiment.