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When you turn your headlights on
in your 68 to 82 Corvette, does only one headlight lock up into place and the
other one sits partially open? Do the
headlights come up or go down very slowly?
Do you have to help one or both headlights up into locked position?
If
you can answer yes to any of these questions, the problem can be a damaged
front actuator seal. This seal will
sometimes get a small hole or tear in it because of age and use. Until now the only way to repair this seal
was to purchase a complete new actuator.
Well, Zip Products, Inc.,
8067 Fast Lane, Mechanicsville, VA 23111, (800) 962-9632 has come to the Corvette owner’s
rescue. They now have this seal so that
you can repair this problem without buying a complete actuator.
Our
project 73 had one headlight that always had been very slow to open so we
contacted Zip Products and they supplied us with two new actuator front seals
and a complete set of color coded vacuum hoses.
The whole repair took less than two hours and only normal hand tools are
needed. Follow along as we repair the
front actuator seal and show you just how easy it is to do.
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01: Here is everything Zip Products sent us: 2 new Actuator Front Seals, a Complete Color
Coded Vacuum Line Set with Instructions, a Vacuum Reserve Check Valve Air
Filter and 4 Halogen Headlight bulbs. |
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02: Start by removing the right and left grille sections
and screws.
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03: Actuate the headlamps so that they are partially
open. Now remove the long spring on
either side of the pivot link pin. |
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04: Disconnect the 2 vacuum hoses attached to the
actuator. Remove the cotter pin and
slide the pivot pin out of the actuator rod.
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05: Remove the four nuts that hold the actuator into
place. Also remove the inner support
rod. Now carefully work the actuator out
through the grille opening. You may not
think it will fit through, but it will.
Just keep turning the actuator until it fits through the opening. Note:
When you do this, make sure the hood is closed. You do not want to scratch your hood with the
back of the headlight actuator.
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06: With the actuator on your work bench, start by
removing the pivot pin receiver. Hold
the shaft firmly in place below the threads and twist off the receiver. It is a good idea to count the number of
turns it takes to remove the receiver nut.
This way you will be able to return it to the same place on the actuator
rod.
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07: Carefully remove the rod dust shield because these are
presently not available and you will have to reuse them. Clean them in a mild detergent and then put
some kind of rubber preservative on them.
This way they will stay supple and be reusable. |
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08: Now carefully remove the actuator front seal retaining
ring. This ring is held in place by
three very small prongs. Use a small
screwdriver to open the prongs so that the ring can be removed from the
actuator seal lip. Important Note: Only open the prongs up enough to remove the
ring from the seal lip. These prongs are
very fragile and they cannot be opened and closed repeatedly. One or two times will be all that they can
withstand. |
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09: The front actuator seal can now be removed. |
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10: Here was the culprit. This tear caused the one headlight not to
open. The other seal also had a small
hole in it so it was also not working properly. That is why it was slow in
opening.
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11: Clean the actuator front seal lip with something like
3Ms General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner #08984.
This will let the rubber seal tightly against the actuator lip. |
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12: Now install the front actuator seal over the rod and
onto the actuator seal lip. A small
amount of spray silicone on the rubber seal will ease installation. Carefully tuck it into place using a small
screwdriver. |
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13. Replace the actuator seal retaining ring. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to re-crimp
the prongs back into place. After this
is in place, re-install the pivot pin nut onto the actuator rod. (You did remember how many turns it
originally had) Now replace the
actuators and reassemble the headlight assemblies in reverse of the disassembly
procedures.
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14: While we were at it, we replaced all of the headlight
door vacuum hoses and Ts. The set
supplied by Zip Products is color coded just like the originals. |
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15: A vacuum diagram is supplied with each kit but we also
suggest using your shop manual for proper routing and color
identifications. If you do not have a
shop manual, you can purchase one from Zip Products.
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16: It is a good idea to also replace the vacuum reserve
check valve air filter. We felt since we
were replacing all of the hoses, this should also be replaced. |
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17: Before we replaced the headlight doors, we installed 2
high and 2 low beam Halogen lights. The
difference from the original bulbs to Halogen bulbs was unbelievable. If you are still using the old seal beam
headlights, I highly recommend changing to Halogen bulbs.
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18: Here is the finished project. Both headlight assemblies work like they originally
did and our Corvette stopped winking at us. |
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STOP WINKING AT ME:
68-82 CORVETTE HEADLIGHT REPAIR
SOURCE:
Zip Products, Inc.
8067 Fast Lane
Mechanicsville, VA 23111
(800) 962-9632
PARTS LIST:
The Author would like to thank Richard Gaudio of Greg Donahue Collector
Car Restorations, Inc. for his assistance with this article.
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