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1Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Headlight Adjustment on RT Thu Aug 08, 2013 8:56 am

AJ.Valente

AJ.Valente
Life time member
Life time member
Noticed that the headlight on my '85 RT is too low, so began the adjustment proceedure. According to the manual; Roll the bike up to a wall and mark the height of the headlight. Then, back the bike off 15 meters (yards) and adjust the light to hit the same spot.

Well, my light comes up about a foot too low so, got out the trusty wrench and began turning the adjuster (located down on the lower right side of the faring). After about 20-30 turns, no effect.

My suspicions are the faring was replaced sometime in the last 25 years before I bought it. Perhaps the adjustment assembly wasn't put back together correctly, or perhaps a dozen other reasons.

Any thoughts from people who have successfully adjusted their headlamps?

    

2Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:00 am

92KK 84WW Olaf

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Not sure but I will be watching this one as I must also do the adjustment. I have taken an electric adjuster out of a car headlamp and looking to fit it to get over the problem of the beam also being too low. The manual one is fiddly and I suspect not installed correctly. My fairing was definitely off the bike at some point.


__________________________________________________
1992 K100LT 0193214 Bertha Blue 101,000 miles
1984 K100RT 0022575 Brutus Baja Red 578 bought 36,000 now 89,150 miles
1997 K1100LT 0188024 Wotan Mystic Red 689 58,645 now 106,950 miles Deceased.
1983 K100RS 0011157 Fricka 606 Alaska Blue 29,495 miles Damn K Pox Its a Bat outta Hell Now 58,200 miles. 
1996 K1100LT 0233004 Lohengrin Mystic Red 38,000 miles currently 51,800 miles.
1983 K100RS 0004449 Odette R100 colours 58,000 miles. Sprint fairing now 63,390 miles

Past:
1968 Yamaha 80 YG1
1971 Yamaha 125 YAS-1
1968 Honda 125 SS
1970 Honda CD 175
1973 Honda CB500-4
Honda CX 500
    

3Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:53 am

Rick G

Rick G
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Straight from the riders manual
Headlight Adjustment on RT Riders10


__________________________________________________
"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."   Dalai Lama


Bikes 1999 K1100 LT with a Big Block 1200
    

4Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Thu Aug 08, 2013 12:21 pm

charlie99

charlie99
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there are actually 2 adjusters ...(speaking for left hand side of road users )
looking from the rear (drivers perspective )

there is one down the left hand side near the diagonal apex at the top ....this gives left to right correction

there is one with the clip and bolt on the right apex (bottom ) almost straight across the back of the headlight assembly ...this gives up down adjustment    the (white ) clip part is actually a lever assembly which is supposed to be a "quick adjuster" compensator for 2 up riding ...
so it has an up and a down position ....which is a cam like action  and basically holds the nut for adjustment at either of 2 presets
 there are limitations on the adjustment though ,
both these adjusters are a long thread with spring loading

perhaps one of the issues could be that the rubber diaphragm which seals off the back of the globe mounting assembly to housing could have hardened ? this could restrict the amount of movement of the reflector assembly
or someone has been inside before and made some adjustments ?


here is a pic of the inside of the housing without all the hardware in place  so you can see the relative locations

Headlight Adjustment on RT 2013-010

you can see a mounting pivot point in the top left (from the front ) where everything mooves from and is the only "solid point "

Headlight Adjustment on RT 2013-011
here the white clip is in the up position ...single up riding

Headlight Adjustment on RT 2013-012

here the white clip is in the lowered mode  for 2 up riding   it would be hard to wind the position adjustor (the nut in the centre ) whilst in this position

so if you want more height make sure the clip is in the "towards the top of the housing position"  before making adjustments
to raise the beam vertically you would need to undo the nut ..(which is a long 5mm threaded rod into a plastic clip ) so that's anticlockwise ...if you were to tighten = lower the height ...(wind clockwise too much), you might just strip the plastic retainer  or wind it up onto the shoulder of the bolt  so it has no action on the unthreaded rod section of the bolt in the plastic ?

hope that helps aj



Last edited by charlie99 on Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:02 am; edited 1 time in total


__________________________________________________
cheezy grin whilst riding, kinda bloke ....oh the joy !!!! ...... ( brick aviator )

'86 K100 RT..#0090401 ..."Gerty" ( Gertrude Von Clickandshift ) --------O%O
'86 k100 rs.. #######..  "Fred " (f(rame) red ) ( Fredrick leichtundschnell ) - -
bits and pieces from many kind friends across the k100 world ...with many thanks ..
1987 k100rs ########   "Red"  - (red sports rs TWB style )
1989 K100rt #009637   "Black Betty"  (naked rt ala Nigel , now sporting an rs main fairing )
    

5Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:34 pm

sidecar paul

sidecar paul
Life time member
Life time member
Hi AJ,
You might find some useful pointers in this post if you need to take the headlamp unit apart.

https://www.k100-forum.com/t4520-the-rs-rt-headlight-unit

Cheers,
Paul.


__________________________________________________
'84 K100RS (0014643) (owned since '85), 86 K100RS (0018891) with Martello sidecar (built as an outfit in '88),
'51 Vincent (since '67),'72 Montesa Cota (from new), '87 Honda RS125R NF4 (bought 2015) 
....No CARS never ever!
    

6Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Thu Aug 08, 2013 8:01 pm

charlie99

charlie99
VIP
VIP
great "how to"      paul


__________________________________________________
cheezy grin whilst riding, kinda bloke ....oh the joy !!!! ...... ( brick aviator )

'86 K100 RT..#0090401 ..."Gerty" ( Gertrude Von Clickandshift ) --------O%O
'86 k100 rs.. #######..  "Fred " (f(rame) red ) ( Fredrick leichtundschnell ) - -
bits and pieces from many kind friends across the k100 world ...with many thanks ..
1987 k100rs ########   "Red"  - (red sports rs TWB style )
1989 K100rt #009637   "Black Betty"  (naked rt ala Nigel , now sporting an rs main fairing )
    

7Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Sat Aug 10, 2013 8:58 am

AJ.Valente

AJ.Valente
Life time member
Life time member
Thanks for the information. It's going to be winter before I can get inside and see what the problem is. We'll come back to this thread if I find something interesting.

    

8Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Something screwy in the manual Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:04 am

AJ.Valente

AJ.Valente
Life time member
Life time member
OK, I have the answer. Note, I've been using the repair manual (dated 4.1988) downloaded from this site (not the one posted here by RickG). To paraphrase from Chapter 63, p8.87, under the heading K75C, K 100 headlight adjusting, regarding the knurled screw and associated picture:

Turn anticlockwise = beam throw shorter
Turn clockwise = beam throw longer

This is wrong! See my previous post where I had cranked the screw 20-30 times without getting it to come up to the mark.

Thinking about this more, a normally threaded screw turned clockwise would shorten its  length, pulling in the bottom of the chassis in and causing the beam to travel downward. (I suppose if the screw was at the top of the chassis the action would be reverse, but it's not.)

Then one night I was riding along one of twisty unlighted streets along the Sugar River here in town where I'd ridden a hundred times before, this time noticing my headlight was  much lower that ever before!

So, when I got home I cranked the nut counter-clockwise 20-30 turns, and the next chance I got (last night) I made the final adjustment. 

I thought I was following the instructions properly, and indeed I was. Never occurred to me that the manual would be wrong on something so basic as this. 🇳🇴

    

9Back to top Go down   Headlight Adjustment on RT Empty Re: Headlight Adjustment on RT Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:18 am

Rick G

Rick G
admin
admin
I have done quite a few manuals and other publications by scanning the original then making a new page that is clean and has good print and it truely amazing just how many mistakes there are.
I think the worst one I have done was the factory manual for the Z 1300 Kawasaki.
The BMW ones are fairly good but Haynes and Clymer have some classic bloopers.
I am currently doing the Haynes for the K100 up to 1988 but it sure takes time.


__________________________________________________
"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."   Dalai Lama


Bikes 1999 K1100 LT with a Big Block 1200
    

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