NA/MK1 Headlight Stop Position Adjustement

Technical Area Body, Interior & Styling
1
  1. My model of MX-5 is: 1993 1.6 NA
  2. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Pop-up headlight motor crank stop position adjustement

Hello All,

At the moment my nearside headlight bucket stops a good 1cm above the bumper causing it to look like this and mess up the headlight beam level.

IMG_5822
IMG_58221920×1440 236 KB

I’ve tried adjusting the headlight bucket mount (The one that’s mounted onto the chassis itself), the headlight lid and the rubber stoppers in the headlight bucket, but I’ve now come to the conclusion that this is due to the headlight motor crank stop position being incorrect, most likely due to something getting in the way when the headlights were lowered at some point.

I tried slackening the nut that’s on the motor crank arm (The one which is connected to the lift rod), hoping that would allow me to manually move it for adjustement but it wouldn’t budge and I didn’t want to force it for fear of damaging the motor.

I’ve looked online and been unable to find anything, so I wondered if anyone has dealt with anything like this before ? Is there anything I can do to re-adjust the crank stop position, without having to fully teardown and re-assemble the whole motor ?

Thanks

2

How much do you know about the history of this car? I had a Mk1 with a similar issue, and spent ages trying to get a better fit, when all along it was due to accident damage. The headlight frame can often look ok, but is actually distorted.

There are adjustable stoppers, but these shouldn’t need adjustment unless something has happened to the headlights. Might be useful

3

The history is limited to be honest, but from what I’ve seen working on the car it appears to be straight. No signs of any damage or previous repairs.

Did you ever try adjusting the motor crank arm ? I feel like if I could get that loose and twist it a degree or two it would solve the alignment problem.

4

I think I’m gonna have another look at it and follow the advice in this thread to see if I can sort it out:

https://www.mx5life.com/threads/mk1-headlight-motor.5925/

5

Just be very, very, very careful to never poke any fingers in there when the motor is plugged in. Powerful little motors that could take a finger off in the blink of an eye.

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