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Headlight pivots

Tampa Jerry

Active member
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
35
Location
Tampa, FL
Corvette
1966 Black Coupe & 1968 Silver Coupe
Is there any easy way to get the headlight pivots off the shaft. All four seem to be frozen. Can I assume that the brass/bronze inner bearing of the pivot ball should turn freely on the pivot shaft? I have tried the liquid wrench route. I am a little reluctant to applying heat. Any suggestions?
 
I had to use a chisel to get mine off. They were frozen solid. I had to first crush and remove the metal ball that surrounds the bronze bushing then cut off the bushing.

A dremel tool with one of those small cutoff wheels would work well in this case. I didn't have one of those at the time I did mine.
 
I'm working on mine. Soaked them in penetrating oil and let it sit. Grabbed the ball with a large channel lock pliers and tried to turn them. 3 turnd with medium force. One is still stuck and will require more drastic steps.
 
i'm having the same problem and with the buckets being fiberglass i really don't want to start banging the crap out of them. My question is will they still work ok with the balls frozen. Mine always opened smoothly and quickly. I don't want to fix it if it's not broken.
 
Success. It finally moved last night. It was clamped vertically by the motor shaft in a vise for two weeks with lots of penetrating oil.
 
Pivots

Bill: Glad you got the pivots free. After soaking and soaking, got three off with no problem. The last one came off but the pivot shaft mount broke. I ordered a new one with most everything else from ZIP yesterday. Just one more subassembly to rebuild. Any tips out there on rebuilding the buckets? Jerry
 
Tampa Jerry said:
Is there any easy way to get the headlight pivots off the shaft. All four seem to be frozen. Can I assume that the brass/bronze inner bearing of the pivot ball should turn freely on the pivot shaft? I have tried the liquid wrench route. I am a little reluctant to applying heat. Any suggestions?

I made a puller today and it worked like a charm with no damage. I soaked the bearings with penetrating oil for a few days first.

Ray

DSC00708.JPG
 
Ray,

That is a real slick puller that have created!

Do you have a pic of the puller "broken down" to show all the components?

Having had to wrestle pivots off in the past, I can see where this would be very helpful.

Take care,
Brian
 
Fuelie said:
Ray,

That is a real slick puller that have created!

Do you have a pic of the puller "broken down" to show all the components?

Having had to wrestle pivots off in the past, I can see where this would be very helpful.

Take care,
Brian

Hi! Brian

Here is a picture with the slot that fits behind the bearing shaft. On one end I used just a washer, the hole in the center fit over the shaft and the washer protected the shaft. On the other I used a bolt with nut and washer as a pressure point.

Ray
DSC00712.JPG


Ray
 
Puller

Ray, The puller looks great. Once you see it, it makes perfect sense. You may want to clean up the edges, powdercoat it and sell it. I wish I had it to remove my piviots. Three came off after soaking with BB. The last one had to be sawed off. Jerry
 
Hi Ray,

Thanks for the extra shots of the puller. Very clever and effective!

Take care,
Brian
 

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