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Adjusting the headlight on a 2003 Heritage Classic
Hi guys,
I am absolutely blinding everyone with my new LED H4 bulb and new glass lamp on my 2003 Heritage Softail Classic and it's lighting up overhead highway signs like a small sun, it clearly needs to come down a bit. I thought it would be easy but my headlight has no front adjustment screws of any kind to adjust up and down. Is the only way to get at this is to undo the bolt that holds the entire headlight housing? Those bolts are completely inaccessible with the chrome parts that cover that area and the windshield, do I really have to pull all that apart just to adjust the headlight? Hopefully I'm missing a simple trick, otherwise I'm going to have to pull a ton of stuff off just to move the headlight down a bit. I tried googling for tutorials and everyone shows the adjustment screws in the front that I don't have and the owners manual only shows the parts of the headlight but nothing about adjusting the height.
I have a 2012 Heritage. My owners manual covers the headlamp adjustment. Yours should as well. Check index for "Headlamp "--> "Adjustment".
This is directly from my owners manual
It may require removing some parts to access the vertical adjustment bolt. You could always try just pushing down on the headlamp bucket to see if it moves.
I have a 2012 Heritage. My owners manual covers the headlamp adjustment. Yours should as well. Check index for "Headlamp "--> "Adjustment".
This is directly from my owners manual
It may require removing some parts to access the vertical adjustment bolt. You could always try just pushing down on the headlamp bucket to see if it moves.
Right, so my manual has no such section, when I check the index I have Head Lamp and Head Light dimmer switch sections. When I go to the Head Lamp page, it's a one pager that describes the kind of bulb I have and an assembly diagram of the lamp housing. When I go to the Maintenance heading in the index, the headlamp subsection points to the same page. I went through my entire manual page by page just in case and there's nothing.
Now with that said, my setup is like in your manual, however the vertical adjustment bolt is not accessible, it's covered in a chrome housing that envelopes the entire top of the fork. And then on top of that are all the windshield bolts. So I guess I have no choice but to peel all that stuff off to get at the vertical bolt.
Right, so my manual has no such section, when I check the index I have Head Lamp and Head Light dimmer switch sections. When I go to the Head Lamp page, it's a one pager that describes the kind of bulb I have and an assembly diagram of the lamp housing. When I go to the Maintenance heading in the index, the headlamp subsection points to the same page. I went through my entire manual page by page just in case and there's nothing.
Now with that said, my setup is like in your manual, however the vertical adjustment bolt is not accessible, it's covered in a chrome housing that envelopes the entire top of the fork. And then on top of that are all the windshield bolts. So I guess I have no choice but to peel all that stuff off to get at the vertical bolt.
Well, slap me silly and call me Bob. I just pushed down with some of my weight on the headlight housing and it dropped down a bit.
Good call!
I don't think it's so loose that it would move with vibration and bumps, so hopefully it doesn't get looser with the miles but it's definitely lower now. I'll give it a test tomorrow after work but yeah, just pushing on it seems to have worked lol
Right, so my manual has no such section, when I check the index I have Head Lamp and Head Light dimmer switch sections. When I go to the Head Lamp page, it's a one pager that describes the kind of bulb I have and an assembly diagram of the lamp housing. When I go to the Maintenance heading in the index, the headlamp subsection points to the same page. I went through my entire manual page by page just in case and there's nothing.
Now with that said, my setup is like in your manual, however the vertical adjustment bolt is not accessible, it's covered in a chrome housing that envelopes the entire top of the fork. And then on top of that are all the windshield bolts. So I guess I have no choice but to peel all that stuff off to get at the vertical bolt.
Thanks for posting the pages from your manual!
Dan
Is this the owner's manual? If so, you need the service manual.
Is this the owner's manual? If so, you need the service manual.
This is the owner's manual, which also has the service instructions like oil changes, shock adjustments etc and has the maintenance schedule etc. It's the only book that came with the bike actually. Am I missing a book?
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Adjusting the headlight on a 2003 Heritage Classic
