clubstylus

As a place to note this down, after a lot of back-and-forth with the good folk at Ribblesdale Auto Electrics (cheapest supplier I found) I think I've found the part numbers for the Hella 90mm quad headlights. I'll confirm them after the correct units turn up (having ordered the incorrect units previously... whoops)

I'm turning my attention to the mountings for them. This consists currently of an aluminium plate with a step in it bolted to the bodywork to provide two flat, vertical surfaces. The lights are then secured to the plate using the Hella screw adjusters which appear to be both rare as hens teeth and quite liable to going brittle and failing.

I'm not a big fan of aluminium plate as it traps crud and only allows for 3 mounting points. I'm even less of a fan of the Hella mounting screws so I'm contemplating a new way of mounting them in due course. The lights are 90mm diameter, with their mount centres at about 110mm diameter so my first thought is to get some 100mm plastic tube, cut one end straight and the other at the right angle to meet the bodywork, and bond it on with Sikaflex. I'm still undecided as to the best way to then secure the light into the rear end of the tube.

Suggestions welcome. I'm going to put the lot back together with nuts and bolts for now just to get it through the MOT so I can put a proper solution in place at my leisure.

Should have read my old sale posts -- HELLA headlights which I removed after smashing one of them , the tyre ripping it to bits on hard cornering.

That sounds about right, Rob. Looks like there's enough room for mine as the car isn't as low as yours but it's hard to tell. They can be mounted further forward from where they are currently which is what I'll do, I think.

josephmoore wrote:That sounds about right, Rob. Looks like there's enough room for mine as the car isn't as low as yours but it's hard to tell. They can be mounted further forward from where they are currently which is what I'll do, I think.

That depends on whether you intend covering the lights with poly lense covers though. The problem I had was that the longest headlight , can't recall if main or dipped , was around 6/7 inches inc adjusters . Under hard breaking/cornering they just touched but as you say , mine is just 75mm's off the ground.

I've got the poly covers on, but looking at the nearside units which are still in place they can go forward another half inch or so easily, which may well be enough. I'm still not certain as to whether the tyre came into contact with the light or it was simply a brittle mounting that gave way but either way the more space the better!

Car's just been MOT'd and lights adjusted. The old clips are really brittle so I'm fairly happy that was the cause rather than any tyre/light contact.

For reference the Hella part numbers for the 90mm units are:

Sidelight & full beam: 1KO 008 191 021
Dipped beam: 1LL 008 193 127

These are listed as 24v units but take a standard H7 bulb so just swap it for a 12V one.


I think I'll probably make some fibreglass brackets to mount the lights with rather than the aluminium plate thats there. I can then get the back face of the brackets more or less at the right angle (the original brackets are way off) and bond a stainless bolt through it in place of the Hella adjuster screws. The light can sit on that with a washer and nut on the back side of it and a spring on the front side to keep everything under tension. Nice and adjustable with no plastic bits to go brittle.