[Bricklin] Headlights

[isensee at aol.com]

 I talked to Terry Tanner about some problems I am having with my headlights
and he had some observations I thought I should pass along. He said that
Bricklin adopted the Corvette pneumatic headlight system assuming that GM
would have done a good job engineering it, but it turned out to be a poor
design. The actuators exert as much as 400 pounds of force. Only about 14
pounds are needed to open the headlights so all that extra pressure just
serves to bend the headlight covers and be hard on everything else. There are
lots of points in the system where leaks can occur and they often aren't easy
to track down. He recommends testing each component of the system one at a
time. A hand operated vacuum pump is helpful to create vacuum without having
to run the car while troubleshooting. He also recommend using a vacuum gauge
to see if there is a drop in pressure at any point. A vacuum leak will not
only make the headlights misbehave, but can also cause the engine to run
poorly.

Scott