What part is this??? And I will buy it

[73OpelMan]

Hey all,

Ok short and sweet cause I have to get back to work on my car. I was working on the headlights and when I went to slam them into the on position three little metal things snapped completely in half, I have the picture and will post it.

1. What are these?

2. Can I buy a complete set of six from anyone please?

Thanks,
Spencer

[spdkilz02]

i dont know if u can buy them anywhere or not, but i made them for my other gt that i had...

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

Those are the spring steel straps that bolt to the center hub on the rotating mechanism and bolt to the headlite buckets. Without those the head lites will not rotate. On my 71 GT I traced the pieces on a thin sheet of titanium and replaced them with the titanium. Never had a problem after that in that area. On the ones for Willi? and my 71GT, there were 6 holes in the straps, three for the bolts and three for the rollpins on each side of the bolts. It is my educated guess that the roll pins take up the stress of rotating the straps and the bolts just hold them in place. BTW, the bolts in the center are extremely hard and if they break off, they are a PIA to remove. Check out Keith Wilford's thread on those in the rotating mechanism repair thread. Also, the metric thread of those bolts is almost an exact match to a 10-32 SAE thread. On Willit? I have aircraft grade allen head bolts that are safety wired to keep them tight on both sides. HTH..

[SPARKLENUTS]

i will look in the garage tonight, i may have those items. i picked up a couple of buckets because they had some hardware inside of them and they just might be there. i will get back to you.

[opelnut10]

Those are called headlight bucket shackles and are required to get the headlight to rotate properly, usually there are three on each side and the main cause of them breaking is the small bolts (three) that hold them to the rotator back out.and This puts slack in the bolt holes and will allow the holes to enlarge and eventually break from stress. You can make them by making a templet and cutting them out of a hard material. Best is to try to find some that are not gunged up and replace them. When you replace them put a couple of drops of thread locked on the bolt to help lock it in the threads. DO NOT overtighted these bolts and they WILL break and them you will have a large PITA drilling them out.

[opelnut10]

Someone on epay had some for sale, you cannot have too many of these as they take a lot of punishment when people rotate the lights. I made a set out of thicker material and did not use as many per side, but the lights have to be ajusted just right, because the thick ones don't spring (flex). The key to headlights operating correctly is LUBRICATION, white lithium grease and machine oil is an Opel GT's friend, anti-sieze is also a needed requirment when working on these cars.

[nobody]

A while back I bought a pack of various shim stock in stainless steel from MSC for I think 18 dollars. It has all sorts of thicknesses in it and was great for making rear axle bearing shims and would be perfect for making new pieces for your lights.

[73OpelMan]

Alright thanks for all the help....I think I COMPLETELY know what they are and now understand what EXACTLY they do. Haha.

SPARKLENUTS,
If you can get back to me sometime soon that would be great incase I have to start making my own.

Thanks
spencer

[Killer Texas GT]

Spencer, you got mail. Got plenty of them if you are interested

[Beeger]

I cut new ones out of a cheap stainless steel saw blade. Very durable and seems to work well. Titanium is interesting -- where do you get that stock?

[SPARKLENUTS]

73opelman,
i did look and no luck! i thought i could save the day but i do not have them at this time. i will look at the warehouse over the next few weeks if you cant get them from somewhere else....sorry!
mike

[73OpelMan]

Ok great news Killer Texas GT has plenty of them and I am buying as many as I can from him incase they break again. I wanted to thank EVERYONE for helping me out with this problema.

Thanks again,
Spencer