I took Monday off work to change my kids starter in her mini-van and after I got done the sun came out so I decided to break out the special and go for a short ride. It was a little chilly at 42 but when its dry and half-way sunny, well, just dress a warm.
But anyways, when I was out and about both of those screws that hold the headlight in place fell out and my headlight popped out. Here I was riding the thing home, one hand holding my headlamp in place one trying to steer. *lol*
The real problem with the 2 screws holding the headlight in its shell, is the fact that there is very little thickness of metal in the headlight rim bracket. The OEM factory simply drills 2 holes which gives a little extra metal but not much. They then tap the holes, but there is so little thickness, that the tap only cuts perhaps 2 or 3 threads.
Here's the next problem. Over the years, the headlight is removed and re-installed many times. Every owner thinks he better really tighten those tiny screws or they will fall out (bad idea !). Each time they
over tighten the screws, they damage the 2 or 3 threads in the bracketl, until the threads in the bracket are stripped. Eventually the day comes that you had, and the head light just falls out, since the screws are gone.
Here's what I did when I found the threads stripped. I used sharp nosed vice grip priors, to squeeze the burr of metal that is at each hole of the bracket. Doing that makes the hole diameter smaller, in effect giving new metal thickness to allow a re-tap of the holes. I then used a tap (M5 thread I believe) to tap new threads.
Put the headlight back in and then use some blue locktite on the 2 small screw threads.
Now the most important part.
Use very little torque.............just turn the screws in using the tips of your fingers to turn the screw driver.
The headlight and 2 screws have now never been a problem, and its been about 4 years since I re-tapped them. If every owner over the years, had simply used just a tiny amount of torque and some locktite, the threads would not have stripped. This is a classic case where less is more.
What I did was meant to be a temporary repair, but it has been lasting just fine. The real fix would be to epoxy or JB weld an M5 nut to the back of the headlight rim bracket. I'll put that on my todo list for next year.
