Help installing headlights/lights on '89 GT

Steve A

New Member
Sep 16, 2003
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I just bought new front lights and headlights for my '89 GT. I see 2 bolts at the top of the grill and 2 to the sides of the hood.

I have a nasty habit of taking out way too many screws and bolts to do what should be an easy job.

Can anybody give me some clues about an easy way to swap these out?
 
I have a 92 but I am going to assume an 89 is the same. There are 3, 10 or 11 mm nuts holding the h/l brackets to the front facia. Remove the h/l connectors and then the bulbs. Now remove the nuts and the whole assem. will come out. The thing you have to becareful of is removing the h/l bucket from the retaining bracket. Unfortunatly the h/l adjusters are very delicate and can easily be broken. There are retainer clips that secure the bucket to the adjusters. Pop those off and then separate the bucket. It's really not that hard you just have to be carefull. Then just reverse the procedure. Hope this helps out and good luck. :D
 
Thanks for the quick reply, PRO50SC.

I see what you're talking about. However, I also have the turn signals and side markers to replace. Is there an easy way to drop the whole front fascia to make it easier to get to those? I've got pretty big paws and am having a hard time getting at the nuts on these other lights.
 
The most difficult nuts to get to are the two center turn signal lights bottom nuts.
I 've found to use a 7/16 or 11mm wrench to get to them from the bottom of the bumper cover.
Removing the front bumper cover will make the job easier but there are too many rivets to drill out and then the cover needs to be realigned to the fenders once you get it back on (PITA).

Whats cool about these light nuts is that once you break them loose with a wrench or ratchet,they come right off by turning them with your finger tips!
 
Took about 7 days to get the lenses, 20 minutes per side to install all 3 lenses and forever to try to align them.
I drove around for several days with the driver’s side headlight scanning the upper branches of trees for squirrels, owls and UFO’s. The headlight lens had extra slack between the retaining clip and the screw head which allowed the lens to shift around. Fixed that with some small washers between the screw heads and the bottom of the mounting hole. I would recommend that you find 2 extra adjustment screws per side - they are the ones with the hex ends on the end of the screw where it sticks through the mounting plate. That may help the alignment problems, as the stock setup only allows adjustment with 2 screws, and is hard to adjust in and down at the same time.

If you bought Genuine Ford headlights, the adjustment will be easy. If you bought reproduction headlights, they will be very difficult to align properly. I bought reproduction units the first time, and my headlights could not be aligned: they would shine up in the trees and across the road. I even had all 3 screws set up as adjustment screws.

The set of headlights I now have say "Ford" on them and they seem to line up properly.

The adjustment screws are upper inside and lower outside screws. If the headlights were re-assembled properly, they will have a 5/32" hex on the screw. You can use a 1/4" ratchet with a 5/32" socket. The upper screws can be reached with the hood up, while the lower screws may require you to lay on the ground in front of the car and reach them from the bottom.

To align the headlights, find a level spot with a wall 25-30 feet away. Disconnect the driver light and align up the passenger light so that the light pattern is slightly below of the actual centerline of the headlight. This is to illuminate the right hand side of the road. Reconnect the driver light and disconnect the passenger light. The driver light should be aimed so that the light pattern on the wall is inward about 6" and slightly below the centerline of the headlight. This keeps you from blinding the oncoming cars. Disconnecting and reconnecting the headlights helps to show which headlight is shining in what direction. Reproduction headlights may shine in several directions at the same time, making it very difficult to align them if both lights are on at the same time

One Stangnetter recommends putting a fender cover over the headlight that isn't being aligned. I like his idea, it's simpler than disconnecting the lamps.
 
Half way there

Well, murphy's law jumped up and bit my fuzzy butt.

Thanks to all of the great advice from you guys, I managed to complete the driver's side and went to remove the lights on the passenger side. I put a wrench on one of the headlight nuts, cracked the first one loose, and started turning, and turning, and turning, etc. Turns out the nut is rusted on the bolt, and I'm now turning the nut AND bolt.

Anybody have a spare passenger side headlight bucket for an '89 GT?