Anyone have a tutorial on headlight lens replacement?

[cpeters1965]

I need to replace the headlight lenses on my 97 xlt OHV. They are too fogged for the polish kits to work on them. Has anyone done this before? Will I need to remove the whole front grill to do this? Does anyone have a tutorial they have posted on it? Been searching 3 days with no luck

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i just had to pull one of my lens out because it had moisture in it. above your turn signals, there is a flap, open it (or your can take the entire black panel off, there are four 10mm bolts there in front of the rad, unscrew them and remove the panel there is two screws there for your turn signal lens, remove them, and pop your turn signal lens out (they will be stubborn, but they will come). next there are two screws near the top center of the grill, remove them. then if you look where your turn signals were, there is one screw (one on passengers, one on drivers side). remove them. then your can remove your grille (it will be clipped in, and it too will be a little stubborn, but it will come). now if you look at your head light lens, you will have two prongs, at the top (one in each corner) and one at the bottom (close the outer part of the lens). take a pair of needle nose pliers, squeeze the prongs together, and lightly pull. your lens will come out, and you can do what you need to. if this dose not help, i will try and get you some pictures later on in the next few days if i have time. hope this helps.

 

[cpeters1965]

vroomzoomboom,
Thank you for the reply! If you could post photos that would be great, every little bit helps!

 

[celly]

The headlights are pretty easy to get out once you have the grille shell removed. Don't even try removing them without this important step (it's a tight fit otherwise). Once you have the grille out, it's pretty obvious how to remove the headlights.

Click on this link to find a good tutorial on grille removal. Ignore all the grille installation steps (follow through to picture 10). The site is dedicated to aftermarket grilles. I used it a long time ago to figure out how to get the grille out and it's dead easy when you follow the instructions. They also list it as 98-01, but I can't see why it wouldn't work on 95-97 because they're essentially the same grille shells.

You can't simply swap out the lenses. You'll need to swap out the entire headlight assembly. Lots of OEM and aftermarket options. eBay is the best place to look.

 

[TheJackal]

Probably should've removed the grille when I removed one of my headlights once. The service manual doesn't mention anything about the grille but seeing how easy it is to take off, I'll definitely do that next time.

Trust me, it is absolutely no fun at all to do this with the grille on.

 

[celly]

Trust me, it is absolutely no fun at all to do this with the grille on.

I hear ya. I put Diamond cuts on my old Sport and trashed the new lights as a result.

I did the grille thing on my Eddie before I put new Diamond Cuts and the headlight swap was so much easier. Takes just a few minutes to take the grille shell out too. Time well spent!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

wow, i never knew you could take the lights out without removing the grille! hats off to you both!!!

 

[celly]

wow, i never knew you could take the lights out without removing the grille! hats off to you both!!!

My problem was I took the advice of the wrong people who said it was "easy" without the grille being out of there first. I've learned to take the "easy" part with a grain of salt with much more experienced mechanics say as such. If I say it's easy....it's easy (because I am so mechanically challenged).

Yeah, it wasn't fun messing around with the headlights with grille still in place. What is easy is getting the grille shell out, especially when following those Grillcraft instructions.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

follow the link that celly gave you. here is what you want to go after when you have the grille off. forgive the globs of caulking, it was the only way i could reseal my lens after i did my projector mod.

location number one

location number two

location number three

they don't have to be done in that order either. also, number three might be a PITA to do. sorry for the monster size pics as well, but they might be easier to see that way. hope this helps you.

 

[Somerlot]

Can anyone tell me what kind of grey grommets those are in the picture above? Had to replace my header panel and also my headlights and it did not come with any kind of fastener.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

do you mean the ones for your turn signal? you can pop them out of your old header and put them in the new one. if you don't have them, a trip to the wrecker might be faster.

 

[Somerlot]

Yeah I wish I had the old one. I let a shop fix some things on the car and not everything, since they wanted 4k for repairs. Of course with my luck they removed all the parts and had already scrapped it all and all the junkyards out here tell me they don't have anything. Ill have to keep looking around. Surprised too that there is not a single sport trac or close year model explorer in most of the junk yards around here.

 

[jcs7duke]

thanks!

I just swapped out my headlights thanks to this old thread! Just wanted to say thank you!

 

[DjDom]

Aha. I recently swapped mine to Diamond style lamps too. Didn't remove the grill.. managed just fine.

Worst part is aiming them to be honest.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Aha. I recently swapped mine to Diamond style lamps too. Didn't remove the grill.. managed just fine.

Worst part is aiming them to be honest.

aiming is also not hard. drive up to a wall as close as you can to the point your bumper is almost a inch away. closer the better (and make sure the ground is level as possible) . your headlights will "pencil beam". where they beam the wall, tape a + (or cross). now back up about 20-25 feet. using a 5.5 or 6mm socket i think it is, find your adjusters, and aim them to the + that you just taped, and your done. if you cant get them close, that is because the housing you have is one of the cheaper ones. there is no way you can shim the lights either.

 

[DjDom]

aiming is also not hard. drive up to a wall as close as you can to the point your bumper is almost a inch away. closer the better (and make sure the ground is level as possible) . your headlights will "pencil beam". where they beam the wall, tape a + (or cross). now back up about 20-25 feet. using a 5.5 or 6mm socket i think it is, find your adjusters, and aim them to the + that you just taped, and your done. if you cant get them close, that is because the housing you have is one of the cheaper ones. there is no way you can shim the lights either.

Did it this way, and it was blindingly bad.. Low beams were like high beams.
I just aimed them down a bit more and now they're great.

However, I used the actual mounting screws to aim them and removed the side parking lights. Couldn't find a socket to fit on those.