Headlight removal

[paul macintyre]

Hello

My headlights have lost their sheen for some reason, anyway they need to come off to get resprayed. Can anyone either supply or point me in the direction of a removal sequence? It is far harder than I expected! Looking suspiciously like I may need to cut the wires at the connector inside the engine bay???
Many thanks.

Paul Macintyre

[Jonathan Kay]

If you'd like a copy of the Assembly Guide please send me a Private Message with your email address and details of the Seven.

Jonathan

PS: There's a delightful historical irony in this. Chapman sold the Seven as a set of parts in order to avoid Purchase Tax. But an Assembly Guide was thought to make that invalid. So he included a Disassembly Guide. :-)

[Hampshire West AR]

Paul

Its not difficult just fiddly.  If your car is the same as mine you can remove the wires from the connector with a very small screwdriver to push in the barbs on one side and the blades just pop out.  Once you have them all out you can pull them through the headlight tube.  Undo the nut at the bottom and take the headlight off.  

Nick

[SM25T]

.... and if they are anything like mine was when I swapped to smaller lights, getting the wires back through the tubes was hell on Earth due to corrosion inside the tubes. Once all wires out, use a small wire brush or similar to clean out the bores !

[Wrightpayne]

There is a plastic retainer to remove first if they are econoseal plugs.

 

[Alan Reeves]

what they say re the plug disconect etc but ensure you pull string through the tube when you pull the wires out

so that you can use it for pulling the new ones through

 

[Petethediesel]

When building my 360 a year ago, I had the usual difficulty squeezing all the wires through the tube grometts. If I were doing the job again I would buy modern thinwall wire from the likes of Vehicle Wiring Products etc, These provide a far smaller section  per wire (of the same amperage) and therefore a far easier install.

[7 wonders of the world]

  and use heatshrink too as its far less bulky and more flexible than the sleeving CC use.

a good squirt of silicon spray helps ease thing through too.

[paul macintyre]

Thank you all so much. All very helpful, I think I can manage now but I'll ping you, Jonathan, the (dis) assembly guide will be very interesting.

Best wishes all round.

Kind regards

Paul Macintyre

[Sooty]

As per  Nicks comments above but take s ome photos to remind you later which spade goes where in the H4 connector

[nickh7]

I've recently done this and disconnected the block rather than trying to get the wires through the headlamp bracket again.

 

Mines further complicated by having indicators in the headlamps and DRLs where the indicators normally are.

[David aka Blue7]

I have done this a few times recently in a change to carbon bowls that eventually had to be returned for a modification.  As stated above, the spade connectors can be removed from the bulb connecting plug with the aid of a small screwdriver to release the plastic securing strip.  However, mine are "L" shaped and too wide to pass back through the hollow mounting bolt.  I had to use a pair of pliers to carefully fold the spade connectors over so that they would pass through the hole.

I am just about to fit the new carbon bowls again ... and it's freezing!

David