Headlight adjusters 3D CAD files

[Spandrel]

Some time ago, before health problems forced me to put everything car related in the back burner for a couple of years, a co-worker of mine and I tried to come up with a replacement strategy for the missing headlight adjusters on my 840. I measured and built up a 3D model from one of the remaining adjusters on the car, and we used my friend's 3-axis CNC machine to billet machine parts. We were eventually successful in producing both the adjusters and the plastic bushings (I'll add specs for the bushings in this thread tonight after I get home and take a picture of the drawing). We never could get the machining time short enough to make it feasible to produce these for everyone, but I'm attaching a link to the files themselves in the hope that someone else can do something with them. These files work - the replacement adjusters we made are in my car right now - adding some pictures of some of the early examples that didn't pass quality control, the shiny gears are new, machined by us, and the black plastic was machined either as test objects, or replacements for the black bushings. we did not create any of the white plastic parts.. The zip file I'm linking has an NX .prt file, an IGES file, STEP and STL.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-R...w?usp=drivesdk

[David9999999]

Nice job! Thanks for sharing those files. I'll bookmark this thread in case mine go.

[Spandrel]

Here is the drawing for the black base parts:

Drawing Here

(For some reason the img tags aren't letting me embed the image...)

[toomanyparts]

You are super dope for providing these. Thank you from everyone here.

You have truly made BF Great Again.

[drphysic]

Many thanks for making these files available. I checked with my CAD class instructor, and he said printing these would not be a problem, even in "reasonable" quantities. I will see about starting the process today as I have a 3 hour session with nothing else to do.
Doug

[Chillax]

I'll download them and post them on the Chapter's web site later so people can get at them if need be as well.

Thanks a ton!

[drphysic]

I had a friend print out a copy of both the gear using the STL file, and used the drawing to make the "bucket" as shown in the photo. When we get the licenses worked out at school, I can print up sets of these for those who want them. Color will be arbitrary, probably white but this plastic takes paint well if you want them in the original silver, or whatever.
DSC_1390_lzn.jpg

[ChrisFuture8]

Beautiful!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[dragon850]

Super, sign me up!

[ChrisFuture8]

Oh, and me too! Thank you!

[toomanyparts]

I'll PM you my address and I'll cover your cost.

[Spandrel]

You may want to think about something to function like the set screw on the updated OEM part. The metal parts we machined had the set screw added manually at the drill press afterwards (prevents them from coming off, which is why so many of us are missing most of them) Maybe just use some loctite on installation...

I had a friend print out a copy of both the gear using the STL file, and used the drawing to make the "bucket" as shown in the photo. When we get the licenses worked out at school, I can print up sets of these for those who want them. Color will be arbitrary, probably white but this plastic takes paint well if you want them in the original silver, or whatever.
DSC_1390_lzn.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

Looks great out of the printer!

[rockytt]

awesome - sign me up as well!

[killian665]

What about the white plastic adjuster part that rides on the threads? Isn’t that what actually breaks?

[Spandrel]

I don't know about everyone else's experience, but none of the white pieces on my car have broken...

What about the white plastic adjuster part that rides on the threads? Isn’t that what actually breaks?

[killian665]

Yeah I don’t know I haven’t taken mine apart to even look I just assumed that’s what broke like on my E39. They have the same issue with broken adjusters but it’s the white plastic piece that rides on the threads.

[Wuffer]

Interested in a couple of sets as well please.

[TedBobo]

awesome - sign me up as well!

Ditto....and willing to pay!

[72tpik5]

Ditto....and willing to pay!

Thank you, TedBobo. That is very generous of you to get me some too.

[drphysic]

For the lucky E31 guys who have not yet had, or know they have, problems with their headlight adjusters, I don't know of any of the large white plastic parts that have broken, although Max includes new ones in his kit in order to fit onto the threaded shafts he uses, but the plastic buckets that hold the adjusters ends opposite the gears get very brittle and are subject to the same axial forces as the gears, and also break. The original gears themselves are metal and just fall off. My buckets were apparently replaced in 2006, and are still intact, so I have not tested replacing them with printed plastic, although with the two STL files, both gears and buckets can be printed.

I now have 7 requesting sets of parts. I will start printing these on Monday, 26 Feb, so can start sending them out. Will also get what the postage costs will be.

drphysic

[killian665]

So all that breaks is the 2 parts you have recreated? I saw Max’s kit was kind of involved in installing. Is that because his solution for the bucket and gear wasn’t like the factory? Are these parts much more straight forward to install? I’m kind of ignorant with how it works on the E31 as of right now.

[gixxerss]

Ditto....and willing to pay!

Ditto as well please! Please sign me up for a set.

[Spandrel]

The picture at the start of the thread shows the two pieces installed on the threaded rod. The black piece snaps on, and the geared piece pushes on. There are a couple of sets per headlight. Without the set screw, I'm not sure how drphysic intends to keep them on, but I figure there will be some experimentation. So glad that 3D printing technology has progressed since 2012 when we first started messing with these. We tried 3D printing at the time, and the material was just not up to it, so we went to machining metal for the gears, and Delrin on the lathe for the other part. We were next going to try lost wax casting (and actually got a wax part), but by the time my friend was setup to do casting, my health issues pushed me out of the project.

So all that breaks is the 2 parts you have recreated? I saw Max’s kit was kind of involved in installing. Is that because his solution for the bucket and gear wasn’t like the factory? Are these parts much more straight forward to install? I’m kind of ignorant with how it works on the E31 as of right now.

[drphysic]

Max's kit uses the copper buckets that Wuffer was also using, and since I have not had to replace mine, I don't know if the printed parts will survive the pressing of the shaft into them. The quality of the printer and material makes a big difference, so we will see if using 100% fill and good material will work for the buckets. The gears stay on fine with a press fit onto the shaft splines if you isolate them from the axial loads (see my other thread on that). In using the STL file from Spandel, I can't tell what the diameter of the hole is on the gear part, but I expect it will be a nice press fit as my originals were, and they stay on fine. The new gears have a large 12mm hex on the bottoms, and if you want, you could drill and tap them for a set screw...

[drphysic]

This is getting bigger than I expected, as I now have 18 sets on order, 180 parts which will certainly take multiple nights to print up. So can we stop for a week or so before I get more requests? I would like to replace the materials I consume at the school, and maybe provide them a reward for allowing me to print all these parts, so I ask all who have requested the parts to consider a voluntary contribution, as many have already indicated, in addition to the postage

masbury has asked about printing up the plastic seat gears, but to do so requires an example to take measurements on, so if anyone has one that they would loan for that purpose, I can see if it is possible.