C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

[Gary S.]

Still helping a friend with his 67 and we used the results of a search here to remove the 67 headlight motors and we are now trying to remove the pivot ball which appears to be frozen/bound on the shaft. I have been using PB Blaster on it without any success. Referencing youtube videos the pivot ball looks like it just drops on and should spin freely. Referencing this NCRS page from Richard Mozzetta (great source - thank you Richard)
C2 Headlights Seminar 2011.pdf (ncrsmac.org)
we are at the "remove headlight housing" section, page 6, step 6 and need to remove the ball to be able to get to one of the screws. In addition, with the ball frozen on the shaft it "ain't" going nowhere. Has anyone had a similar situation and, if so, how did you fix this?

thank you,

Gary

[Tom E.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

Gary,
The balls on my pivot shafts were so corroded they had to be cut off and replaced. The corrosion was so bad it even severely pitted the shafts which had to be replaced as well. You should be able to rotate the bucket until all 6 screws are removed allowing the outer cups to be removed and then remove the headlight bucket from the car. This will allow you to work on a bench so you have better access to the frozen parts.
perhaps some more experienced folks will chime in with a better way.

[Gary S.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

I refined my search language and came up with Richard's solution Frozen headlight pivots 66 coupe (ncrs.org) whereas others are saying to sacrifice either the ball and/or the shaft since they are made in reproduction.

Any other inputs?

thank you as always here in snowy (first of the new winter) Pittsburgh.

Gary

[Gary S.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

Gary,
The balls on my pivot shafts were so corroded they had to be cut off and replaced. The corrosion was so bad it even severely pitted the shafts which had to be replaced as well. You should be able to rotate the bucket until all 6 screws are removed allowing the outer cups to be removed and then remove the headlight bucket from the car. This will allow you to work on a bench so you have better access to the frozen parts.
perhaps some more experienced folks will chime in with a better way.

Tom,
Please clarify your response (it was a short night's sleep) - you cut the ball off of the shaft or the shaft itself. If you had to cut off the ball, which I think is steel, what did you use? secondly, I am seeing nylon replacement pivot balls, do you have any experience with them. I will talk with my friend but he got his money's worth on his (assumed) original pivot balls on the 67 but he will go with whatever I suggest.

thank you for the reply,

Gary

[Tom E.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

Tom,
Please clarify your response (it was a short night's sleep) - you cut the ball off of the shaft or the shaft itself. If you had to cut off the ball, which I think is steel, what did you use? secondly, I am seeing nylon replacement pivot balls, do you have any experience with them. I will talk with my friend but he got his money's worth on his (assumed) original pivot balls on the 67 but he will go with whatever I suggest.

thank you for the reply,

Gary

Gary,
I initially tried Rich’s techniques of using a puller after it had soaked in penetrating fluid but it wouldn’t budge, they were so corroded it actually separated the outer race from the bearing. I then used a very thin abrasive disk in a pneumatic die grinder to carefully cut away the ball and race and not damage the pivot. After I had peeled away the inner race of the ball I found significant corrosion and decided to replace rather than take a chance of problems later on. I bought new replacement steel pivot balls and pins from LIC, they closely match the originals. I saw the nylon but wasn’t interested in changing design. As this car will never be exposed to the elements like the original the properly lubed metal balls will work well beyond my lifetime.
Tom

[Gary S.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

Perfect answer

Thank you

[Dan B.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

If the pivot shafts are not full of rust, I've had success lightly heating them at the ball contact surface and wrapping a rag around the ball and carefully wiggling back and forth with a good size channel lock pliers. You just need to start a little movement in each direction and go from there. Once they come off, I polish the shafts and lube with a film of synthetic grease. The last ones I did I actually reused the original balls because there was nothing wrong with them. The entire assembly will now fall downward under it's own weight and up with just a finger to drag it.

[Gary S.]

Re: C2 headlight pivot ball frozen

Accidently deleted my response to Dan.

I tried the channel locks with cushioned grips to no avail. I wound up using my Dremel to take apart the pivot ball in layers. One side had minor pitting that cleaned up nicely with 800 grit sandpaper. The other side had heavy pitting and "craters" that precluded its reuse imo. So, we will order some parts and get this back together. I only want to do this once.

Gary