Headlamp Adjusters motorised conversion by: Ant (Banjo1981) What you will need: E30 adjuster switch assembly E30 Headlight adjusters E36 Adjuster motors (pref with the plugs still attached) Variable resistor (potentiometer) (I went with a 4k7 variant from Maplin) E30 Blower switch housing Soldering iron and solder Dremel type device (a hacksaw and sand paper will also work) Inline fuse Wire (I used 5 amp) Epoxy Resin The Switch: First you will need to remove the E30 adjuster switch assembly from the dash. This is a fairly simple process however you may need to temporarily tie up the wires for the switches light surround. You should end up with something like this:
Next, disassemble the E30 adjuster switch (there is a screw hidden under the position marker on the knob, pop the cover off with a small screwdriver and it's there. Using your Dremel (or hacksaw) start cutting this up. You basically need the adjustment knob, the barrel that screws to the carrier and the collar from the old adjusters shaft. (it has a rectangular hole in it but may actually be part of the blower switch, I can't remember) I kept some of the old adjuster innards to use as spacers: Next, take the heater motor switch to bits and cut the "finned" section off, this will act as the backing for our new switch and provide a place to secure the potentiometer:
Mix up some epoxy resin and glue this to the rear of the adjuster barrel and set it aside to harden:
In the meantime I made up my new adjust head as the hole in the head isn't tight enough to the shaft of the potentiometer to work. The bit to the left is the collar I referred to earlier, (I've just realised how much scope there is for innuendo when doing this write up...). I ended up with something like this: Once everything's set, trim the shaft of the potentiometer to fit your new nob. Now you can start test fitting and slowly shortening it to get the right length and angle so that it'll sit in the right place on the adjuster assembly. The potentiometer then screws into the finned section that you cut from the blower switch, this will
also help with any fine tuning you need to do later on: Once finished it should sit something like this in the assembly: Once you're happy with it you can glue the shaft and collar into place using some epoxy resin. After this has set and you've double check the fit it's just a case of putting it all back together:
The Adjusters: If you're like me and got your adjusters as a Ebay special then you've probably not got the original plugs. After some testing this is what I found: 1 = Constant live 2 = Variable input from switch 3 = Earth
The basic process is trim the tops of the new adjusters and glue a threaded shaft on. I used the ones from the old carriers, There was a rather nice write up where someone had used a tapped metal bar but I can't find it now. The only disadvantage to using the old bits is that you'll need to cut part of the headlamp carrier so they can reach the lights Anyhow, you'll need to cut the old threaded adjuster so you'll end up with something like this eventually: Once you've done this you can use the old adjusters mounts to mount your modified adjusters and it's then just a case of plumbing it in. I opted for the not very satisfactory solution of connecting the switch live and earth to the lights which illuminate the switch panel. I guess another solution might have been the radio illumination feed. (The adjustment feed comes from the middle pin of the potentiometer with earth and live on either side depending which way you want to turn the shaft for up or down. You'll have to have a fiddle to get it the right way 'round) I then ran a wire from the switch through the bulkhead grommet for the existing adjusters into a junction box and then to each light. The motors were connected to the live and earth for their respective dipped beams. I'll admit this wasn't the most elegant solution but since I'm not an auto electrician it was the best I
could come up with as I only wanted the adjusters to function when the lights were on. Hey presto I have working electric adjusters. The adjustment range is huge but this is because I've not trimmed the voltage to the switch with another resistor which will be the Mk2 version sometime next year. I hope this helps. Ant