Lisle 14540 Headlight Adjusting Ratchet For for Ford

Used to adjust new headlights in 2008 Ford Crown Vic P71. Have hundreds of wrenches of all different kinds but not one single 4mm. This tool solves that issue. Fit the adjustment bolts fine and was so simple, it was silly. Took just a few minutes to remove cover, turn on lights against garage door and adjust them to where I thought they should be compared to where they were showing. Once I drive in the dark again, I can make some final adjustments to get them perfect. One headlight assembly came about fully adjusted up. The tool barely got on the bolt at an angle. Once adjusted, there was ample room to put on or take off the tool. Need to keep track of the little spring clips on the tool. Not that they fell off, but they do wiggle loose. The tool is not ratcheting but is a smooth turning mechanism and in one direction only. Need to flip tool around to go the other way. Actually might be better than rough ratcheting movements. Handle has plenty of length and could reach either adjust bolt with ease. Don’t bugger up your adjusters with pliers or vise locks. Get this tool. Once you’ve used this, you’ll never try to adjust them any other way again. Like some tools. Might only use it once every few years but worth it every time you need it.

Ease to use. Makes adjusting ya lights so much faster.

This is a really annoying tool. It works fine, price is not unreasonable all things considered, it does the job well enough. The problem is it shouldn’t be necessary - used to be headlights were adjusted through the front using phillips screws. I mean, my 94 Ranger headlight lens’ still have the giant nipples sticking out of the front face to properly set a headlight alignment tool on each one and get it properly perpendicular and parallel to the headlight. If we can tolerate the esthetic crushing nipples I think we could have survived having little access divots around the lens frame to access adjusters from the front. Ok, flame off…..

This tool works great for adjusting headlights that use a 4mm adjustor. However, depending on your car, adjusting the screw counter-clockwise too much may cause you to end up in a tough situation. My 2003 Crown Victoria badly needed a headlight adjustment, my new headlight assemblies were pointing at the ground rather than forward. Left/Right adjustment was fine, but Up/Down proved to be a major challenge. I had to turn counter-clockwise to aim up. By the time I was close to the right height, I realized my wrench was stuck. This wrench is double-sided and ratcheting, so you can't switch between clockwise/counterclockwise without taking the wrench out and flipping it around. My wrench was stuck between the bolt it was adjusting and some metal in the engine bay. If I tried to turn the wrench, all that would do is get me more stuck, as trying to go clockwise just ratchets and will not tighten the screw. So the only way to get the wrench unstuck was to remove the headlights. Simple enough, right? Well, not with all that pressure against the retaining clip. The clip would not come out no matter what I was trying. No tools can really get the clip loose, you just have to pull really hard. Did that, got the clip loose, but split my fingernail completely down the middle. Oh well. Adjusted the headlight while it was off the car, put it back on. It still needed to be aimed higher. So I had to turn the screw counter clockwise on the BOTTOM adjustor (not adjustable by wrench, I used pliers) to angle the headlight more upward. But to do that, I had to take the headlight off again. Tried to use a ratchet handle for leverage this time. Pulled as hard as I could with both hands. The result: the ratchet slipped, my finger slid past the clip, and a sizable chunk of skin was ripped off my finger. After adjusting the headlight one last time and putting it back on, it is now properly aligned. So, all in all, this tool does what it's supposed to. But you have to be very careful with it or you may hurt yourself or break the tool. To be fair, I'd place more of the blame onto Ford's headlight design than this tool. Despite most things being so easy to work on for my CVPI, the headlights have given me some pretty gnarly injuries for what should have been a simple and painless job.

Great little tool I work on older fords and this is a great company.

Tool worked perfect.

From Amazon I bought the Lisle No. 14540 Ford headlamp adjuster because my '08 Mazda Tribute (Mazda Corp. is almost half-owned by Ford) has the same 4mm hex headlamp adjusters as many Ford models have. The Lisle No. 14540 works perfectly on my Tribute's headlamp adjusters - and this tool is actually a MUST for the Tribute's adjusters, because the adjusters are sited so closely to the Tribute's upper frame crossmember that an ordinary 4mm socket, attached necessarily to a ratchet, will simply not fit into that cramped space - you simply cannot get the ratchet-&-socket into the small space in order to slip the socket onto the adjuster's hexagonal shaft. The Lisle 14540 Ford (and Mazda Tribute!) headlamp adjuster tool is crudely made of simple components. Its steel billet/bar stock handle, which is knurled (and I found the knurling to be superfluous to the tool's operation) at its hand-gripping end for a length of 1-1/2 inches, is the essence of simplicity. The 14540's business end is a coarsely ground but adequately chrome plated casting or forging which houses the tool's butter-smooth working roller-clutch mechanism that operates like a silent ratchet. The roller clutch mechanism's internal 4mm socket is captured and held into the chromed tool head by an opposed pair of cheap friction-fit washer-like fasteners which may need, as my example's needed, to be pressed together with thumb and forefinger to ensure that they're seated all the way for proper roller-clutch mechanism retention, and so that the washer-like fasteners won't come off and perhaps become lost - perhaps along with the internal working bits of the roller clutch mechanism (to prevent loss of these fasteners during toolbox, trunk, or glove box stowage, owners of the Lisle 14540 may wish to wrap some electrician's tape, or stretch a stout rubber band, round its head). All that said, considering the infrequent use to which Ford and Mazda Tribute owners will likely put this headlamp adjuster, the Lisle 14540 works perfectly, and its fair price makes it well worth buying: so I enthusiastically recommend the Lisle 14540 Headlight Adjusting Ratchet For Ford (and Mazda Tribute) if you own a Ford or a Mazda Tribute and you want or need to adjust their headlamp beams. I also make this note to the Lisle Corporation: to increase sales of this perfectly effective tool, have your marketing geniuses add to the No. 14540's printed sales rack hanger card, and to your firm's tool catalogue, a printed blurb that tells that this tool also works on Mazda Tribute 4mm headlamp adjusters. Congratulations, then, to the people who work at Lisle for a splendid job!

Works fine for adjusting the headlights, but be careful: if you back the ratchet out too far, it becomes impossible to get it out properly. Also, the top portion tends to pop off very easily during use, so I strongly recommend gluing it securely in place before you start using the tool.

good

Adjusting headlights o n my F150 truck and the tool worked very well l am very happy with it thanks very mutch.

Excelente para calibrar el faro de la camioneta

Me facilito mucho el ajuste de los faros de una ranger 99, lo único malo en mi caso es que para el tornillo de arriba queda muy a la medida porque es un poco regordeta la parte de la matraca.

Well worth the $$ as the headlights are aimed now and super easy.