Chinook RV

As I noted, all you have to do is make it easier for the lock bar to slide between the locking circle thingies on each pin.

I used a Dremel to cut a little beveled ramp at the top of each circle. This allowed the lock bar to slide into place on the pins.

In other words, changed this side view of the two circle thingies with blunt tops on each pin:

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to this, so the bar sliding in from the top could center itself:

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Hi Kdarling - I got a Dremel for Christmas so I'll give it a try next week - 4 day family visit starting tonight so I'll have to put this off until the weekend.

Thanks!

Well, after an hour or so of tinkering and cursing I was still not able to install my replacement headlights. I toyed with the idea of removing the old fittings from the old headlights and moving them to the new ones but they looked a bit fragile and I was worried that I'd break them. So - off to the mechanic's shop. They had a good laugh at the fact that I couldn't install the headlights and then when I returned to pick the rig up they admitted that it took them 45 minutes to get them in and that they were not aimed properly. Referred me to an auto body shop that knew how to adjust them - there are little rods at all three corners of the assembly that can be adjusted with a very small socket.

Lesson Learned: Buy your headlights from Ford instead of Amazon!

Heh. I spoke too soon. I decided to replace my cheap rainbow-pattern headlights with some better ones that also have LEDs, which I wired to come on with the parking lights: (Note the Zep floor polish full body coverage still shining from its application back in Spring 2016.)

Sure enough, I ran into the common problem of some tabs not wanting to lock down into place.

First I tried my Dremel trick that had worked so well before. But it didn't this time. So I thought about it for a couple of days and was about to swap some headlight parts, when I decided to try doing what I figured any good mechanic would do:

I tapped the top of each tab with a hammer a few times, and lo and behold, they clicked into place

Wanted to mention this solution possibility in case someone else gets stuck.

Nice lights! Maybe I should have tried the hammer too. Apparently those tabs don't respond to cursing!