Lisle 14540 Headlight Adjusting Ratchet for Ford

A simple tool to accomplish a particular task. It fits the headlight adjustment screw on my 2003 Grand Marquis and makes it very easy to adjust the headlight elevation. Reverse the wrench to reverse the adjustment, it only ratchets one direct but is reversible, ie both sides the wrench head are the same hex size. I've tried open end wrenches and 4mm seems about right, although this ratchet wrench fits more exactly than any of my 4mm open end wrenches. Good product, does the job, and the price is appropriate.

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!

It works like it is suppose too. Fit is great

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.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Great tool for adjusting headlights

Works great to adjust the headlights and fog lights on a 1997 Ford Expedition. It's unfortunate that Ford used proprietary adjusting screws requiring a device like this.

Needed this to adjust head lights on my p/u . Works as expected.

The media could not be loaded. EDIT: this is now a one-star review. I'm not overusing this tool, as I only have one vehicle that it works on. At first it was fine and did what it was supposed to but yesterday as you can see in the video it failed completely.Any job is easy if you have the right tools. This is the right tool for the job of aiming headlights on my Grand Marquis. Sure beats trying to find a 4mm wrench and turning it 15 degrees at a time!