Adjusting the FJR1300's Headlight

Paul Winslow sent in the text and photos below describing how he adjusted the headlights on his FJR. He didn't have the SERVICE MANUAL, so I described to him how the adjusters worked, then he did it and wrote:

There are two bolts to turn for each headlight. Envision the left and right headlight bulbs as the center of two clocks. The 8mm bolts at 10:00 (right headlight) and 2:00 (left headlight) adjust the lights from side to side. Turning clockwise moves the headlight beam towards the left.

The 8mm bolt at 4:00 (right headlight) and 8:00 (left headlight) adjusts the headlight beam up and down -- turning clockwise moves the headlight beam down.

In my case (I'm 6'2", 230lbs), I needed to move both headlight beams down (especially for riding two-up). I found that turning each bolt (left headlight and right headlight) one full turn clockwise lowered the beams one inch when projected against a vertical surface 10 feet from the bike. Testing this on the road I found that it was just right for solo riding. When I ride-two up I will lower the lights one more inch.

Here is how I made the adjustment:

The photo above shows the 4:00 (right headlight) adjuster bolt, pointed to by the green arrow, just in front of the battery box (I took off panels C and D to locate the adjusting bolt). Once I knew where the little "sucker" was I can now do the adjustment without taking off the dash panels.

I used an 8mm box/open end wrench on the adjusting bolt.

The above photo shows the same wrench on the left headlight vertical adjusting bolt (note that the dash panels are in place -- I was able to engage the wrench by "feel").

Once you know how much adjustment is necessary to go from solo to two-up riding, one can make these adjustments in under a minute. In my case I did not need to adjust the "left to right" position of the headlights (factory settings were OK).