waterzap

And here it is. How to finally fix a floppy side mirror. Not sure if anyone else has posted this solution yet, but this worked for me. On both sides.

- First off, remove the door panel



- Remove the little clip underneath the door handle. Just use a screwdriver, as it should come off very easily



- Next step is to remove the ring around the handle. This one is a bit trickier, but can also be removed with a screwdriver. Just push in the clips and the ring comes off.



- Getting the panel off is a bit tricky. Make sure you lift the top part off the lip of the door. If you do manage to break some of the clips around the door, you can always just get new ones from GM



- Next we need to remove the mirror. There are three nuts inside the door that holds the mirror.



- Remove the speakers. Much easier to get to the cables once the speakers are out. Also if some of the nuts fall in the door you can get them

waterzap

- Now loosen the connectors and snake the mirror cable through the door. Inside the door there are clips that hold the cable. Smaller hands are much easier to get to them.




- A bit difficult to see, but the white clips are what holds the cable.

Now for the parts to fix the mirror



- Locknuts and threaded bars. Both of these I bought at Home Depot in the lamp department





- Take the glass off the mirror. The glass just clips off, with extra wires for heat. Be careful not to break the glass though. My back part came loose as well. Not a big problem, just glued everything back together later on.



- The mirror without the glass. As you can see the little washer came off. It is just held in the grooves, so it comes off quite easily. No way to just put it back though.



Now cut the wire. I cut it a bit too short here. Give yourself a bit more space. Also, make sure you know how to solder before you do this, as you will have to resolder the wires again.

waterzap

- Now thread the wire through the hole. You need to take out the spring and washer. Pull the two pieces of the mirror apart.






- This is the mirror on the one side. Take a saw and cut the little pipe off right in the groove. You need to do this so that the spring can compress properly. Its not a problem if you go a bit low, but not too far.






- Thread one of the bars through the hole. It should stick out a bit on the top and bottom, for the nuts.

waterzap

- Few more photos on the bars





- This is what the end result will look like inside the mirror. This is just to show how the whole system works. Have to take the nuts off to assemble the whole unit.



- I crushed the top of the bar to keep the nut from coming off



- Everything assembled inside the mirror with the wires threaded through. You will have to strip off some of the plastic to get the wires through.

waterzap

- The bottom of the mirror with two nuts to make sure it does not come loose





- The wires before soldering together



- Everything nicely put together



- As you can see, I had to add extension wires in the mirror, because I had cut them too short. Could not get through the hole.



- Done. Just put the glass back on, and put back in the car. There is no way the mirror can pop off again with the two nuts holding the spring on the top and bottom.

nwdanner

Nice work! Thanks for sharing your fix.

rws.1

that is the first time i have seen this addressed.
thanks for sharing

white90conv

Is it possible to avoid cutting the wires by removing the individual wires from the connector at the other end?

Blackjetvette97

Hi all,
Nice job on the mod to fix that stupid mirror problem. I was just gonna weld my washers to the post so it can't break off(and it eventually will without a mod!) Thanks, GM!


Steve

waterzap

Yes, you can. I did that on the other mirror. However the mirror never quite worked right after that. Could be because I took the motor apart, could be something else, but the mirror seems to have a mind of its own now.

RPHCRMZ51

Just a thought. What about cutting a slit length wise down the threaded pipe and cut a slit in the nut and washer. That way you could slide the wires through one at a time. But it just might be easier to do what he did and solder the wires. Both ways would work. I hope this problem does not carry over to the C6.

Billdog350

Excellent post, I just used this lamp rod fix for my 1997 C5 and it worked perfectly. Instead of crushing the top of the rod I actually mig welded the nuts in place, and then radius ground the lips with a dremel so that the sharp edge wouldn't chafe on the wires. This fix is MUCH better than trying to compress the spring and wire it and install it with a roll pin or E clip. I'll try to post up some pics of my final product but it was similar to waterzap's approach. FYI, I didn't cut off the end of the mirror "pipe" to compress the spring further, I just used a washer that had the same ID as the "pipe" so it would slip over once the nut was fully tightened. Works perfectly, good as new. GREAT THREAD!!!!

Billdog350

Fasthotrod

Yes, it is. The electrical connector can be disassembled easily. Just make up a wiring diagram that shows where the wires go on each pin, then disassemble the connector.

You basically use a small awl or screwdriver to remove the gray plastic 'shims' from the connector.



This gives you access to the wire/pin where it slides into the connector. The pin has a small "dog ear" that locks it into the socket, but that can be moved out of the way using a small sewing needle, or one of those pins that comes with a new dress shirt.

Use the pin to reach into the socket and trip the "dog ear" that holds the wire/pin in the socket. It's a PITA at first, but once you figure out the first one, they all just slide right out.

Mark

timemender

waterzap -

While I like your fix better, below are a couple of other links related to C5 side mirror repair. These may be of additional help to others.

http://97vette.com/howto/mirror/index.html

Found at the Top of the C5 Tech Section - “The Ultimate DIY (Repair) Thread” (POST #21)

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...th-pics-2.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...with-pics.html

MMHAMMER

Great info - thanks all/.

red88L98convert

by far not the best method.....but when I did mine, i just took it apart and ran a screw down from the mirror housing into the base and ran another screw from the base up into the housing. a little loctite to keep em in place and voila...no more swingin' mirror. of course it doesnt fold, but then again, i never need it to.

TEXHAWK0

I don't think this would work. You could get the metal sleeve over the wires, but you still have to get the wires through the nuts and washer. It would also be difficult to trim the original post with a saw and not nick any of the wires.

I would take the time to take the wires out of the connector.

This is the best solution to the problem I have seen...you can easily compress the spring and do not have to worry about getting the GM clip to stay on. Other solutions have been to reuse the clip, but drill a hole in the mirror shaft and put a pin through it to hold the clip on.

gleds

great write up! Great minds must think alike. I just fixed mine in an almost identical way. The only difference is i threaded my pipe into the mount rather than running it all the way down. Doesnt it feel good knowing you never have to fix it again?

TEXHAWK0

This sounds like a good idea also. Did you have any trouble tapping the mirror base or finding the right size threaded tube to fit the hole in the mirror?