I have manually adjustable remote mirrors on my '85. The passenger's side mirror has a broken wire in it, but the housing is pristeen. I came across a mirror with a good operating mechanism in it, but the chrome on the housing is pitted.

How can I remove the working mechanism from the pitted housing and put it into the good housing? I can see the screws that hold the mechanism in place, but it looks as though I'd have to break the mirror to get to them. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ed

Ed,
GM use to carry replacement mirror glass. Some of the mirrors had a plastic backing plate that snapped into the adjuster mechanism which was held to the mirror housing by the screws. I would check this out on my 85 Riv, but the way things are going lately, I'm not messing with any mirrors! LOL!
Tim

Tim

I can see the plastic that surrounds the glass, I'll play with one and see what happens. If nothing else, I can sand out the pits and paint the mirror housings; after all, painted mirrors were available in certain years.

Thanks for the tip.

Ed

Hi Ed:

If I understand you correctly, you have a non-electric remote mirror which is adjusted via that little joystick...

I'm also dealing with an issue with a similiar manual remote mirror. Perhaps during assembly at the factory, the 3 inner steel cables were attached to the joystick mechanism
LAST (after the mirror end was set into the mirror housing. In other words, if you cut the 3 inner steel cables at the joystick end, the mirror (with inner cables attached) could be pulled from the housing. Of course you would have to do the same with the other mirror. The rub comes when having to reattach the joystick mechanism.

I presently have a broken cable (& housing) at the joystick end and am trying to think this fix through... It appears obvious that once this whole assembly (joystick to mirror) was assembled, it was not meant to be taken apart...

Does this make any sense?

Paul

Yep,

The replacement mirror I have is a complete unit. The "joy stick," cable, housing, and mirror are an assembly that needs to be replaced as a unit. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the housing from one assembly and put it on the other.

Ed

PS - without breaking the glass.

The mirror glass can be removed from the mirror frame but it not easy and will take some time I used a .006 feeler stock about 8 inches long and worked it around the outside edge around the outside of the mirror glass until all the glue or whatever they used to secure the mirror glass to the frame housing. Then replaced it with another glass I got from u pull yard as I wanted to retain the factory warning on the mirror. Some of the mirrors have three screws( on Power mirrors) holding assembly to the housing while the cable ones have one screw and two posts to locate the assembly into the chrome housing . It is possible to get the joy stick separated from the cables but takes a lot of time and effort to get the cables removed from the joy stick sure the factory did not intend this type of repair getting all the parts back together requires three hands and a few tries and quite a few coffee breaks to keep from going crazy but it can be done. I used silicone sealer to reattach the mirror to the housing. The fisher Body manual has drawing of the power mirror parts which is helpful for getting idea as to how the mirror is attached to the drive unit. I have repaired both power and cable and power are easier as you can unplug wires a lot easier than the cables. Take your time and it can be done good luck. Wear glasses just in case the mirror glass break.

Thanks for the tips. I'm assuming that breaking a mirror when trying to fix it is not part of the seven year hex that goes along with other mirrors. When you mentioned removing the glass from the adhesive that holds it to the frame, do you think there might be a solvent somewhere that would do this rather than trying to pry it loose?

Ed

The shop manual makes no mention of any solvent that would soften the adhesive it was easy to get off the housing after mirror was removed similar to a double sided tape should have taken pictures but didn't think of it at the time. Hard to explain pictures would be a lot more help.
The screws if you have three can be difficult I found you only have to remove one completely just get the other two loose I tried many different screw drivers angle straight event a flexible one. Good luck