outside mirrors

[Guest squiretom]

its the squire again.

the mirror has come loose from the plastic sealed motor drive. the drive works , but the mirror moves and is unstable. popped out the mirror face and motor and reconnected ball joints. two of the screw holes on the motor are broken.

used solderless connector eyes screwed into motor housing as a washer .

got tow of the screws back in , but how%#&%^$&^$ do you get the inside screw to mount ? works ok , but waiting for it to come apart again.

or if you unhook the ball joints on the mirror and put all three screws back in ,

how the @%$#^@%& do you reseat the mirror into the ball joints ?

sorry for deleted expletives , but i am sure you can fill in the blanks.

still love the car even if my wife doesn't.

[KDirk]

Tom,

When I repainted my outside mirror housings a while back now, I did not pop the mirror back onto the motor socket until I had the three screws in place. I also greased the ball and socket to ensure smooth operation and easier removal if needed in the future.

The only other way I see to do this (maybe) is to extend the mirror all the way out at the inside edge, and using a small screwdriver, you may be able to hit it at an angle. Not easy to do, to be sure.

One other note: The factory screws were plain steel, and very rusty (on mine at least). I bought same-sized stainless steel screws and washers to replace the hardware. The washers were to help hold the motor in place since the small plastic eyelets were cracked, and a couple were already gone. I was reluctant to drill or modify the motor housing due to the increased likelihood of water intrusion.

KDirk

[Jim]

Kevin is right. I have had many of these apart and the way to put them back together is to snap the mirror assembly to the motor assembly and then tilt the mirror up and down and through the small gap install the screws. Easiest done off the car but can be done on the car.

[Guest squiretom]

i think i will try to get in touch with E.T. the extraterrestrial. seems to me it had very thin fingers that would light up. hope he does not charge a lot of space credits for mileage. until then two screws seem to be working ok. i will try the suggestions and as always am thankful for the fine people on the Reatta net.

[Jim]

With the mirror off the car you can balance the screw on the end of a Phillips screw driver and then tilt the whole assembly upside down so you can put in the screws. On the car, I have used a screw driver that is magnetized and also put some kind of sticky stuff on the end of the screw driver to hold the screw while going through the small gap.

Employing ET is also a good way but he rarely comes to town.

[Guest NEMO]

There are screw drivers that have holding clips that slide up and down the shaft of the driver. Put the screw on the tip then slide the holding fingers over the screw head , Masting tape works too. poke the screw threw the tape ,then wrap it on the screw driver shaft.