tgdoumit
Adventurer
Well, it looks like i backed up one too many times and caught something with my drivers side mirror. We have this tree branch thad has creeped into my driveway and it has claimed dominance over its little area. In a show of force it has shown me who the boss is. Tree = 1 mirror = 0...
The break away mirror hinge on the Dodge really works well. I like the mirrors and wanted to try to fix it myself. Spending money for someone else to fix my junk really isn't my style.
When I inspected the mirror I noticed that it was not settling down into it's detent position. It would hold it's place under normal driving but would move in the tow position. I also noticed a circular access panel on the bottom of the hinge area so i figured i could try to fix it.
Heres some pics:
the mirror assembly comes off with 10mm nuts, access is pretty easy with a #3 phillips screwdriver.
This is what it looks like under the cover. What you are looking at is a hinge post, wiring harness and a retainer/spring assembly.
I wanted to get the plug off the end. Here is a terminal kit found at a garage sale. It doesn't come out too often but came in pretty handy today.
This one seemed to work the best. I could feel it pop right in and the terminal came out easily. I took some pics first to make sure everything went back the same way.
After I removed all the terminals from the plug I pulled them out of the mirror base housing and tucked them into the hinge pin.
In this picture you can see the ring that has to come off. This is somewhat difficult to do and that spring is loaded so when it comes apart things might fly!
I tapped a screwdriver behind the tabs and bent them far enough to clear the ring indention around the hinge pin. I only had to do this on three of them before it released. The next few minutes were spent looking for the pieces.... Please wear eye protection.
Here's what comes out. It released with enough force to break the edge of the middle plastic piece. It still is fine to use and i put the retainer ring on the anvil and punched the tabs back into place.
Once apart you can see where the ball bearings go. There are three that sit down in the bottom seen in the second picture. I just used needle nose pliers to take them out of the top half and put them back in the correct place. The top half has more detent areas to hold the mirror in several positions. Turns out one of my ball bearings was in the wrong position.
Once the bearings were in the right place I put the two halves together and I could see that they had settled down into the correct position between the two halves and the detent was correctly positioning the mirror head.
I used my drill press a 30mm socket and a 4x4 to press it together. You will not get this together by hands alone. It all went together easily.
A five gallon bucket is helpful for this project...
Finally a small repair to the plug. I somehow broke a mounting ear off and had to glue it back on.
Time to stick this thing back on! It's a good repair and you should try it if you think you are up for it.
Please use good judgement when working on objects with stored energy. Everyone here is responsible for their own actions. Personal protection in the form of safety glasses is a must and adding a face shield would be even better.
EDIT:
I guess I should list a few tools:
- #2 and #3 phillips screwdrivers for the door panel
- #40 torx for the door lever
- Small torx for the electrical plug
- Small ball peen hammer
- Regular flat blade screwdriver
- Small flat blade screwdriver
- Terminal maintenance kit to separate terminals from the plug housing
- Personal protective equipment
- Needle nose pliers to apprehend ball bearings
- A punch to reset tabs on retainer ring
The break away mirror hinge on the Dodge really works well. I like the mirrors and wanted to try to fix it myself. Spending money for someone else to fix my junk really isn't my style.
When I inspected the mirror I noticed that it was not settling down into it's detent position. It would hold it's place under normal driving but would move in the tow position. I also noticed a circular access panel on the bottom of the hinge area so i figured i could try to fix it.
Heres some pics:
the mirror assembly comes off with 10mm nuts, access is pretty easy with a #3 phillips screwdriver.
This is what it looks like under the cover. What you are looking at is a hinge post, wiring harness and a retainer/spring assembly.
I wanted to get the plug off the end. Here is a terminal kit found at a garage sale. It doesn't come out too often but came in pretty handy today.
This one seemed to work the best. I could feel it pop right in and the terminal came out easily. I took some pics first to make sure everything went back the same way.
After I removed all the terminals from the plug I pulled them out of the mirror base housing and tucked them into the hinge pin.
In this picture you can see the ring that has to come off. This is somewhat difficult to do and that spring is loaded so when it comes apart things might fly!
I tapped a screwdriver behind the tabs and bent them far enough to clear the ring indention around the hinge pin. I only had to do this on three of them before it released. The next few minutes were spent looking for the pieces.... Please wear eye protection.
Here's what comes out. It released with enough force to break the edge of the middle plastic piece. It still is fine to use and i put the retainer ring on the anvil and punched the tabs back into place.
Once apart you can see where the ball bearings go. There are three that sit down in the bottom seen in the second picture. I just used needle nose pliers to take them out of the top half and put them back in the correct place. The top half has more detent areas to hold the mirror in several positions. Turns out one of my ball bearings was in the wrong position.
Once the bearings were in the right place I put the two halves together and I could see that they had settled down into the correct position between the two halves and the detent was correctly positioning the mirror head.
I used my drill press a 30mm socket and a 4x4 to press it together. You will not get this together by hands alone. It all went together easily.
A five gallon bucket is helpful for this project...
Finally a small repair to the plug. I somehow broke a mounting ear off and had to glue it back on.
Time to stick this thing back on! It's a good repair and you should try it if you think you are up for it.
Please use good judgement when working on objects with stored energy. Everyone here is responsible for their own actions. Personal protection in the form of safety glasses is a must and adding a face shield would be even better.
EDIT:
I guess I should list a few tools:
- #2 and #3 phillips screwdrivers for the door panel
- #40 torx for the door lever
- Small torx for the electrical plug
- Small ball peen hammer
- Regular flat blade screwdriver
- Small flat blade screwdriver
- Terminal maintenance kit to separate terminals from the plug housing
- Personal protective equipment
- Needle nose pliers to apprehend ball bearings
- A punch to reset tabs on retainer ring
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