interestingly, I had my D/S mirror out a couple weekends ago, and changed it out for my Regal mirror. surprisingly, (read:sarcasticly) the base is different as far as height and bolt center... are you taking the mirror assy and cable completely out? if so did you have to disassemble the adjust knob? I couldn't fit mine through the hole in the base.
Darin, I’ve found through experience that you gotta be careful with which mirrors you’re trying to use.
I can’t vouch for the Regals, but on the Cutlass the 78-80 cars use a completely different base than the 81-88 cars. The earlier years have a taller base that sits flat on the angled but flat section of the door, where as the later years are actually shorter and straddle the bodyline.
As well, as you noted, the stud spacing is also different between the two. Scott was kind enough to send me a set of the later model mirrors last year, but despite my best attempts it’s simply not possible to interchange the two. Even the angle that the mirror base sits on the door at is different.
Donovan,
If you wouldn't mind detailing how to work on those mirrors, it would be very helpful. The Driver's side mirror on my car doesn't hold its adjustment. Close the door, time to adjust. I've been on this forum for four years or so and haven't come across a thread on how to work on those mirrors.
Ok, no pressure as it looks like everyone wants to know the same thing, but here goes!
First of all, I’m going to take the easy way out and not disassemble the joystick and cables assembly when I paint this mirror.
I had every intention to when I first pulled it apart, but after careful evaluation, I’m not convinced it’s going to be possible without breaking something.
Let me show you why:
Each cable attaches to the joystick and terminates at the very top here where the scribe is pointing:
Think about the brake cables on a bicycle. You know that little nubby at the end of the cable right by the calipers? That’s exactly what these little guys are like, just a much smaller version. It would appear that when they’re assembled, the cables slide vertically through a pot metal piece and the nubbies sit down inside a recess for each one.
This is what keeps them located.
From there, the cables pass through a flange of sorts, where they’re crimped onto the cable sheaths:
To keep tension on the cables, a spring is used down inside the assembly below the flange, as seen here:
This is just an educated guess, but what I suspect is happening when the mirrors won’t “hold” their adjustment anymore is that the crimp on a particular cable is no longer holding it in its original location. This is visible as a cable that seems to have excess length in it between the flange and the top collar.
The joystick assembly from my original mirror for example. Note how this cable sits flat and tight with no apparent excess slack ?
Now on the exact same assembly, just rolled over a bit to highlight the difference. This cable has too much slack in it, and has even kinked a bit because the extra has nowhere to go:
It should be noted too, that these observations were made with the joystick centered in its travel, so it’s not like what we’re seeing above is because of it being off to one side.
The trouble is, there doesn’t seem to be a way to hold and support the assembly without the use of some sort of special jig. One would be needed to hold it firmly so that the spring could be compressed to start disassembly to get the nubbies out of their recesses.
So for me at least, rather than potentially opening a can of worms that I might not be able to put back, I’m going to choose to leave it assembled and mask off the cables and joystick. For those unfamiliar with why it would even be necessary to disassemble one of these, it’s because of this:
As Darin noted above, the hole in the base of the mirror is not big enough to pass the joystick assembly through. They were likely painted first, the cables passed through the base, and then the joystick put together afterwards. Fine for a one-time assembly, but definitely not user friendly if you’ve gotta take it apart to refinish or repair anything.
Speaking along the lines of disassembly, it’s also impossible to remove the actual mirrored glass section on driver’s side mirrors until the cables are disconnected and pulled through the housing. In the FSM, the only way to do it is if the mirrored glass part is broken or missing, because the screws that attach it are only accessible behind it.
Hopefully this has shed some light on how these things are put together, and why not a lot can be done with them (unless you’re feeling lucky and really brave!)
Of course, your results may vary, best of luck to anyone that wants to attempt it.
As an interesting aside, it would appear that the widest point of the joystick assembly is just under 3/4’s of an inch...
...which would leave approximately 1/8” either side to the screw holes if a guy wanted to open up the hole in the base big enough for the joystick to pass through:
This could be done by drilling a series of small holes at the desired diameter and breaking out the pieces until he had enough room to get in there with a die grinder and clean up the rest. I may experiment with this on the original mirror.
Food for thought, but unfortunately this won’t help with floppy mirrors or ones that won’t hold their setting.
