Outside Mirror Repair (81 911SC)

[black beauty]

I just got through repairing the driver side rearview mirror on my 1981 911SC.
The mirror is the kind that can be rotated inward when not in use and to reduce the chance of someone or something hitting it when parked.
The mirror assemble includes a motor as well as a heated mirror.
The problem was that the main mirror housing was loose from the mounting base on the door. After checking other posts and getting some tips from a local Porsche mechanic, I was able to fix the problem. Following are instructions and comments:

The hollow bolt that the mirror pivots on has come loose. I got into
the habit of using loc tite on all of those bolts, since this used to be a
common problem. The mirror assembly has to be removed from the door, the
mirror and motor has to be removed and then the bolt can be tightened. I
clean and lubricate the bolt and spring before the loc tite and reassemble.

Imagine the mirror assembly bolted to the car. Now move the glass as far to either the left or right by pushing on the edge with your finger. Look between the glass and the rubber frame, you should be able to see the back of the mirror. With a thin, forked like object stick it behind the mirror and gently pry the mirror glass away from it’s backing plate. The mirror glass is held onto the plate by metal prongs that are inserted into plastic bushings, only friction holds the mirror glass on. By prying, you will be pulling the glass with the prongs away from the plate with bushings. Once the mirror glass is removed, the motor assembly will come off after removing 3 bolts with 8mm heads. Now unplug the motor from the wire harness and with the appropriate tool remove the wires from the plastic housing on the car side, not the mirror motor side. Be sure and keep track of which wire goes into which hole in the plastic housing. Pull the wires through the hollow bolt and now you will be able to tighten the bolt with the correct allen wrench. NOTE: It takes a bit of pressure to compress the spring while turning the allen wrench in order to get the bolt threads to catch.

Now you have to reassemble everything in reverse order and I suggest that before you put the mirror glass back, you test the motor as if the whole assembly was back on the car (i.e. use the remote mirror switch inside the car to operate the motor in up/down and side to side motions). If it doesn't work, you will have to double check the wiring connections at the connector.

One other comment. There is another post discussing replacing "flag style" mirrors (like on my 81 911SC) with teardrop style mirrors. The post author says to insert a skinny screw driver through a small hole on the bottom of the mirror housing and release some sort of locking device. THIS WAS NOT CORRECT FOR MY MIRROR AND MAYBE NOT FOR YOUR MIRROR EITHER.

[turner_green]

would you by any chance know the distance of the mounting holes from each other?

[jwhogan]

Thank you black beauty for the great procedure. I did the same today. I wanted to add some comments to help the next person who stumbles on this page:
1) + on blue thread locker
2) you need to use a M12 triple square tool to tighten down the hollow bolt to the side view mirror housing. A 10mm hex key will do in a pinch.
3) he mentions to use the “appropriate tool” to remove the pogo pins. I ordered a cheap set of electrical contact removal tools from Amazon. You need a 2.5mm hollow tube tool to disengage the pogo pins from the plastic housing. See the picture. Insert the tool around the pins and rotate while wiggling the wire out with your other hand.
4) get the tools first before disassembling the housing or else the housing dangles on the side of your car scratching paint while you wait for the tool.
5) don’t bother trying to skip removing the wires. It doesn’t work and will only frustrate you.
6) tighten the hollow bolt hand tight. Don’t leave it loose for pivoting. The spring will allow it to pivot.
7) take pictures of the wires before disassembly!
8) get the tools first!