SC Flag Mirror Vibration

[Howard Murphy]

The mirrors on my 83 SC vibrate like crazy. The base to the car seems tight and the electric mirror seems ok.

The "folding" aspect - base to mirror seems loose. I've had
it all apart but can't figure out how to tighten the thing.

Have searched for the anwser -no luck.

Help

H Murphy

83 SC Targa
76 BMW 2002
Jeep

[jason2guy]

its kinda tricky. you have to tighten the hollow bolt that the wires run through. grab it with some vice grips

[Howard Murphy]

Thanks Jason -will give it a try.

Hey good vehicle choices - My 2000 528 was sidewiped - 4th kid
required jeep with 3 rows -holding on tight to the other classics

[Ron.G]

Remenber that is it a "super carrea" and vibration is to be expected.

[slodave]

I had the problem with mine. I carefully took the mirror off of the door and was able to carefully re-tighten the nut under the base. It has held for 6-7 years...

Dave

[2ndTARGA]

Howard:

Not sure what you meant by having it apart. A lot of mirrors vibrate because the glass is loose. If it really is the base (folding) connection that is loose, then tightened the hollow bolt is the answer as indicated above.

To really tighten this bolt you will need to disconnect or cut the wires and pull them back up into the mirror body. Then you can insert a hex wrench (approx 10mm) and tighten the bolt and spring assy. If you don't have a hex wrench this size, you can use a butt connector for 1/4" threaded rod available at any hardware store. It will fit right into the hollow bolt and you can turn it with a wrench.

PM me if you need more info - I've just gone through this myself.

Ron

[deshetlr]

Check the mirror glass adhesion to it's backing. Mine vibrated like crazy. I tried everything. Everything was tight. Then while out on a drive I hit a bump and the mirror separated from the backing and bounced down the highway in a million pieces.

[2ndTARGA]

More thoughts on the vibration issue. There are only four things that could be wrong:

1. Mirror base to door (socket head clamp screw)
2. Glass to backing plate - This is typically the problem and there are two different types of mount, glued-on snap posts or rotating ring (these are well covered in other posts)
3. Mirror base to vertical part of the flag - two types of spring loaded hollow barrel nuts - hex and slotted- as shown below.
4. Vertical post to "flag" - three torx screws as shown in the last shot.

Assuming you've eliminated everything but the hollow barrel screw, the problem in tightening them is that the control wires come through the center. If yours is the hex type, you almost have to cut and pull the wires out through the mirror body to insert the hex wrench.

If yours is the slotted type, you might be able to make a tool with a u-shaped cut out for the wires and two arms with bent tabs to catch the slots. Grinding tabs into an old pair of needle nose pliers might also work.

In any case, don't loosen the barrel nuts as it is VERY difficult to compress the spring enough to re-engage the threads. I had to make a tool to do this after taking mine apart for painting.

Ron

[2ndTARGA]

One more thought occurred.........

Do you know if the mirrors were repainted in the past? Since it is soooo hard to re-insert the barrel screws after total disassembly, and since it seems unusual that both of your mirrors are loose at the same time, it's possible that they were reassembled in the past and that one of the spacers was tossed in order to get the threads to engage.

If you find that the barrel nuts are already tight that might be the problem.

Ron

[Howard Murphy]

The car was repainted a few years ago. The hex screw does look like the issue. I think I'm experiencing the extra vibration on the car since it was lowered to European Height and has 18" wheels.
Ya thats a dent

Thanks for the input guys.

Next project -chin spoiler

[JBO]

Car looks great Howard. What's the stroy on the big dent? At least with recent paint matching should work.