300D Electric Mirror Woes

I have a '83 300D with the electric passenger side-view mirror. The mirror has stopped working. Though I did a Google Groups search, I didn't find anyone writing about this. When I play with the mirror joy stick I can hear the mirror motor moving and there is minute movement of the mirror, but the motor seems to bind and stop all movement. I'd guess a dying motor except this problem came on suddenly: one day it worked perfectly, one day it didn't. Is there an easy way to get inside this thing? I'm hoping it's just an accumulation of crud inside the workings and can be WD-40ed back into functionality. Can someone tell me how to get inside this thing without damaging it? Too bad I don't have the factory manuals that would have this info, rather than the ones that came with the car that have just about everything else...Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Reply to
PTinOR
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Uh yeah, they do that. There's a little motor inside that drives a gear which drives another little gear. The weakest point in this chain is a fairly small bit of white nylon. Something in this drivetrain has screwed up.

Hinesly the best way to fix this is to get another mirror from a scrapyard; the interpart listing at car-part.com shows they range from $180 to $17. $25 is what I think is normal and reasonable. Having tried to fix mine with the same problem that's what I'd do.

If you want to try to fix it, push the whole unit back as far as it will go and use a flashlight to see inside. You'll see the two ends of the circular springwire that holds the lens on. Unclip them and you can now pull the actuall mirror off (carefull, or you'll break the glass. Now go buy a good used one.

You might find a broken plastic bit. What you won't find is a source for one as far as I know they're not available. Did I mention you should just probably buy another one? A crime I know, but what ya gonna do?

Reply to
Richard Sexton

Buy a stock gear and machine it to fit. or get the parts from the junk yard. Plan C would be to set the mirror by hand and drive.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

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