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Drunk Mirror

turbojames

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Ocala, FL
I just picked up an XJ. The driver's side mirror wobbles really bad when I'm driving. Is there a way to pop the mirror off and fix this? I pryed on the mirror a little bit, but I wasn't getting a good sound from it.

I'm looking for a armrest for the driver's front door. My XJ is a base model and the arm rest only bolts onto the door is two spots. The interior color is tan. I have this listen in the wanted forum as well, but I don't know how often people check there.

Thanks,
James
 
There's some kind of a gimbel arrangement inside the mirrors that loosens up or breaks, and that causes the wobbling. A long time ago someone posted an article explaining how to repair that, and I've been looking for it myself because I have more than one floppy mirror. What I recall is something about using a hair dryer to soften the adhesive holding the glass to the base, then repairing the mechanism after the glass is out of the way.

One of these days I'll summon the courage to take a hair dryer to one of the worst of the mirrors I have to see if I can get the glass off in one piece. If not, I think I've found a source for replacement glass.
 
I think it was XJGuy (where is he these days anyway) who came up with the hair dryer to take the mirror off. Basically there is no other access to the innards of the mirror. Once the mirror is out, the screws are revealed, and you can disassemble the mechanism. What you will find broken is a little cross-shaped gimbal, made of some kind of pot metal, on which the mirror pivots. The fix, as I recall reading, was to braze together a couple of short pieces of steel rod such as welding rod, to recreate that cross. I think the cross just snapped in. I haven't done this myself, because when my mirrors went, I broke the glass on one, and ditched the whole system in favor of the non-remote mirrors off an MJ. I learned my lesson and have lubed the mirrors on my 95 before they seized up.

By the way, if your other mirror gets stiff, DO NOT try to move it by pressing on the glass. This is how it breaks.
 
Finish the story, Matthew. Please!!!

HOW do you lube the mirrors before they sieze up?
 
take the whole assembly off of your rig, put it in a 200* oven for a 1/2 hour and the glue should be soft enough to pry the mirror off. then reglue it to the assembly.
 
My passenger side mirror wobbles when driving too but what surprises me is the linkage still works. Are your guys's mirrors remote cable adjusted? I have the same prob.
 
Sean, that's brilliant! I've been puzzling over how to attack my floppy passenger mirror for over a year. The hairdryer method won't get it hot enough, and I don't have a heat gun - but was worried that would be too much uncontrolled heat anyway (or with my luck the mirror would fall out at just the wrong time onto the driveway)! The oven sounds like just the ticket!
 
Is there a specific type of adhesive to use?

*By the way, I also have a saggy headliner:

I've taken all the trim off the interior around the headliner.

Can I just pull the tan cloth down and then put adhesive on the backboard of the headliner and push the cloth smoothly back onto the board? Will this do the trick?

Also, what type of adhesive do I need for this?
 
Eagle said:
Finish the story, Matthew. Please!!!

HOW do you lube the mirrors before they sieze up?

The only way I've found is hit-or-miss. Get a can of something like WD-40, or a squirt-type oil can, and sneak the snout of it behind the mirror, preferably at the top, and douse with oil. Your target is more or less in the center, behind the glass. If there is still any movement left from the cables, wiggle the joystick as you do this. Oil will dribble out of the bottom of the mirror and down the door, so have a rag handy. I recently did this, and have thought I ought to rummage among my broken stuff and see if I can figure out where in the mirror housing one could drill an access hole, but I haven't done it yet.

In answer to Jeepguy90 - yes, we're talking about the cable-adjusted remote mirrors here. The cable mechanism appears to be well-designed, with stainless parts, and never breaks. The weak spot is that little cast-aluminum pivot.
 
turbojames said:
Is there a specific type of adhesive to use?

*By the way, I also have a saggy headliner:

Can I just pull the tan cloth down and then put adhesive on the backboard of the headliner and push the cloth smoothly back onto the board? Will this do the trick?

Also, what type of adhesive do I need for this?

Er... I had the sagging headliner on my '84 Oldsmobile... The cause is that the foam backing disintegrates in time. I followed the instructions in the shop manual to clean off all of the foam, reglue (with some sort of 3M spray adhesive... it was ten years ago!), etc. I put it back in the car a couple of days later (allowing it to dry and firm up.). Within a week, it began to peel
again.

I ended up using a bunch of nearly-matching-color thumbtacks to make a "tufted" pattern instead! And THEN, after another few weeks, I decided to pull out each and every thumbtack, and superglued them in place. (I'll leave the visualization as to WHY I did that, up to the reader!)

Den
 
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