GM 4108 Mirror Arm and/or parts

richard5933 · July 03, 2019, 10:00:07 AM

I'm looking for either a replacement mirror arm (passenger side) or for some internal parts that I can use to repair mine. I've already contacted Luke but he has had no luck finding what I need so far.

The pivot for the mirror is in the end of the arm. The shaft with the wing-nut end goes through the housing and is held in place with a c-clip on the other end. The internal works on mine bound up, and instead of releasing the clamp on the pivot my shaft walked out of the c-clip, creating a spiral groove along the shaft. Now every time I try to loose the mirror the shaft just walks out along the new spiral groove instead of loosening the pivot.

I think that the parts book calls the wing-nut shaft a locking screw, and it appears that they are the same left side and right side. So, if I find a working driver's side mirror arm I could use the internals from it to fix my passenger side mirror.

Any suggestions on where to find the parts would be great. Thanks.

Photo attached for clarification, since there were a couple of variants of the mirrors used on the Buffalo models.

pabusnut · July 03, 2019, 12:42:44 PM

Richard,

I wish I could help

On a positive note -- Thanks for your advice on my mirror!
I was able to get the drivers' side apart. I used JB weld to glue the triangular part back together. I am glad I took it entirely apart though.
I used Stainless Steel cap head screws to put it back together. It is now at the local glass shop waiting on a price quote for cutting me a new one. I thoroughly cleaned the inside and outside with a scotchbrite wheel, and then painted both the inside and the outside. My Rust-oleum high temp black paint rattle can must have leaked or been affected by heat/cold, as the paint never really dried and was still tacky six days later. I found that an hour or two in the oven at 200 degrees fixed it.

Steve

chessie4905 · July 03, 2019, 01:29:18 PM

This is the screw out of mine. It is brass. Someone replaced this on my coach with a flat head screw with a t handle welded to the head with no snap ring. I think the purpose of the snap ring is to prevent loss or theft, since it needs removed to extract bolt. It is 3/8-16 thread.

chessie4905 · July 03, 2019, 01:30:56 PM

My parts coach right hand side mirror arm has the bolt snapped off, so unknown if it would be of any use.

richard5933 · July 03, 2019, 02:04:58 PM

Quote from: chessie4905 on July 03, 2019, 01:29:18 PM
This is the screw out of mine. It is brass. Someone replaced this on my coach with a flat head screw with a t handle welded to the head with no snap ring. I think the purpose of the snap ring is to prevent loss or theft, since it needs removed to extract bolt. It is 3/8-16 thread.

That's the critter I'm looking for. Is that from your parts bus and/or is it one you could part with?

The snap ring is there to hold it in place and keep it from backing out as you loosen the tension on the pivot. Otherwise, it wants to come out rather than do its job. The little groove on my bolt is now a spiral, which makes it worthless.

chessie4905 · July 03, 2019, 02:35:07 PM

That's off the one I use. Sorry.

chessie4905 · July 03, 2019, 02:48:06 PM

Some of those Rustoleum, especially black can take several days to stop being tacky but is quite durable. I use it when I'm not in a hurry for it to dry.
I see that the large slotted head on bottom of arm has a tiny locking set screw.
My service manual has very little info on the mirrors.

richard5933 · July 03, 2019, 03:14:28 PM

Quote from: chessie4905 on July 03, 2019, 02:35:07 PM
That's off the one I use. Sorry.

Not a problem. Glad you were able to post the photo at least. Now I know what the thing looks like.

richard5933 · July 03, 2019, 03:24:40 PM

Quote from: richard5933 on July 03, 2019, 02:04:58 PM
That's the critter I'm looking for. Is that from your parts bus and/or is it one you could part with?

The snap ring is there to hold it in place and keep it from backing out as you loosen the tension on the pivot. Otherwise, it wants to come out rather than do its job. The little groove on my bolt is now a spiral, which makes it worthless.

Actually, not that I know that it's brass hiding under the silver coloring, I wonder if I couldn't just braze the spiral groove closed and then clean up the original groove for the c-clip retaining ring. Should work as long as the threads on it are still in good condition.

Since the threads are brass, I wonder if that is a built-in weak link? Probably easier to change that than it is to change out the other parts in there.

Can you post a photo of what the rest of the guts look like when you pull that screw out? Or are they still hidden even with it out?

I could open mine up, but I have learned not to open anything that I'm not sure I have parts for or that I won't be able to reassemble.