Im requesting some info on how-to fix the outside mirrors, apparently i broke them by turning them incorrectly. It just popped loose after I put slight pressure on them while turning. I did investigate and found a washer type spring clip slips over the spring inside the mirror over the inside post. Any special tool or procedure? And why on such a prestine sports car would gm build something as fragile as that?? (not intending to be sarcastic, i do love the corvette) My previously owned vehicles the mirrors could really take a pounding. :confused:

 

Common problem, do a search on mirror on the C5 archieves and you will get many returns.

This post outlines how I fixed mine. Maybe someone still has the pictures they can post to help out also.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=142912

 

Here's the post with the pictures:




If the spring loaded pivot action in your outside mirror has broken, here might be a fix so you won’t have to buy a new mirror. Rotate the mirror all the way in towards the car so you can get your fingers behind the outer edge and just pull until you have the mirror in your hand only attached by the two heater wires. With all the ripping, cracking and popping sounds, you’ll swear you ruined everything, but the mirror is a snap fit assembly and someone else snapped it together before you got it, and you can snap it back together just like you took it apart.



You can now see the retainer clip, that has popped off on my mirror, and spring. There is no chance of putting the spring and clip back in place unless you remove the whole assembly from the door and have some type of spring compressor similar to a valve spring compressor. That spring is similar in strength to a valve spring and in my case has pushed so hard on the retainer clip that the little tabs on the clip have sheared off the aluminum in front of them until the clip was pushed off the end of the shaft.



My solution was to hold the housing in place and drill through the mirror housing and through the base, providing a place to insert a stainless screw to hold it solid. Install a small hose clamp around the electrical cable to be clamped on top of the shaft. Some pieces of double sided tape in the pivot point between the base, that bolts to the door, and the mirror housing also helps prevent any movement. This procedure eliminates the pivoting action, but you don’t have to buy a new mirror either. Place the mirror housing back on the shaft and press it down against the tape, slide the clamp onto the end of the shaft that protrudes inside the housing. Press the clamp down tight against the housing and tighten, then insert & tighten the screw in the hole you drilled. Leave the spring and clip on the wire, there is plenty of room for them.

Then reassemble the mirror. Look over the back of the mirror to see the five pivot points that you have to snap back together. The center pivot and top and left side adjustment pivots will be the ones you need to line up first. Just spread your hand out over the surface of the mirror and snap it back together.
If you snap the pivot points back together one by one, you will have two crunch sounds, these are the ones with the silver wire retainers on the end. They are threaded and attached to the electric motor for adjusting the mirror. Along with the two crunch sounds, you should get the "big" snap when the center pivot goes back into place. You'll need to have one hand on the mirror and the other hand on the outside (front) of the housing and press together. You basically get the big snap and the two crunches all together in one terrible sound. That will probably leave the two small position stabilizers, one on the bottom and one on the inside next to the door. Rotate the mirror towards the door until it starts to "snap" and won't go any farther, then push forward on the inside portion of the mirror (next the door) and you should get a small "pop" when that stabilizer goes into place. Rotate it down and do the same thing for the bottom stabilizer.
If you get the center pivot and the two crunch sound connections together, it will work just fine, but it may not be quite as solid as it will be with all five connections made.
If all else fails, stop by when if you're in the neighborhood and we can snap everything back into place.







[Modified by alanh, 9:48 AM 4/21/2002]

 

Thank you all for the info and pics great stuff :)

 

it happened to me twice i just took it to the dealer and they repaired it, but i got a scratch inside from the tool that they touched up those Bas*****.