Basic stuff I broke yesterday

[Jinkeez]

Okay, so I usually try not to work on my bike too much since I almost always screw something up, but after deciding on a whim to re-route the wires for my rear turn signals, and actually doing it successfully (!!!), I was feeling lucky and decided to jack with my mirrors next.

I'd always thought that my mirrors were positioned sort of... wonkily, and I'd always meant to try to adjust them but never got around to it, and a lot of times they'd just wind up moving back to where they were before, anyway, so I'd just been used to constantly shifting my body position slightly to check behind me as I'm riding.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I was all fired up from the wiring success, decided the mirrors were next, grabbed hold of one, and TURNED MIGHTILIY! And... *dink* it came off in my hand.

So... Yeah. The... mount thing..? The rubber is all dry-rotted. It's a pretty basic thing, and I think I got it figured out, but I wanted to ask about it anyway... I ordered myself two mounts and two.... nuts, I guess, from BikeBandit (see this schematic -- I ordered two of #4 and #5)... I'm assuming the little #4 parts have rubber inside of them that you stick the mirror into.

Alright. So my question is this-- the... stalk of the mirror, that's supposed to be just bare metal, right? Like, the mirror just ends, and there's no threaded end or rubber doohickey on it..?

And when the little parts I ordered arrive, will I need to do anything else besides mount them onto the bike and then cram the mirror stalk into the new rubber..?

Thanks for any info, encouragement, etc-- I get really nervous about doing things like this because I'm really good at breaking stuff

[walt]

You will need to remove the threaded part of the mirror that is still in the perch. While your waiting for parts, start applying PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench on the perch where the mirror stalk broke off. Get a buddy who knows how to remove the broken stub with an easy out. Next time loosen the nut at the perch first then rotate the mirror stalk.

[Jethro]

Something seems wrong buddy... I'm basing this off my experience with my 1100's, but the #4 part is basically a rubber vibration dampener. It's actually an add on item, you could mount the mirrors with out them. In other words, the end of the mirror should have threads on it that could thread into the handlebar mount, but this little beauty is just an adapter to rubber mount the mirror.

The point I am trying to get at, the mirror should be threaded at the end with a lock nut. You can see it on your schematic there.

[Jinkeez]

The mirror and stalk are not actually broken... At least I don't think they are. There's nothing left in the perch, from what I can tell-- I will have to take a nice pic of it when I get home for you guys to see.

The mirror came out exactly as pictured in the part diagram (see attachment for now)-- There's a nut-looking thing toward the bottom of the mirror stalk (I'm pointing to it with a red arrow on the attachment to this post), and then about 3/4 inch of un-threaded metal beneath that--- May I assume that the rubber mount (#4) was originally threaded in the middle, and that I've managed to rip out the entire core of it or somesuch, and it's still attached to the mirror stalk..? I'll have to jack with it more when I get home today

Sorry to make this all so complicated; I can tear down a PC and put it back together blindfolded, but I'm a major bonehead when it comes to mechanical stuff like this--I have a horrible track record! One time I fell through my attic into the garage when I was just trying to figure out where the phone lines were routed up there.

[Jinkeez]

Here's what the stem looks like, no threads... Any insight..?

[Jinkeez]

[Nessism]

I've got those rubber dohicky things on the mirrors of my 79 550 and after reading this post I'm concern about touching them. Obviously, the mirror plugs in there but what keeps it from falling out? Very strange.

[walt]

There should be threads at the stalk's end. That maybe what is left of where the mirror threads into the rubber damper.

[Jethro]

There should be threads at the stalk's end. That maybe what is left of where the mirror threads into the rubber damper.

Ditto. Try and unscrew that rubber mess on the end, you should find 10mm of thread under there.

[Jinkeez]

Okay, thanks guys, there was indeed thread on the end! I had to use a freakin' pipe wrench to get the core of the rubber mount off of it:



For reference if anyone runs into similar confusion, here's a pic of the left mirror's mount--it is just as rotten but the threaded core is intact:



Per Jethro's advisement that the rubber mounts are more or less optional, I stuck the mirrors back on the bike but haven't tightened them down or anything--the two new mounts I'd already ordered from Bikebandit are on the way here, so I figure I'll might as well use them when they arrive.

[scotto58]

Jinkeez

The same thing happened to the right hand mirror on my 79 GS 850. I got the metal sleeve unthreaded from the mirror and mounted the mirror directly to the perch. It works great-no excess vibration,good clear picture.

Scott