Rebuilding the First-Gen Swingaway Mirrors

[kishy]

When I bought my '85 in 2015, it had small base model mirrors. After a short time, I found a Bronco II in a junkyard with the big tow mirrors, which the sales brochure refers to as "Bright Western Swingaway Mirrors", and I retrofitted them onto my truck. They were great for several years, but in late 2021, something broke in the right side mirror and it wouldn't hold its position anymore. Fixing this, or even identifying what actually broke, was complicated by the fact that I had previously re-glued the glass into the mirror, and there was no way it was coming free without breaking.

Dorman makes a mirror that is designed to be a replacement for these, part 955180. I put one of these on my truck but I quickly grew to hate it for a couple key reasons:

• The Dorman mirror is not convex, which is annoying. However, something even worse than that is that it seems to be very very slightly concave and seems to magnify as well, which gives an extremely narrow field of view.
• The Dorman mirror picks up vehicle vibrations which the stock mirror did not. The mirror glass vibrates at a high frequency when driving, causing headlights in it to have a dazzling effect and making it nearly impossible to get a good sense of what you're looking at in it.

In other words, the Dorman mirror is basically useless as an automotive mirror.

Since that point, I've been hunting for a good convex right-side mirror in junkyards. In February, I was able to collect the pieces I would need for this project:

• One right-side convex mirror, but with a broken pivot mechanism.
• In the yard, I disassembled a left-side mirror with a seemingly good pivot mechanism, and removed the pivot mechanism.

There seem to be a few different ways that these mirrors fail:

• The cage which holds the spring rusts apart and the spring doesn't maintain tension on the ball stud anymore.
• The entire pivot mechanism rusts off of its fasteners, and the mirror assembly rattles loosely with the pivot mechanism still maintaining tension but no longer holding the mirror.
• The plastic cup/socket for the ball stud cracks and breaks apart, causing there to be no spring tension on the ball stud.

Last night, I decided to move forward with the mirror surgery. After all, I'm tossing around ideas for replacing the Ranger as it rusts away beneath me, so why not make it better first? /s.

Here's what I started with:


Detail view of the pivot assemblies:


Separating the glass from the mirror body. I evenly applied heat to the glass, then used an assortment of scraping and prying tools to firmly but very gradually lift the glass out of the body.


Next, we separate the aluminum back cover from the plastic body. This covers fasteners we need to get access to. It is held on with the same type of adhesive which is a relatively flexible silicone. I found it seemed to work best starting on one of the short sides.


Once the back cover is off, we can see the three small bolts that hold the pivot mechanism inside the housing.


Taking apart and inspecting the pivot mechanism. Compared two of my available pivot balls, selected the one that seemed less rusted to garbage. Sanded it down to clean metal.


Sandblasted the pieces of the pivot.


Painted with an oil-based rust paint.


Upon closer inspection, I found that the 'socket' for the pivot ball stud has a crack in it. This is one of the failure points I've seen in the few mirrors I've looked at now, but this one doesn't seem too far gone to be worth trying to save.
I squirted some super glue inside the crack as well as lining the inside of the socket/cup, and will try to smooth it out once I see how it dries.



Status as of tonight: paint and glue are drying. If the glue looks like it'll hold up, I should be able to assemble the mirror when I get a few minutes, maybe this weekend. If the glue doesn't look like it'll work, I'll need to look for some sort of piece that can replace it, which might be tricky. It would be a pretty 3D-printable part for someone with the ability to model the part.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I very strongly suggest once you get it finished, tweak your format and submit this for a tech article.

How To Post Articles To Be Added To The Site

We're always looking for information to share with other enthusiasts. This is a basic "how to" on submitting information to this site so it can be added to either the Tech Library or Resource Library. Registered Forum Member: if your not registered, and got to this page from a 'Submit' button...

www.therangerstation.com

 

[kishy]

Agreed, the final result will hopefully make a decent article...if I'm successful.

I had a few minutes tonight to go out to the garage. I threw a thin second coat of paint on the parts, which should be plenty, because they now have more paint on them than my entire truck.

I took the opportunity to study the mirror I took off my truck to identify what exactly failed about it. As I noted further up:

Fixing this, or even identifying what actually broke, was complicated by the fact that I had previously re-glued the glass into the mirror, and there was no way it was coming free without breaking.

Yes, I'd say so.



Impressive. I managed to hit all 3 of the failures I described in the first post. The cage rusted apart, and the pivot rusted off of the mirror body, and the plastic ball socket was getting ready to let go as well.

At which point I turned my attention back to the best-condition ball socket, which is the one I patched with superglue.


Forgive the lighting weirdness, my phone is upset about using the flash in my garage lighting.

This piece will likely break apart if I return it to service. Not immediately, but maybe not too far down the road. It would be wise to figure out a possible replacement for it.

Since the piece has details which are not really used in this design, I suspect it is a piece of something else that was repurposed for use inside the mirror. Specifically, the detail on the bottom side with the cross shape which pokes into the centre of the spring seems to have molded detail that is unnecessary. If by chance you recognize this piece from some other thing that you've taken apart in your life, I'd appreciate any suggestions as to what other applications it may have.

Probably putting the brakes on mirror assembly until after I explore this piece a little more. I'll ask around in my friend circle about 3D modelling and printing a replacement, as well.

 

[Josh B]

I suggest including a photo of it on the truck

 

[kishy]

Happy New Year!

I went to Princess Auto, which is a Canadian store that's largely like a Harbor Freight in the US, except they also have expanded sections for surplus items (basically a liquidation store), as well as specialty stuff for custom hydraulics and farms. I showed the plastic piece to one of the employees I know has been there for several years, and asked if it looked like a piece of something, or similar to any item the store has ever sold to his knowledge. The answer was no, and he suggested 3D printing was probably the way to go.

I talked to a couple friends knowledgeable with 3D printing who said it would be a really easy model and a really quick print. Cool.
Briefly taught myself Tinkercad and came up with a model that seemed like it might work.
Sent that, along with the actual piece to my friend with a decent printer. He then made his own model which has some differences, printed both mine and his, and handed them back to me.
Results are looking positive.

Version A - the one I made. It almost works too well and locks the pivot pretty firmly in place.
Version B - the one my friend made. It seems to work very well and is the one I'm going to use when I reassemble the mirror.
Bear in mind that the mirror frame/body is plastic, so if this is too stiff, you could crack the mirror trying to adjust it.
You can download either one, or both, from

83-92 Ford Ranger Swingaway Mirror Pivot Socket by k1shyy

Inside of the Swingaway Mirror used on the 83-92 Ford Ranger, there is a plastic socket in a ball-and-socket assembly which provides the tension to hold the mirror in position. This plastic socket can crack apart, and when it does, the mirror will not stay in position. This plastic part is not...

www.thingiverse.com

In the photos below, version A has been printed in white and version B has been printed in black.



I just need to find some hardware that isn't made of grade 4 (about as tough as cheese), and then I can slap this back together to properly evaluate if I've actually been successful.

 

[kishy]

Lost a month due to some unpleasantly cold weather and a garage heater that decided to stop working.

So where were we...right, hardware that isn't made of cheese.
After pulling a bunch of hair out trying to figure out why I couldn't figure out what size and thread the bolts are which attach the pivot assembly to the plastic mirror body, I finally found the answer. They're M3. Honestly wasn't expecting to find metric in this assembly, but it is.

I thoroughly cleaned the plastic body for the mirror, the stainless outer cap/cover, and the glass. Didn't opt for the dishwasher but washed them like dishes in the sink.

I applied sil-glyde caliper slide grease to the 3D-printed ball socket, assembled it with the thinnest of the washers I had from the various disassembled mirrors (for lowest spring tension), and I used stainless 10-32 machine screws, double-nutted, to hold the spring cage to the bottom part of the pivot assembly. I used the only M3 screws I could get at Home Depot (mystery grade plated steel) to attach the pivot assembly to the plastic body. Fasteners inside the mirror all received medium-strength threadlocker. I then mounted it on the truck and tested how firmly it holds its position while remaining adjustable, and found it's about perfect. Took it back off to continue reassembly.



I used the cheapest general purpose silicone-containing caulk I could find, again at Home Depot, to glue the stainless cap back onto the body. This is the same method the factory used originally, but they used some sort of clear silicone. I'm hoping what I picked is close enough.



Anyway, got that glued on, then did the same with the mirror glass. I let it cure overnight, then when I revisited it, I gently pried at the glass and verified it seems stuck in place pretty well. I then ran a very small bead around the top and sides (for more adhesion and also to reduce moisture entry), leaving the bottom open for moisture drainage. Mounted it on the truck and went for a drive. Seems promising. And I can't tell you how great it is to have 3 stable, non-vibrating lanes in my passenger side mirror again vs the Dorman mirror that gives less than one jittering so much you can't even see it.



I'm going to watch it carefully for any signs that my choice of caulk is not holding up, and once I have a good sense of that, I'll look at putting this in an article.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

FYI; 100% silicone won't adhere permanently to cured silicone. If the caulk you used has silicone added, then its probably fine.

 

[kishy]

FYI; 100% silicone won't adhere permanently to cured silicone. If the caulk you used has silicone added, then its probably fine.

Thanks. I very thoroughly removed the old stuff, so my new stuff (which is "Acrylic Latex Caulk plus Silicone") was directly attaching stainless to plastic, and glass to plastic. The second bead I mentioned was basically just attaching the outer edge of the glass to the inner edge of the plastic, not trying to add on to the dried caulk, so I think it should be fine in that sense.

Just a question of if this product will stay attached through weather changes and vibration. If the glass falls out, it isn't the most common mirror to find another one of at this point.