Loose wing mirror

I know a chap called Justin who is the RO of Bucks TVRCC - he made a fab little tool exactly for this purpose.

If you know him through the TVRCC - I'm sure he'd help out - alternatively, send me an email and I'll pass it on to him.

seabrookd said:

My mirror has just come loose. Do you have to take the door trim off to get at the grub screw ? Dave

Its in Steve Heaths Book Called 'The Bible' by most but real name is 'The TVR Griffith and Chimeara'.
It also has loads of other really helpfull info.
Can get from TVRCC site in the Regalia section.

However the grub screw is somewhere behind the black collar that joins between the door and mirror.
I think as someone else said the alan key might have to be adapted slightly to fit in.
Guess it means the grub screw is the window side.

BB

Sorry for the long delay in my reply, It's turned into a bit of an epic.
The first thing to know on the Griffith and Chimaera is how the mirrors are fixed to the doors so that you know how to get them of. So I will try and describe how the mirror is assembled to give you some idea of how to remove them. When the doors are made there is a large nut bonded into the bottom of the recess for the mirror mounting this nut takes about a 22mm diameter thread, I have not actually measured the thread but as the mirrors are from late model Citroen CX’s one would expect it to be a metric thread. Now on the Citroen’s the next stage is for a round mirror pivot mount with a male thread on it to be screwed into the large 22mm mounting nut. See the picture below showing the mirror pivot mount screwed into a Griffith door.

http://autograph.uk.com/Pix/JF02.jpg


Next the aluminium column piece which is screwed to the main mirror assembly by one bolt is attached to the mirror pivot. The column piece has two location bosses cast into its base that locate into the V groove around the mirror pivots circumference. With the mirror in the correct position it is finally locked into place by tightening the M6 grub screw that is located on the base of the column and locks it to the mirror pivot. See picture below of the aluminium column piece showing the grub screw position.

http://autograph.uk.com/Pix/JF01.jpg

With this done the black plastic covering collar is pushed down to cover the base of the column and the mirror pivot. If you want to adjust the mirrors position just push the plastic cover up out of the way and slacked the grub screw and move the mirror to the desired position then retighten the screw.
All this is fine on the mirrors original home on the Citroen but on the TVR the mirror pivot is set into a recess so you cannot get an allen key into the grub screw to tighten or adjust the mirrors position. The way TVR originally installed the mirrors on to the cars when they where being built was that they had worked out the correct location of the mirror pivot to the column piece to achieve the desired finished position of the mirror. So the pivot was attached to the whole mirror assembly and then the wires fed through the door and then the whole mirror assembly screwed into place.
If you are lucky you will be able to get hold of the mirror and just unscrew it from the door. Bear in mind that the mirror has three adjustment positions provide by V grooves cast into the top of the aluminium column piece so the mirror may move through these before unscrewing from the door, the mirror is also likely to be screwed very tightly into the door as well.
If you are unlucky as I was with the mirrors on my Griffith then the grub screw does not hold the mirror assembly tight enough to the mirror pivot to undo it and the whole mirror just goes round and round the pivot without actually undoing it. If you are not sure if the mirror is undoing from the door or just going around the pivot lift up the black plastic covering collar to see if the pivot is moving as the mirror is turned or if it is staying still. Now there are two options to get the mirror of, one is to take a metal bar and put it in to one of the slots on top of the mirror pivot and hit it with a hammer to try and drive the pivot round and unscrew it from the thread. But you have got to be very care full not to let the bar slip and damage the car’s paint work and you will probably damage / break the mirror pivot. The second method is to provide an access hole to get at the grub screw so that you can undo it. Luckily when the door mirror is in its correct position the grub screw on the column is positioned at the top so an access hole can be drilled through the door to it. I have only used this method on a couple of Griffiths so I don’t know if it would work on a Chimaera. First remove the aluminium quarter light frame from the door. Next position the door mirror in the final place you want it to be fixed. Then with the plastic collar pushed up you should with the aid of a torch be able to see where the head of the grub screw is located. Then you need to drill a small hole down through the door through into the mirror base recess moulded into the door in line with the grub screw. The hole needs to come through the recess at about half its depth. If you look at the first picture of the mirror pivot mount you can see the hole that I drilled at the top of the recess. I would recommend only drilling a small 2-3mm sized hole first and then looking down it to see how closely it is aligned to the grub screw. Remember you can always twist the mirror to get the grub screw aligned left or right of the hole. But you may need to change the up and down position of the hole slightly, which you can do by opening the hole up with a 5mm drill but angling it slightly so that it does not follow the exact same course of your original pilot hole. This hole has to be big enough for a 3mm allen key to pass through it. The best sort of allen key is a ball ended type as this allows it to pivot a bit in the grub screw meaning that even if the hole you have drilled isn’t in perfect alignment with the grub screw you can still get to it to undo it. All you need to do now is disconnect the 5 way plug for the mirrors electrics. Then remove the wires from the plug noting which way round they where fitted first. This is achieved by pressing out the orange coloured plastic locking strip using a flat bladed screw driver. Then using a small flat bladed watch makers screw drive push the two locking tangs in on each pin before pulling the wire and pin free of the plug housing. If you do not remove the plug from the wires it will not fit through the hole in the centre of the mirror pivot. You can not undo the grub screw and remove the mirror.
You will now see the mirror pivot left screwed in to the door to remove this you can either try tapping it around with a pin punch to unscrew it. Or place two flat bladed screwdrivers into the slots and then using a third one across the two shafts as a leaver to undo the pivot boss. When I had removed my pivot boss I made up the special tool shown below to allow me to screw / unscrew the pivot without damaging it.

http://autograph.uk.com/Pix/JF03.jpg

Now you can reassemble the mirror and refit it as TVR did originally, or screw the mirror pivot mount back into the door and then position the mirror correctly on this and just do up the grub screw through your new access hole. You could then seal up the hole with silicon if you wished, but as the inner part is covered by the quarter light frame and the hole comes through the top of the recess in the door so it’s very difficult to see and it would be difficult for water to find its way up through the hole and into the door and even if it did more water gets into the door through there being no seal between the window glass and the door anyway. The only thing you may want to do is put some touch up paint around the hole where it enters the door mirror recess to make it even less in obtrusive. Just remember to bend the tangs back out on the pins before pushing them back into the plug body.
I know the pictures aren't brilliant but at least you can seem what I on about.

Regards
Justin

>> Edited by JFF on Thursday 27th November 12:58

>> Edited by JFF on Thursday 27th November 13:00

Justin: I sympathise with you!

It helps if you have your own webspace and can upload files to it. If you have and can, you need to put this line in your message:

[pic]http://(domain name)/(folder)/(filename.extension).jpg[/pic]

It saves embarassment if you use the preview button to see if it works before posting. If it doesn't, you've got the path slightly wrong.

If you really get stuck send it to me and I'll post it for you.