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Bad Fix!

You see were the arrows are pointing to self-tapping screws.

These were used to try to hold the passenger's side mirror in position after the mounting pucks disintegrated and fell out.

This is a bad fix. It didn't work very well, and kinda looks awful.

Here is a quick fix for the damaged or worn mirror mounting pucks on CJs.

Every CJ I've owned as had the same problem. The little pucks that grip the mirror arm are either missing or about to go missing.

I lost one of the two halves of my driver's side mirror's pucks the other day. To top it off, the nut and bolt was so rusty and seized I couldn't simply tighten it down to squish the mounting ears to temporarily keep the mirror in place.

Time for a fix, so I had a quick search around the shop for material to duplicate the pucks. I can't remember what this red stuff is. I usually use PVC (grey) for this kind of thing, but this red stuff was handy in the scrap bin.

I used a 1.25" diameter rod. Stuck it in the lathe so I could drill a 5/16" centered hole for the retaining bolt. I then took it over to the drill press, put it in a portable vice, and cross drilled a 3/4" hole for the mirror's arm. Back to the lathe to part it off (a clean 90o cut) to 1" in length, then to the upright band-saw to cut it down the middle to make two pieces that would act as a clamp on the arm.

Not wanting to deal with rusty hardware again, I used 316 stainless steel 5/16" bolt, washers, and a Nylock nut.

It isn't necessary to use a lathe or a band-saw if you don't have these. It just makes life a easier to have the right tools for the job. For the home shop, you could get away with a vice, hand drill, and hack saw to get the job done.

New pucks

The new pucks can be made out of any plastic. I'm not sure what would be the best plastic to use, I just used what was on hand at the time. I think the red material was Nylon, but I'm not sure.

I could also have used PVC, UHMW, Delrin or something similar. As a side note, although Delrin is quite expensive, it is my favorite to machine. Also, the Delrin come I use comes in black or you could use black Nylon if you wanted the stock colour match.