How to do-it yourself instructional on replacing the side-view mirror on a 1996 Chevrolet Blazer with complete inner door panel removal and installation process & advice on torque and torque wrenches.
Alright so today on Repairs101 I’ve
got something new... well, OK. It’s actually kind of something old because this
is one of the original five videos that I shot when I first had the idea for
this show. And... and so yeah this is probably the fourth time I’ve released
this video. The first time it was only up for a few minutes before I realized I
had forgotten to put in the music track.
You really just need a small handful of ordinary tools and
you can even make your own pry-bar. So if you’re looking for any of these tools many of them are
available on my website’s Amazon store.
So you probably don’t
need a torque wrench for this but I used one in order to illustrate how little
power is required. Here I’m showing how
can easily make more than fifty-three foot pounds of torque with one
hand and the job here only requires one twelfth of that power : fifty-three inch pounds.
So to get the inside door panel off you need to pop off this
little cover and undo the hex head cap screws that it hides. Next there’s a
Phillips head screw holding a tray-like piece for the door latch and the lock
actuator that you want to pop out. Then you just work your door panel pry-bar
in and pop out all the retainers until it’s just hanging there on a ridge
across the top. Just pop up and away. And these are those retainer that you
need the pry-bar for.
Next you pop out these little dust covers to access the nuts
that secure the mirror’s studs. Notice that I’m using a ten millimeter socket
on a three eighths drive wrench to remove this but I’m going to use a quarter
inch drive socket wrench to reinstall it in order to avoid over-torquing it.
I probably should have undone this first but there’s no harm
done. Pull back on the locking tab with your thumb and separate the connection.
If you take your fastener and load it into the socket with a
piece of paper towel or shop rag, that will prevent it from slipping out when
you’re trying to maneuver it into place. And then once you’ve started threading
it you can just pull out the paper towel. And again, as I mentioned, I wind
down the nuts using my quarter inch drive socket wrench in order to limit how
much torque I can apply. And I’ll say this again, too: I don’t expect everybody
to have torque wrenches but I’m using this one to illustrate just how little
torque is used. The studs are just mounted into plastic so if you over-torque
it you’re going to break it and then you’re going to be looking for another new
mirror.
Gonna put these dust covers back in. And so the door panel
just hooks onto the top into the window channel.
So this is probably the trickiest part of the whole
procedure. All you have to do is make sure the rod that actuates the lock lines
up with the hole in the back of the switch on the back of the bezel. The way
you do that is make sure they’re both in the unlocked position. This thing’s
quite a tight squeeze so I used my socket wrench to push on it to pop it in. There we go.
Alright as you can see : fully operational, the neighbors
are all out of bed, it’s been quite a morning.
Alright so thanks for watching and if you enjoyed today's
episode please share it with your friends and Hey! Don’t forget to subscribe!
And... it’s working... whoops... you can see I got it...
we’ll have to edit out the part where I hit the wrong lever in my own truck.
Show new workers how the seat is backwards on a forklift and that they back up to load (rear wheel steering) but travel with the forks (and load) behind them (front wheel steering)