OK, I think my fix took care of the tendency of the side mirrors to get
rattled or blown out of adjustment. I removed the mirrors, took off the
tension bolt, then took assembly apart - you have a ball and socket joint
that gets compressed to get the friction required to hold the mirrors in
place. However, the smooth ball and socket assembly requires excessive bolt
tension to get this clamping force. So, I took out a small three sided file
and filed some "V" grooves onto the ball in sort of a crosshatched pattern.
I also filed down on the area where the bolt passes through, as you want it
clamping on the outer edges. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words,
so I will take it off my vanagon, take it apart, snap a photo of it and put
it on my ftp server for folks to see.
ftp://ftp.cottagesoft.com/users/jboldway/mirror2.jpg through mirror5.jpg
Warning - my FTP server is slow . . . .
Tighten this just a little, put it on your van, adjust mirror, then
carefully remove and tighten it more. If you just crank it down, install it
then try to move the mirror you might break something. These are
aftermarket (Made in Germany) mirrors, but if I'm not mistaken the original
is the same design . . . .