107 floppy visor fix

[cbdo]

Finally did it. There've been numerous posts in the past but wanted to reduce it all to one (hopefully!) coherent source. It's actually not hard and shouldn't take over an hour, even if you've never worked on the visors before. Long, but I included everything I wish I'd known before starting.

How to Fix Floppy 107 Sun Visors:

Get about two square inches of fairly thin leather, maybe 1/16"; cut two strips about a half inch wide.

Tools: Phillips head driver, slotted screwdriver, Xacto or similar knife.

Remove the inside rear view mirror; pull it strongly toward you and it will pop out.
Remove the metal bracket which holds it (3 phillips screws). Keep the screws in their holes in the bracket.
If you have courtesy lights in the windshield header, make sure the power to them is off and pop them out; use a slotted screwdriver to pry the inside edge, toward the center of the car, loose, and carefully free up the light; the bracket for the bulb comes in from the outside edge.
Remove the plastic socket near the center that receives the plastic tab holding the visor in normal position (one phillips screw).
Moving to the lateral end of the header, there's a single phillips screw deep in a hole in the header itself near the mount for the sunvisor. Remove this.
Carefully remove the header on one side only, starting at the center end. It will be stuck into the windshield sealant, and may need a fair amount of careful, fairly gentle prying loose. Don't be afraid of it, but don't apply maximum force.
You've now got the entire sunvisor mounting clip exposed. The small screw MIGHT tighten the mount enough for your needs, but we'll assume it doesn't.
Remove the two larger screws holding the mounting clip to the windshield frame. Note how the wire to the vanity mirror light passes under the visor stem.
Loosen or even remove the small screw that tightens the plain metal retaining clip into the mounting bracket. This will loosen the bracket on the visor stem. It's also held by a rivet, so it won't come apart.
Slide a strip of leather under the metal retaining clip so it lies between the clip and the ball of the retaining stem. If necessary, GENTLY pry the clip away from the bracket to allow this; don't overstress the rivet.
Trim the excess leather with your knife.
Tighten the tensioning screw so it still allows a little motion.
Re-mount the sun visor, making sure that the vanity light wire passes under the visor stem. Tighten the tensioning screw to desired firmness, making sure that you also set the tension on the visor-to-rod screw found on the visor itself near the lateral edge. You want the visor on its rod to stay in place well, but to move with less force than it takes to move the rod in the mount. You also want the mounting bracket tension to hold the visor well in place in any position; you should be able to put the visor anywhere and have it stay firmly without support, as when you need to swing it out to the side window to block sun from the side.
Replace the windshield header trim. Insert the lateral end into place and adjust the wire. If you left one side in place, it will help as you'll know exactly when you've got it fully seated laterally and the center end fits into place.
Replace the single lateral screw, the light and the plastic retaining clip socket.
Repeat for the other side.
When you're finally done, replace the mirror socket with its three screws.
Replacing the mirror in the socket is the hardest part of the whole procedure. I wound up using a padded segment of 1x1 wood stock and a rubber mallet.

Enjoy your newly stable sunvisors!

[abe g]

Boy some instructions! How about something simple, Use some velcro (i did) and it helps a lot! Abe G

Craig, I don't think you got your due on these detailed instructions that were intended to make a lot of lives a little easier. Thank you.

Question: my rod is held securely in place by the adjuster screw, but the visor itself spins too freely around the rod. Any thoughts on this? There is a screw with silver grommet that presumably pinches the visor to the rod, which I misplaced when I painted the visors! Anyone have the correct size / length of this screw? Thanks in advance.

Rich Mayer
82 500 SL

[cbdo]

Rich, that's exactly what it does. Don't know the size, but you could always pull the one on the other side if you're feeling confident about getting it back in; I've never done it, but MB usually designs things to be worked on, to at least a reasonable degree.

Yep, I threaded it in and got the desired result.

Rich Mayer
82 500 SL

[kip Foss]

www.jjproducts.net (800-654-2356) rebuilds MB visors.