Can you tighten stock mirrors?

[JStrube]

The left side mirror on my 89 is loose at the mirror head.  I've looked for a way to tighten it, even tried spinning it to no avail.  Is there a method to tighten the blasted thing so it doesn't walk around?  The stalk is tight on the bars, That's the easy part.

Thanks,

John.

[daliumong]

theres the threads on the mirror itself, and a tightening nut

thread the mirror on to desired position, then tighten the nut down with appropriate wrench

[Pigeonroost]

theres the threads on the mirror itself, and a tightening nut

thread the mirror on to desired position, then tighten the nut down with appropriate wrench

I think he means where the mirror is attached to the top of the mounting arm -- the ball joint.

prs

[airbrush]

you would have to take the mirror apart to tighten it...most have a spring and nut on the inside. Generally not an easy thing taking mirrors apart...they're designed to go together once and thats it.
Dont know about the older mirrors but on the newer ones you can trim down the bead around the edge of the mirror and get it apart that way.

[JStrube]

theres the threads on the mirror itself, and a tightening nut

thread the mirror on to desired position, then tighten the nut down with appropriate wrench

I think he means where the mirror is attached to the top of the mounting arm -- the ball joint.

prs

Yes, at the ball joint.  Sounds like I might just need to replace them.  This one flops around loosely.

[morganti]

I had the exact same problem.  Here is what I did.

I was driving and this happened, so I pulled off to try and fix it, after about 20 min of unscrewing it, tightening, loosening, it wasn't working.  When I had the mirror tightened it was facing down, so I loosened it up and put the mirror in the proper position.  When I did this I could see a gap that exposed the threads where the mirror was screwed on to.  So I did the following:

1. I took a paperclip from some notes I had in my bag
2. I straightened it out
3. I wrapped the clip over the threads at the head of the screw (so where the arm goes from being smooth to threaded)
4. Tightened the mirror as much as I could (At this point the clip is sandwiched between the the mounting arm and the mirror)
5.  I clipped any excess metal with a multi-tool and slid the black cover back over joint

Similarily you can take a washer and use that instead, it would look cleaner, but I was in need of my mirrors.  It's been 3 months since I did this and it has worked perfectly. 

This is very difficult to explain, so if you want any clarification let me know and I will take a picture or use illustrator to draw a quick image.

[JStrube]

Actually, that sounds good.  I didn't know that the black thing slid back.  I'll futz with it tonight.  Either that, or put on some bar end mirrors!