As a follow-up to my original post - I was able to successfully swap out the 'guts' of the two mirrors, but had a few bumps in the road doing so.
First off - I used the '98 mirror instead of my '95 mirror - since the '98 was still nicely mounted to the front of the mirror shell. The circuit board for the auto-dimming mechanism looks identical - including the wiring plug on the circuit board. So, I disconnected the '98 wire-which had the single 'plug' at the other end of the wires, plus the garage door wires. I then cut the two garage door wires from the '98 plug - brown and blue/gray, and spliced them into my existing '95 plug - which had, along with other wires, yes, brown and blue gray wires going into the plug. Success!!
First bump - the '98 mirror was a 'manual' adjustment (odd), but my '95 was electric. So, I had to 'spring' those confounded long, metal clips that hold each mechanism to the backside of the glass mirror. Since the '98 didn't have that motor, the depth of the backside of the mirror case was a little more shallow than the '95, so I was immediately concerned about this whole thing going back together - and the motor being able to work within the new, more shallow case. There is enough room, but it's pretty tight. Anyway, in the process of removing the '98 manual adjustment, I broke off one of those metal spring's plastic holders, so that increased my project by a couple of days for 'drying time' for the glue. The glue does appear to be holding nicely, though; the mirror is tight.
Now that the mirror and remote are all nicely wired up and ready to go, it occurs to me that the top of my '95 mirror (the part that 'springs' into the top of the car) doesn't have the colored trim piece attached to the aluminum shell - because - in the process of my removal - was completely destroyed (so old, so fragile). So, now I am forced to use the '98 mounting parts. That's all well and good, but the hole at the top (where the wire plugs protrude) is too small for me to pull the wire plugs through, and all of the many washers and spacers, etc. Bump
#2 - Holy crap! how did I overlook this?? After about a day of pondering, I decided, rather than cut the wires and plugs, and re-wire that mess, I would cut 'sections' from each washer, and nut, and bore out the aluminum hole - in order to slip each washer and the nut off, and pull the wire plugs through the hole. Out came the 'dremmel' and off came the washers and nut. Then, after widening the aluminum hole, I was able to pull the wires and plugs (all intact) and swap out the mounting bracket. Success!!
Bump
#3 - the aluminum mounting bracket was made distinctly different from '95 to '98 - the '95 has a nice beveled hole to accept the 'rotating' mirror, however, the '98 doesn't need this - since it's a manual adjustment - that movement is accomplished with one of those ball joints on the back of the mirror bracket. I don't notice this bit of trivia until I have reassemble the mirror, plugged in the plugs and tested the mirror by holding it up in place, while toggling the switch on the console - noticing that the mirror motor is 'humming', but nothing is moving!! Ahhhh!!!!
Unplug the plugs, study the whole situation for what seemed hours, and finally came to the conclusion that some of these washers cannot be used - because they take up too much precious space on the 'neck' of the aluminum mount. I left off about three washers, not to mention the part of the trim piece that 'hides' the aluminum 'neck', reassembled the unit, plugged it back in, held it in place, tested it - and found the mirror 'humming and moving'. Success!!
Bump
#4 - The mirror adjusted fine for those of you that might have the steering wheel on the right side of the car, but it wouldn't go past about midway in the adjusting cycle. Now what?? Ah, there is a little tooth on the mirror neck - that must be inserted into one of the washers - that sync's up the mirror placement with the mirror motor. After fumbling with this for a while, I was able to get the 'left groove' to slip into the tooth - which put the mirror pointing over to the 'correct' side of the car (apologies to any right-side drivers/automobiles). The last step was to 'glue' the two mirror housing parts together - because the original plastic clips (that came straight from hell) that hold the shell together, have already been broken long before by the person that owned this mirror before me.
I glued everything together and let it set for about a week for curing time. I went out plugged in the wires, popped the mirror back into position (amazingly easy!), and adjusted my new mirror. I then began programming the remote - which did it's little blinky-blink - acknowledging my current remote code, and proceeded finish the project - only to find that the remote must be too old - because my garage door doesn't like the signal it's sending.......I give up. Mic Ultra, here I come......
