Sunvisor Fix?

[v13311]

I have been having trouble with one of my sunvisors. It just does not want to stay up. I have looked closely at the metal rods that fit into the brackets and they do not move (turn) when the visor decends down. I have tried to use various sticky materials on the metal rods that slip into their sleeves but they either are affected by heat (visor flips down - or by cold - visor is too hard to flip down) Anyone else have this aggravating problem? How'd you fix it.
My other visor works fine as it was intended to.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[alpine_64]

I assume its the drivers side one that is failing? Are the y originals or repro ones?

If original see if the bracket has worncracked, or if the spring in the centre is weak. Unfortunatly i believe the new visors dont work with the old brackets so you would have to get a whole set if they need replacing.

 

[v13311]

Mine are originals. The brackets are not cracked and the spring in the center bracket is strong and the metal rods do not turn in the brackets. And yes, the driver's side visor is the one failing. If I could just get the right sticky stuff or other material to place into the sleeves to provide just the right tension, I'd have it made.

 

[Ken Ellis]

Have you considered converting the car to RHD?

 

[George Coleman]

I am looking at my old units and I stopped using mine a long time ago because of the same issue, The pot metal piece that is on the outside seems to wear out, it has a notch in it that after years of use it wears down and the visor will not stay up. I have started to work on a piece that will insert into the old pot metal reciver and will provide the right friction to hold up the visor! I hope to have this done in the next month or so, will let you know how this works out.

 

[Tom H]

George, I think you are missing the point that the rod does NOT turn in the bracket. Ed, I think there is a flat spring metal piece inside the visor that creates the friction against the rod. I don't think it's possible to fix it unless you open up the material. I've never done it, but I am thinking you could carefully slice it along the seam, fix it internally and then glue it back together with some vinyl glue, glue like used to fix vinyl inflatables.

Tom

 

[George Coleman]

The vinyl visor should never move on the rod! Over the years people have pulled on the visor itself witch is not how the unit worked! The visor was made on the rod and when you moved it up or down you would push in slightly on the rod with the spring tention to postion it in the up or down mode! So you have the visor flopping on the rod, that is a different problem to solve? Sorry

 

[Tom H]

Hmmmm. That's how I originally thought the visor was supposed to work. But then, years later, I realized that the squared tip and mating receptical was there to hold it solid and it actually rotates around the rod.

Now I'm not 100% sure either way. The only evidence I can offer for my view is the instruction in the Owner's Manual , page 53, where it describes removing the hardtop. It says the visors need to be removed and instructs to remove them: "...lower the visors, push their spines inward towad the central pivot bracket, pull down the outer ends, and remove the visors" . Note the first step is to lower the visor and THEN push inwards. This implies to me that the normal way to lower the visor is to just lower it, against friction. Pressing inward is only needed in order to REMOVE the visor. It could be interpretted differently, to support your view.

It seems to me I have read something somewhere else that supports my (and Ed's) view. And I'll bet there is friction device inside the visor as I described.

Tom

 

[Alpine 1789]

I have always thought that the only thing that holds the visor in place is the friction caused by a tight fit between the tube in the visor and the solid rod.

For what it is worth regarding the more common problem of the bracket rounding out, I fixed mine by

1. replacing the stock rod with a different piece (standard rod from any hardware store) and then grinding the end flat a little more radically than stock
2. carefully taping the now flattened end with vinyl tape. "Carefully" because I didn't want any excess material in the joint for the next steps.
3. slightly drilling out the bracket, making the hole a little larger and a little deeper
4. filling the hole with JB Weld and then installing the sunvisor
5. waiting 24 hours for the epoxy to dry, then removing the visor and peeling off the tape.

It wasn't really necessary to replace the stock rod before regringing the end, but I hate to permanently modify a stock item and I had the replacement rod laying around. I did this at the beginning of the spring and so far, everything is holding nicely.

 

[65beam]

sunvisors

the rod running thru the visor is steel and it rusts inside the tube and freezes up. the rod did not move since it had a square cut end on it and set in a slot inside the bracket. the visor swiveled on the rod. the other bracket has a spring for tension. over the years after the rod rusted the slot wore away every time you pulled the visor down. the new visors have a stainless rod that won't rust and freeze. new visors can be made to fit old brackets but slight modification is required. if they don't stay up and are original the damage has been done. you have two choices. buy new or don't use them. new will probably set you back maybe 200.00