Patent ID: 6863407

Claim:
A mirror parking mechanism for a vehicle exterior rear view mirror that rotates a mirror head to a parked position comprising: a mirror mounting bracket, a mirror head, a pair of arms each attached at one end to said mirror head, the other end of each arm pivotally connected at a pivotal connection to said mounting bracket so that said mirror head can rotate from a deployed position to a parked position where the outermost portion of said mirror head is positioned closer to said vehicle, a pair of detents acting between said mirror mounting bracket and each said arm that changes from a locked position, where said mirror head is held with respect to said mirror mounting bracket, to a disengaged position where said mirror head is able to be rotated with respect to said mirror mounting bracket, a spring acting against said detents to hold them in said locked position, a gear wheel secured with respect to each said arm and journalled with respect to the axis of said pivotal connection between said arms and said mirror mounting bracket, a pair of worm drives each having a shaft that is journalled in bearings in said mirror mounting bracket, that allows movement of said worm drives in a longitudinal direction as well as rotation about their longitudinal axis, said worm drives engaging said gear wheels and one end of each said shaft acting against said spring, and a motor to drive each said worm drive wherein during the initial rotation of each said worm drive said detents prevent rotation of each said gear wheel which causes said worm drives to move longitudinally and push against said spring to in turn reduce the spring force applied to said detents to enable them to disengage whereupon continued rotation of said worm drives cause said gear wheels and mirror head to rotate.