Thomarse wrote:
My dearest 3 year old son has broken the rear view mirror in my car.
he twisted it round on itself and the ball has come out of the socket.

I have tried to push the metal ball (cast) back into the tube arm it
has come out of but it wont go in no mater how hard I try. Obviously
the end of the tube is slightly rounded and smaller than the ball
itself so when it is in there the mirror pivots on it without coming
out. When he twisted it he oviously created some leverage that yanked
it form its socket.. unfortunately for me getting it back in seems to
be alot trickier!

any ideas how I can do this? Nothing is really broiken as such so I
dont want to pay for a new one unless I have to.. its just he ball
socket joint thats come apart but wont go back together!!!

Kids!

I assume that the arm is still fixed in the car? There may be some merit
in getting a freezer-spray (Maplins, etc), shielding everything around
the ball-joint (a bit of cardboard, etc) and lowering the temp of the
ball (thus causing it to shrink slightly).

Can't say I've every heard of anyone doing this for this purpose, but it
might be worth a try. I would take care not to cool the windscreen glass
too much.