W124 sun visor arm not fully retracting

[jstone85]

A curious thing happened with the right side sun visor in my 1990 300E 2.6. I had taken the sun visor off because it wouldn't flip the entire way up. When removing the sun visor I pulled out the arm that lets you use the visor to block sun from the side. When I tried reinstalling the visor, the arm wouldn't retract all the way in which is a problem because the visor must be in its original position to fasten to the clip.

I've tried maneuvering it back in and used a mallet to force to back (being careful not to wreck the visor!), but no luck. It doesn't budge at all and feels like a HARD stop.

I'm baffled by this! I have no idea what's causing this - it'll retract easy enough most of the way, but it just won't budge the final way back in. You can't open of the visor to see what's going on without wrecking it, so I'm not sure what to do here.

Any ideas are much appreciated!

 

[500AMM]

Doesn't the end of the stalk/rod fit in a bushing inside the sun visor? To me it appears like the stalk isn't fixed in that bushing.

 

[jstone85]

I had the rod out and it seems that the inside-bushing had crumbled. Many smaller plastic pieces drizzled out as shown in the pic. There remains at least one bigger piece inside the empty slot that I've tried to pry out with needlenose pliers - but no luck. The piece is just too large to get a grip on and pull out.

When inserting the rod there's still the hard stop and it won't fit all the way. I can't tell if the remaining piece(s) are obstructing the rod. It sorta feels like they don't, so I'm stumped why the rod won't go in all the way.

I'd love to hear of any ideas at this point. I feel about ready to give up and find another visor, but would love to save this one if possible.