B3 electric door mirrors

[SwallownAmazon]

The motor in the driver's side door mirror on my B3 90 20v is making weird noises and I am minded to swap it for a good spare one I have had "in stock" for some years. Ideally, I would like to dismantle so as to just swap the internals to avoid having to repaint the shell but I can't see any way of getting the motor assembly out of the mirror shell without cutting the cable as the connector plug is too big to pass through the mounting.

Am I missing a trick somewhere or is cutting the only way out?

P.S. Off to France for a week in the Audi next Monday so there may be a delay in replying to any help.