restoring the driver's window (1 Viewer)

[semlin]

So this is a bit of a report but might be useful to someone I guess what with everyone's window motors slowly giving up the ghost over time. Just replaced the glass run (rubber seal/guide all around the window, the outer belt (rubber horizontal wiper seal along base of window) and regulator on the driver's window. A bit spendy but I did not replace the motor and now the window works like new even though it was below zero last night. I am also now no longer leaking profuse amounts of water into my door through my worn wiper seal. Plus when I wind my window down to clear my fogged up side view mirror in the morning the new wiper rubs the condensation off the outside of the window for me. It's the little things I guess

Still don't know what was wrong with the system but one of the rollers on the regulator kept popping off and no amount of cleaning the glass run and adding silcone lube or grease on the regulator parts or careful adjustment of the regulator would cure it. The bonus is that with these changes the window now works a lot faster than it did even after all the old stuff was spotlessly clean and lubed. Therefore, you might consider a new glass run and or belt to cure a slow window.

This is not a difficult job but will take about 1.5 hrs. Only hassles are removing the side view mirror to get at the belt and getting the ajdustment right on the regulator so the back of the window runs parallel to the glass slide as it comes down. The only items you need are a phillips and flat head, a 10mm socket and some waterproof sealing tape to close up the door seal. 1

 

[Junk]

Semlin, you take any pics? Care to post estimate on cost of parts etc? Would make a great faq with some more details added. Thanks.

 

[semlin]

Ask and you shall receive overkill

parts were $160 of which half is the regulator. No need to replace that unless you have hit my problem of the little wheel coming off. Just remove it an apply mp grease to all the joints.

The process is written up pretty well in the FSM but I can try and lay it out...

1. Lower the window until the top of the glass is parallel with the bottom of the window opening. pop off the black triangle plastic trim piece in the front corner of the windshield. Pressure point is from up high and it will pop out with mild pressure if you can slide the leverage in an inch. Removing this piece makes it much easier to remove and reinstall the door upholstery panel.

2. remove the screw holding the door opener trim piece and remove that trim piece, Don't forget to do this!

3. pop the leather armrest off and the panel holding the door controls (lever it from the front). Unplug the control harness. Undo the two phillips screws concealed by the armrest and the third screw up where the loop on the door handle meets the door. Now you can remove the door skin. Take a plastic scraper and apply gentle pressure starting in the bottom rear to pop the plastic popper fittings. Apply direct pressure as close to each popper as you can so you don't tear the poppers from the trim. There are only poppers around the three edges so any resistance from the middle means you missed a screw. When they are all free, lift the door skin up and off.

4. There is a black box in the bottom left hand of the door. Unscrew the two bolts attaching it to the door. Now you are free to pull away the plastic door liner about half way up the door . Try not to tear it. You will want to seal it up completely again afterwards.

5. The window glass sits on a metal rail that is attached by two 10mm bolts to the regulator. You may need to reattach the control harness to use the motor to line up this rail with the lower access holes so you can get a socket on them to remove them. Once the bolts are undone, carefully lift and thread the window up and through the opening.

6. once the window is out, take a look at how well it is seated in the rubber and metal sleeves at the bottom. If it loose, turn the window over on a piece of cardboard and tap on the metal sleeve with a big plastic screw driver handle until it is properly seated. I am not 100% sure where the rail is supposed to be on the window base. Based on the FSM drawing and the marks on my window it looks like one end should be just before the point where the bottom of the window starts to curve upwards.

7. Put the window aside. Now remove the regulator: first unplug the harness to the power window motor throught the right hand access hole. Now undo the 6 x 10mm bolts holding the regulator in place and holding the regulator adjustment bar. Slide the regulator and motor out through the big hole. Apply MP grease to the rails and all the joints except the spring. Since I was replacing the regulator I unscrewed the motor which made it easier to clean the old dried grease out of the motor gears. I noticed there was quite a bit of movement and play in that gear. Not sure if that is supposed to be the case.

8. Only if you plan to replace the belt/wiper seal, remove the speaker and unplug it from its harness. Reach in behind the speaker to the front of the door. You will find a harness snaking up to the sideview mirror. It is held in place by a plastic popon fitting that you can remove easily by finding where it pokes out of the outside front of the door and squeezing it. Once that is free, unplug the harness. Then unscrew the three bolts holding on the sideview mirror and gently prise it away. There is a sticky gasket seal on the inside of the sideview mirror. You should be able to reuse it but otherwise you may need some silicone.

9. If you are going to remove the old belt do it now. Undo the screw holding the back of the belt to the door lip. Now there are a series of white plastic clips holding the belt in place that are visible looking inside the door from above, plus one one that is nearly invisible right below the triangle where the sideview mirror mounts. In theory you can release the clips by reaching up from below through the door access holes. I managed to break every single one and they seem almost designed this way.

10. Now you want to pull out the old glass run. reach into the back of the door and grab the little tail of exceess rubber stretching out below the metal guide. Yank. It should peel away easily all the way up and the whole glass run should come out easily. There may be a weird plastic fitting on the front angle of the door that comes out. I don't know what this is but I found it easy to replace when I put the new glass run in.

11. Now use some soapy water to clean out the glass run channel and all the metal you have just exposed in the door and then fit the new glass run starting near the uppwer rear corner. It is quite easy once you get started. Make sure that the corner is properly seated (compare to you passenger door if unsure, but is should look nice and square) and also make sure that the piece of reinforced glass run fits where the angle changes on the front. I sprayed silicone lube inside the glass run before I installed it.

13. Now fit the new belt if you are doing that part. When you fit the new belt make very sure the new plastic clips line up with the slots on the inside of the door. You may not get a second chance to fit these clips without breaking one so take your time here. Each clip has a long tongue that must slip into its assigned slot in the door. When all tongues are in their slots, gentle pressure from above will clip them all into place and the belt is installed but you are in big trouble if one is not in its slot so go slow. Now reinstall the side view mirror, replug the harness and fit the popin wire holder back into its slot. Reattach the speaker...

14. Now reinstall the regulator and motor. Tighten the two bolts holding the adjustment bar for now with the left hand one in the middle of the adjustment area. Plug in the harness.

15. Thread the window back in, make sure it is seated front and back in the glass run and tighten the two screws starting with the one on the right.

16. Double check everything and then raise the window. stop about an inch from the top. The FSM says that the top glass should be parallel to the top rubber all the way along using the vertical run of the black glass as your measurement angle. I found that if you are out of adjustment then when you close it all the way the window seats at the back first and then keeps rising a little to seat at the front. You can adjust this by loosing the two screws on the regulator adjustment bar and then moving the left one on the slide up and down and tightening it first then the right bolt. The first time I thought I had it the window popped out of the glass run when I lowered it so this is trickier than it looks. I ended up using both the FSM test and also checking to see that the rear glass was still seated fully into the rear glass run when the window was lowered to only protrude a half inch.

17. Try the window several times before you reassemble which is the reverse of what you did above. Use water proof sealing tape to close up the plastic seal and do a thorough job or the hardboard backing at the bottom of the door liner will get soaked. Take care to line up the individual poppers with their holes before pushing them in and be careful not to cover any of those hoiles with sealing tapoe. If you pulled any of the popper door clips out of the cardboard when removing the door so that they have no bite anymore, try sliding the sealing tape under the fins of the poppers to give you some resistance.

that's it. one banana like i said

 

[UltraFJ40]

I just used this thread to help me fix my Drivers side window. Thanks Semlin.

I would roll my window down and it would not go back up or down. Once in a while if I pushed the window down with my hands, it would drop another 1/8" or so. It would work again. To sum it up, it was sporadic at best until it seized completely.

My situation was narrowed down from the switches being dirty, (which I cleaned as described in the write up provided in the FAQ by IdahoDoug) to being a faulty motor.

After cleaning the switches I still didn't have power to get the motor to crank the window up or even budge it for that matter. I followed Semlins guidance in this thread. Once I had it torn apart, I was still having trouble with just the motor alone, i.e. no rails attached to it.

I disassembled the motor and cleaned the mucked up contacts on the brush end. Cleaned and reassembled the motor to the regulator and reinstalled everything again, with Semlins help.

My DS window is now much faster than the others.

So if you don't have any luck with the switches, try this, it worked for me.

And no, I didn't take pictures, WTF?

Doug

BTW: The truck 's a 95 and I didn't spend anything on parts.

 

[loquito]

[Just replaced the glass run (rubber seal/guide all around the window, the outer belt (rubber horizontal wiper seal along base of window) and regulator on the driver's window. ]

Did you have the rattle, do you still have the rattle?

 

[semlin]

not sure what rattle you mean? My door never rattled.

by the way since getting t-boned my window is back to sticking again. the driver's door took a mild hit and it was enough to throw something out of alignment. Very frustrating after so much work to get it right. body shop has tried twice so now I am going to have to tear it down again and eat my 1 banana words

 

[UltraFJ40]

LOL, it's only one banana!

No, I didn't have a rattle either, just a frozen motor.

Remember, it was fairly easy, just a little bothersome disassembling something after you've already done it.

Doug

 

[loquito]

not sure what rattle you mean? My door never rattled.

by the way since getting t-boned my window is back to sticking again. the driver's door took a mild hit and it was enough to throw something out of alignment. Very frustrating after so much work to get it right. body shop has tried twice so now I am going to have to tear it down again and eat my 1 banana words

I was talking about the window rattle that some get when the window is only an inch or so down, Did you window rattle?

 

[semlin]

I was talking about the window rattle that some get when the window is only an inch or so down, Did you window rattle?

dunno, I never drive with the window only an inch down ;p

 

[zmacman]

semlin.... can I ask where you bought the rubber for the window? I just had a chunk break off on my passenger side rear door.

 

[semlin]

that would be from dan

 

[zmacman]

that would be from dan

Excuse me I sound stupid... by I really started using the forum on Friday... so I really don't know about Dan? Can you please explain... Thanks!

 

[Tools R Us]

C-Dan the parts god.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=17873

 

[willywaxer]

Great writeup, I will try it on my windows this weekend. Hopefully I won't get stuck on step 12.

 

[UltraFJ40]

Good post. Number 12 is a bee-yatch!

Doug

 

[zmacman]

I purchased the rear passenger window run from Dan... Just over $50... good price! Thanks for the link Kevin... Dan's a great resource!!