Ok. A lot of you have seen my window reg hack, and now I want to explain in more detail...
Hopefully it saves a bit of headache for some, as these aren’t exactly plentiful.
Apparently, the front and rear gearboxes are identical per side. The difference in location requires the swing arm be fixed to either the lowest link hole in the output gear on a rear door, or the second lowest on the front door.
Now, I’m not sure about your rigs, but mine have a lot less travelers in the rear than the drivers seat, hence, my rear gearboxes were almost perfect compared to the sharp-as-broken-toothed output gear, wallerred out toothless-bent-shaft-input gear backside bushing, no-thrust-washer-on-the-fixed-end-pivot front door window reg gear box, so I figured i’d swap em out. And if I’ve just told your story, then so should you
So here is how:
Action:
Place a complete front and rear reg on your bench and inspect:
The teeth of the input shaft where the handle fixes
The teeth of the output gear- actuate the input to see the full set of teeth
The rear side input gear bush
Note: do not use a worn reg to fix a worn reg- keep looking; they are going to become hard to find so start looking for rear door regs now.
( I will be exploring how to swap the input gears and flip the springs so we can also swap side to side one day.)
Once you are satisfied you have a suitable donor, take pics of everything, then drill out the rivit on the output gear to swingarm, and pry loose with a big screwdriver- there is a disc spring (or should be) between the gear and arm. Keep the spring for use in reassembly.
Let’s talk about the rivit you just destroyed...
It’s called a step or shoulder rivit and is not obtainable. At least, not in the size and numbers we need. The rivit you just drilled measured 9mm wide by 6mm long at the shoulder. The head was 14 mm diameter and 1mm high. The business end was a 6mm solid rivit. If you find one, let me know. This is how I replaced it...
Parts:
3/8”OD x 1/4”ID x 1/4”OAL; 1/16” tall x 9/16” diameter flange oilite bushing
OEM disc spring
1/4” x 1/2” OAL solid steel rivit; 9/16” diameter flat head.
Before you go getting bunched up short pants over the SAE parts, I could not find shelf kept metic parts that would work. All parts are available at McMaster Carr. I also enlisted the help of a 1/16” thick 3/8” ID x 3/4” OD nylon washer at the fixed end pivot, along with the same bush and rivit listed above to repair it. Same set of parts can be used to repair the swingarm to actuator the input.
Action:
Drill the big hole on the swingarm or pivot point to 3/8”
Drill the small hole to 1/4”
Insert the bush into the swingarm
Place the spring disc onto the stub of the bushing
Place the gearbox output gear hole (second from bottom for front door) over the small end of the bushing careful not to catch the disc spring between the parts, and run the rivit thru the assembly, set the head plumb on a stable anvil, and set the rivit. Use a hammer or an air hammer.
The rivit can be run in in either direction, thanks to the flange of the bushing, and the fact that the bushing becomes fixed to the rivit and fixed point
More to come... we will learn how I plan to repair the rollers and thrust washers on the slides... pics to follow.
Hopefully it saves a bit of headache for some, as these aren’t exactly plentiful.
Apparently, the front and rear gearboxes are identical per side. The difference in location requires the swing arm be fixed to either the lowest link hole in the output gear on a rear door, or the second lowest on the front door.
Now, I’m not sure about your rigs, but mine have a lot less travelers in the rear than the drivers seat, hence, my rear gearboxes were almost perfect compared to the sharp-as-broken-toothed output gear, wallerred out toothless-bent-shaft-input gear backside bushing, no-thrust-washer-on-the-fixed-end-pivot front door window reg gear box, so I figured i’d swap em out. And if I’ve just told your story, then so should you
So here is how:
Action:
Place a complete front and rear reg on your bench and inspect:
The teeth of the input shaft where the handle fixes
The teeth of the output gear- actuate the input to see the full set of teeth
The rear side input gear bush
Note: do not use a worn reg to fix a worn reg- keep looking; they are going to become hard to find so start looking for rear door regs now.
( I will be exploring how to swap the input gears and flip the springs so we can also swap side to side one day.)
Once you are satisfied you have a suitable donor, take pics of everything, then drill out the rivit on the output gear to swingarm, and pry loose with a big screwdriver- there is a disc spring (or should be) between the gear and arm. Keep the spring for use in reassembly.
Let’s talk about the rivit you just destroyed...
It’s called a step or shoulder rivit and is not obtainable. At least, not in the size and numbers we need. The rivit you just drilled measured 9mm wide by 6mm long at the shoulder. The head was 14 mm diameter and 1mm high. The business end was a 6mm solid rivit. If you find one, let me know. This is how I replaced it...
Parts:
3/8”OD x 1/4”ID x 1/4”OAL; 1/16” tall x 9/16” diameter flange oilite bushing
OEM disc spring
1/4” x 1/2” OAL solid steel rivit; 9/16” diameter flat head.
Before you go getting bunched up short pants over the SAE parts, I could not find shelf kept metic parts that would work. All parts are available at McMaster Carr. I also enlisted the help of a 1/16” thick 3/8” ID x 3/4” OD nylon washer at the fixed end pivot, along with the same bush and rivit listed above to repair it. Same set of parts can be used to repair the swingarm to actuator the input.
Action:
Drill the big hole on the swingarm or pivot point to 3/8”
Drill the small hole to 1/4”
Insert the bush into the swingarm
Place the spring disc onto the stub of the bushing
Place the gearbox output gear hole (second from bottom for front door) over the small end of the bushing careful not to catch the disc spring between the parts, and run the rivit thru the assembly, set the head plumb on a stable anvil, and set the rivit. Use a hammer or an air hammer.
The rivit can be run in in either direction, thanks to the flange of the bushing, and the fact that the bushing becomes fixed to the rivit and fixed point
More to come... we will learn how I plan to repair the rollers and thrust washers on the slides... pics to follow.
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