SurfjaxLS said:
So you got away with only the regulator? I can't tell exactly which part is bad. Any signs for bad regulator, bad motor, or both. Its getting colder outside and my window is stuck down, so it sucks driving in the morning or at night. Also, my garage is too cluttered to park the car in.
Yep, I got lucky... What is your window doing, other than not what you want it to? Can you hear the motor running in the door when you try to operate the window? Can you move the glass somewhat freely by hand? I'd try this with the car off and accessories on, so you can anything that is going on in there. Mine literally went crunch, and further attempted operation of the window just made it worse.
Read this before you start ripping and tearing, it might give some insight or a battle plan on how to go after this. If your motor is bad, you may need a different approach. I'll try to be as explicit as I can.
I assume you haven't ripped into the door itself yet? It's a little unnerving at first but then it makes sense. The worst part after taking the 5 screws out is pulling out on the door trim... I mean you really need to reef on it, then it comes loose with a bang, and you think you broke something. The fasteners that attach the trim are TIGHT. They aren't like the old ones that sorta much out of the way. I would recommend starting at the bottom rear of the door and workiong up, then towards the hinges. It seemed to work well for me.
Once you get to there, there's a plug that attaches to the window switch, disconnect that, and the skin will come off. Behind that is an adhesive plastic film, I guess is a vapor barrier, take that off, it's sticky and a pain, kinda like saran-wrap from h e l l , just try not to tear it up, it's a pain to put back on when it is...
Next is the metal bracket that holds the speaker, door handle and window regulator. There are four gold bolts that are 10mm (I think) two on top, one down low on the hinge side, and one on the bottom. this is where it gets interesting, because it depends on what's broke as to how you remove it. Once I figured out the window regulator was toast, I used the "brute force approach". If your regulator is bad, it's kinda hard to hurt it, if it's only the motor, then you don't want to destroy the regulator. When the regulator is in good shape, it kinda looks like a compound bow, with a stabilizer on the front (which is the motor actually). If the cables are all screwed up, not attached, or something like that, the regulator's the trouble. What I did was removed the three screws that held the regulator to the metal braket, and swung the bracket around out and away from the hinge side of the door to gain access to the guts of the door. It's a pain to get those two nuts off the track of the window regulator, I think they were 10mm as well.
I was lucky that the part of the regulator that attached to the glass was free of the cables and would move around as I pulled the window up and down. I knew it was screwed up, so I twisted it off the track, and broke it a little more. Then I was able to disconnect the window motor power, and take the regulator out. ****If this is not your case, I'm not sure what to tell you. ***
I was a little stumped as to how to get that plastic track thingy off the window itself. The white nylon pin stays in the window, so don't try to pound that out! What I did was take a pair of wire cutting dykes, ones that will cut on the very end, and nip the plastic off the sides that hold the window pin in the track slider thing. It's easier if the window is like half way down or so. When you snip those top side peices off you basically cut it to look like a "V" with the point facing the bottom of the door. Now you can just wiggle it back a bit, and it will come right off. This thing fits like a cradle on the bottom of the window, and the pin is the lock as the "top of the V" snaps over the pin (on both sides, you only have to cut one). This is really slick if you ever had to mess with the older style windows.
Something to look at whike you're out looking for parts and such. My original regulator was held in with 3 bolts with the washers attached, and 2 of them had nuts, the ones on the regulator arm. The replacement had 3 studs that fit the same holes, and fit the same nuts. I only had 2 because that's what was there, you will probably need to get another nut, washer and lock washer. It cost me 17 cents for those parts....
Assembly is just the opposide, loosely attach the regulator and motor to the window plate thing, attache the power wire again, fiddle the whole thing back into place, tighten all the screws (3 on regulator, 4 holding plate thing to door), then gently push the window down onto the new regulator track thing. when you push it down far enough, it will go "snap" and the pin will then be captive in the cradle part and the window will be secure. Try the door out before you put the door skin back on. If it works, assemble the rest of the door in reverse order (duh).
After doing it myself for the first time, I would bet I could do it now, start to finish in maybe 20 minutes if I hurried. It really is pretty easy.
I tried to make this as simple as I could, I hope you're not bored to tears reading this!
:tmi: :sleep:
Good Luck and let me know if you have any other questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
Kleetus
'00 LS V8 Sport
