Rear Window Regulator Repair

[hondo]

My right rear widow regulator (jammed) so I took off the door panel after removing the regulator, I found this mess-




I found that the weak link on these regulators is twofold- first, there are no limit switches on these regulators, requiring the operator to release the switch when they hear the window hit the mechanical stops.

Second, the wire bail (pictured below) is nylon, with shallow grooves- this makes it easy for the cable to jump the bail and wrap into a knot. This peice should be made of steel IMO.

The photo below shows the bail AFTER I deepened the cable grooves with a dremel (with a 1/16th round bit) and small round file.




I went to my local Hardware store and bought 7 feet of 1/16 Stainless wire cable, and 4 1/16th cable crimps..

After removing the old cable, I threaded the new cable through the guides (below)



I can't go into too much detail on how to thread the bail- you just gotta play with it- I crimped the cable that goes onto the bottom of the bail first, wrapping the cable around the bail.

Then I put the bail ont the shaft, and pulled the other end of the cable very tightly, wrapping the top of the bail-


Then when I thought that I had it as tight as I could get it, I marked the cable with a sharpie- (where the crimp goes). After crimping, I rewrapped the cable and pushed the crimp into the bail





The little piece suspended below had to have it's tabs bent up to remove it from the widow slider- the crimp should be in the middle of the run.






This repair took me about 2 hours time and $5.00 in parts.

After installation, it worked great!

[The_Saint]

great job

[Duncan]

Awesome work. I'm adding this to the repair guide.

[hondo]

Thanks- I had the time and got tired of looking at the suction cups holding the window up-

I hope this will help others out with thier regulators.

[hondo]

I thought I would post a photo with a highlighted cable routing-

here ya go-

[hondo]

Something I thought I would add-

the cable should be wrapped onto the bail evenly. By this I mean that the same amount of cable should be on the bottom and top halves of the bail.

Then, the crimp for the window slider/mount should be crimped in the middle of the cabe run (as pictured).

This will ensure that full up and down travel is achieved.

[knowledgegenius]

thanks alot i have done this for my right hand rear window and it works like whistle.

game time baby now i can hang out my rear window.

[sim_rx3]

thought id better add to this..

if you solder or brase the end of the cable and file the end down smooth before threading it through the casing.

makes it alot easier to get the cable through the sheithing

[trishieldpower72@yahoo.com]

nice, my left rear window was messed up. my cable was frayed and in 3 pieces. My regulator was fine. I was going to do the same thing, just not the deeper grooves(didnt think about that). I saw this post and read through it. The deeper grooves are a definite before i reinstall the regulator. It started to rain so i used the destroyed cable to tie my window and the hole for the bolts to the rubber stops.

[tammy_beede@hotmail.com]

wow great job! i will bookmark this page to add to my car repair guide collection.
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window switch | ~auto parts~ | ~tammy beede~