1980 Power window gear/motor repair "Whaaa.?"

[80Vette]

REVISED REPAIR TUTORIAL LISTED on final post BELOW:



..."OH SH*T!" My window gear just gave out.
1980 with Power windows...


So, I'm doing the correct method of reading the AIM & mechanics book. But in neither of these does it show how/what the h#ll to do when the gear strips out and the power window doesn't go up all the way.

The power wndw assy. is held onto the INSIDE of the door panel with no access holes (who the heII thought of that at GM 4th floor???) to take the motor out/adjust window mechanisms. The only way to have any type of access is riveted from the factory on the inside of the enclosed door panel Arrrrgh....Deep breath here...Do I have to saw off the rivets?

Anywhoo...Anyone else remove/replace their pwr window motor, gear teeth & gear plate?

I can hear the motor working just fine but have a hunch that the teeth have been stripped out near the top of the assy.

This is by far the most confused I have been with my Vette to date.

H.....E......L...........P.............. .............!;help

 

[jdp6000]

Its not hard but first time doing it will be a bit of an experience.

PART 1

Take off the the door panel. Remove the cover over the window motor at the bottom. Is the regulator still held on with rivits? If so you will have to drill out the heads and pop the rivits. If the rivits are gone and replaced with bolts its been out before. If not you will need to replace the rivits with bolts and a lock nut on the back side on reinstall.

PART 2

You can take the glass off and out or wedge something between it and the frame to keep it in the up position. I did the wedge thing.

PART 3

Undo the two bolts that hold the glass to the regulator.

PART 4

The part of the regulator the window was attached to is also attached by way of two rivits or bolts to the door frame. Remove them.

PART 5

Now that you have the bolts or rivits all removed. the regulator should be free. Leave the motor in. Use your power window switch to power the regulator down. Compress it. You may need to assist it since the gear is stripped. You need to compress it to pull the assemble through the access port at the bottom.

EXTRA PART

If you find you cant compress the regulator electronically because the gear is stripped you need to remove the motor. BUT once you remove the motor the spring will cause the regulator to collapse. Watch your fingers. Most inset a bolt into the the regulator to keep it from collapsing. GM has a spot for this bolt. The problem in doing this way is if the bolt keeps the regulator from collapsing enough the assemble will not fit through the access port. You will need to play with it.

Once out you can either rplace the regulator or repair the gear (there is a part you can by to do this).

Install it in the same fashion. Use bolts with lock nuts in place of rivits. Get bolts long enough for the bolt to full thread but no long enough to obstruct. Bolt the bottom part on. attach the electrical. Power the regulator up. Slid the bar over the roller on each side of the window. attch the bar the rollers are on to the frame again.

Its not as hard as it sounds a visual will show you that.

Link may provide some additonal info. http://home.comcast.net/~chadwick.robert/Window_reg.pdf

Jim

 

[Tritium007]

Excellent photo!

 

[80Vette]

Wow...That is a great photo. Can a person remove the inner "Shell" of the door like that? That photo exposes the whole ensemble.

None of my books show how this inner shell can be removed. Do you have to "crack open" the seams somewhere?


Oh...If I know that it's just the motor gear & main gear plate, is it possible to just unscrew the 3 bolts that hold the black plastic PW motor to the base plate?
Thank you so much for posting that picture. It's like gold!

 

[jdp6000]

You can not remove the door skin. That was done for that photo.

That entire assemble will easily come out of the access port for the motor. Remove that plate on the inner bottom. Follow the other instructions.

Jim

 

[80Vette]

Thanks so much for the advice above.
I finally nutted-up and decided to tear into the door last night. I got it all apart...


I did order the new PW motor gear wheel & regulator gears from Ecklers last week (still waitinghnoes). I'll just tear it all back apart & see if the new parts offer a nice solid, tight solution!!!

Off to the Autocross track and road course day at PIR

 

[80Vette]

RE-Cap, for those who care

1980 Power windor repair. Stripped Gear.

WOW!!! This was by far the most difficult of any Vette repairs or mods...

Since the teeth on the regulator gear were slightly stripped, I went ahead to Ecklers and bought the "Regulator Gear Repair kit" ($34) Item# 27487 http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?pf_id=27487&dept_id=1673
and a new PW motor Gear ($20) Item# 34402 . http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?pf_id=34402&dept_id=1160


First: Lifted the window by hand to the fully raised position

1. I took off the int. door panel

2. Took off the PW Motor cover panel (thin tin cover)

3. Used 3/8 wrench to loosen the three bolts which hold the PW motor to base plate. (loosen, not removed)

4. Jammed a few screw drivers at base of window rails, through the outer bracket (basically I wedged the window to stay in the upright position so it would fall down, acting like a guillotine on my fingers).:bash

5. Un-hooked the power socket from the harness to the PW motor, fully removed the three bolts mentioned (step #3) above from the motor base plate, removed the PW motor from the door (you have to wiggle & pry that little thing out of there).

6. Took off the old PW gear, cleaned the area well, added new grease to the gears & installed the new PW motor gear wheel.

7. I DID NOT REMOVE WINDOW ASSY TO REPAIR THE GEARS

8. I DID bore out the three aluminum rivets.
Once the whole assy was freed from the three rivets I could slide the regulator gears towards the little opening in the door compartment so I could get better acces to this.

9. I used the new regulator repair gear as a template. Using a black sharpie marker to mark where the three holes should go.

10. Screwed holes in the three indicated black sharpie spots.

11. screwed the new regulator repair gear into the three freshly drilled holes.

12. NEW Gear teeth!

13. Pushed like mad for 20 minutes trying to align the assy back into the holes where the factory rivets were. Fortunately wife came in and put bolt in the hole to at least match one up.

THIS IS A TWO PERSON JOB at this point.

14. installed the other two bolts (where the rivets used to be) & tightened it down well. Locking washers here as I am sure as H#LL NOT going to want to do this job again!

15. Re-installed PW motor into base plate, tightened the three bolts secure.

16. Buttoned it all back up.

17. GOOD TO GO!

This was by far the most confusing & "interesting" of all my Vette adventures.
I hope that the passenger side NEVER goes out. If it does, I might send it to a body shop and pay someone to do it!!!
Nah' probably not, it wasn't that hard...Well, yes, it was that hard. but, not really. The satisfaction came from successfully repairing this myself & sweating over it.

I hope this helps someone who has this same problem down the road.

Please PM me and if you're stuck I can assist!
Thanks again to jdp6000 for his valuable help on this!

 

[jdp6000]

You have now been added to the "Expert" list....fun eh!!!

Jim

 

[chevyaddict]

Question then...

Hi All;
Great thread. Here is what I'm up against. I just painted my 81 vette and had teh windows retinted. They are out of the car. Door is completely disassembled at the moment so this is an optimal time to replace the window motors. Both still work but they are slow, especially the driver's side.

Question is, given how difficult this is, should I or just leave the slow motors? How long when they are slow will they finally give out? Does anyone know?

 

[80Vette]

Hmmmm...

Hi Dawn, I am curious as to how the windows got out of the car.

Did you have the tint professionally done? Did you or the shop take the doors completely apart? The reason I ask, if they took them apart they ought to put them back together again.
But...regardless.
If they are starting to get sluggish & your door is already torn apart, I would recommend you putting in new motors. If you're planning on keeping the car around for a while (as it sounds like you are) it would be a bummer to get it all dressed up, completed and then next summer have the motors "officially" go out.

The price for the motor is pretty nominal. If you're already spending the cash to get this far, may as well go all the way & finish it. Replacing the PW motor assy. is really easy if your door is already disassembeled (just three little bolts).

Keep us updated.


Andy

 

[chevyaddict]

Hi Dawn, I am curious as to how the windows got out of the car.

Did you have the tint professionally done? Did you or the shop take the doors completely apart? The reason I ask, if they took them apart they ought to put them back together again.
But...regardless.
If they are starting to get sluggish & your door is already torn apart, I would recommend you putting in new motors. If you're planning on keeping the car around for a while (as it sounds like you are) it would be a bummer to get it all dressed up, completed and then next summer have the motors "officially" go out.

The price for the motor is pretty nominal. If you're already spending the cash to get this far, may as well go all the way & finish it. Replacing the PW motor assy. is really easy if your door is already disassembeled (just three little bolts).

Keep us updated.


Andy

Hi Andy;
I took the windows out after tinting and am replacing the door hardware. I do all the work myself - I don't trust anyone else to work on my cars. According to the your post here it didn't sound like it was that easy..........are you sure I should do it? I'm not worried about cost - someone is rebuilding these motors and selling them on ebay for $50 each!
Dawn

 

[80Vette]

Hi Dawn,
The hardest part of the whole operation was changing the PW Motor gears, teeth & Assy while the whole door & window remained intact. The actual changing of the motor is relatively simple, especially since you have the doors all the way disassembled.
I would buy the new motors if I were in your shoes.
Can you post a picture of how far down disassembly your doors are?

 

[chevyaddict]

Hi Dawn,
The hardest part of the whole operation was changing the PW Motor gears, teeth & Assy while the whole door & window remained intact. The actual changing of the motor is relatively simple, especially since you have the doors all the way disassembled.
I would buy the new motors if I were in your shoes.
Can you post a picture of how far down disassembly your doors are?

Perhaps when I get home tonight. Windows out, felts off, door panel off (obviously) door latch off, mirrors off. Well cool! I agree, might as well replace things now while everything is out of the way!!!!
Thanks!
Dawn

 

[6880 Mike]

...Can a person remove the inner "Shell" of the door like that?...

Clarification: the pic shows the outer door skin removed, not the inner. The outer skin is a fiberglass panel and is bonded to the stamped steel inner door panel. All the window hardware mounts to the steel inner panel.

You can remove the outer fiberglass skin, but it's work you do not have to do and, in most cases, you are not going to get the outer skin off in one piece.

 

[jdp6000]

Hi All;
Great thread. Here is what I'm up against. I just painted my 81 vette and had teh windows retinted. They are out of the car. Door is completely disassembled at the moment so this is an optimal time to replace the window motors. Both still work but they are slow, especially the driver's side.

Question is, given how difficult this is, should I or just leave the slow motors? How long when they are slow will they finally give out? Does anyone know?

They are probably slow because of debri and a weak regulator spring or broken spring. If the spring is broken you will find it at the bottom of the door. The motor will power the window for years witha broken spring but eventually weaken. The spring is there to assist in the up motion. A sign its the spring is if the motor works slow going up but fast going down. If its slow up and down its probably the motor or motor and spring. My was doing the same thing...slow...I replaced the spring and they work like new.

You should replace the spring in most cases when you replace the motor.

Jim

 

[chevyaddict]

They are probably slow because of debri and a weak regulator spring or broken spring. If the spring is broken you will find it at the bottom of the door. The motor will power the window for years witha broken spring but eventually weaken. The spring is there to assist in the up motion. A sign its the spring is if the motor works slow going up but fast going down. If its slow up and down its probably the motor or motor and spring. My was doing the same thing...slow...I replaced the spring and they work like new.

You should replace the spring in most cases when you replace the motor.

Jim

Now that is very good to know! The car has been apart for a year now and honestly I can't remember if they were slow in both directions but I think that is the case. Driver's side much slower then passenger side but both not working 100%. Before I got the car it sat for 12 years but I had been driving it for about four years before I decided to repaint it. Anyway, I'll certainly order the springs and replace those at the same time. At this point I'm convinced I just want to put the new motors in regardless. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chevyaddict]

I'm looking on Eckler's website and I don't see this spring listed to purchase... where can I get these springs?

 

[6880 Mike]

http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?Parta~PartSort~A0~~~~~A70~A61

Corvette Central has them. I'm sure ZIP and Eckler's also have them.

 

[chevyaddict]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

 

[LVMYVT76]

My windows were going up and down vwey slow. I just cleaned out all of the old grease, replaced with fresh grease, lubed the rollers and they work twice as fast now.