My 90 E150 has a problem with the power windows. The drivers window will go down with no problems, however it doesn't want to go back up, and the passenger window does nothing, from either side switch. I'm thinking it may be the drivers side switchthat has gone bad, because if I play with it long enough, the drivers window will go up. I have pulled the wires off the back of the switch and if I try to bypass the switch and jump it, I get a nasty spark. Not sure if the motor is acting up too. Any thoughts or ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

It's probably your power window motors going bad. My 91 E150 just did the same (drivers' side only, so far).

Did you completely disconnect the switch? You can't just apply power at the switch, or short across the terminals, w/o disconnecting the switch. I tried that, and got a spark like you got. Apparently the switch grounds both sides of the circuit when it is in the neutral position.

As you probably know, the motor is a reverse polarity design -- it is not grounded through the frame. To test the switch, you can check for voltage at the terminals while you operate the switch (with the key in the accessory position). You should get 12 v at one terminal when you press up, and at a different terminal when you press down. If your switch is good, then its on to the motor (need to remove door panel, drill access holes, etc). Not as hard as it sounds...

Try searching for "power window motor" in this forum. There are several threads here. For example, look at chrisbeery's thread here

Good luck!

 

My dad has a similar problem in his 1988 E150, it was the switch had gone bad on the drivers side. It's the same between the aerostar and the trucks so your local junk yard has a plethora of them.

 

I have a 1990 E150 and i had similar problems with the windows. it turned out the one motor was bad but the other was not bad the components inside the gears for the windows where shredded. what i did was take out the plastic that was used and filled in the area with epoxy and let it set. i reassembled the unit and put it back in the van. it has been working for over 6 months now without any more problems. i hope this helps if you need more info on this email me andi will be happy to provide it. thank you

 

Had a similar problem with my van when I bought it last year.
The passenger side window was stuck down a couple of inches, would not work from the switches on either side.
Passenger side switch only was bad.
Alan P