Good Evening!

Yet another question in the endless discovery that is my new 1978 Ranger XLT. I have (I think) is an easy explanation to a question, but the actual getting to the problem is the issue....here goes..

My drivers side window is hard to crank down after it starts going down. However, when the car is washed, or there is a heavy rain, no problem. This leads me to believe that there is a lubrication issue somewhere in the window crank area. I assume that much.

The follow up to that question is this - how easy is it to get the interior door panel off? I also assume that I need to use those plastic trim pieces, as I doubt that you can get the parts of the window crank lubricated without taking the interior panel.

Finally, what do you suggest to lubricate? I thought maybe white lithium grease, but then I thought that might interfere with the window.

Thanks for your input and help. Everyone has been so helpful and I love discovering my new truck....here is a pic of it. Trying to keep it as stock as possible. The inside is like new!

Thanks!
Scott


351M V8

 

 

 

I've had great luck with white lithium grease as mentioned, red grease (it's in an aerosol can too), and wheel bearing general purpose grease. Of youIyouIgo the route of wheel bearing grease don't get the "extra tacky" stuff. That would just make your problem worse!

 

Yep remove inner plastic door panel
Undo screw, robertson #2, for window crank handle and just pull straight off(it is not like modern handles that require a rag or release tool), remembering position for re-installation later, unless you change where it will rest when opened and closed.
Undo big screw for inner door handle and remove, robertson #3.
Undo two screws in door "cup" and remove screws and cup, also robertson #2.
Then you need a "panel popper" to pop the 8 points off the door to free the panel.
Now you will see a paper backing, or door sheetmetal, or someones home made covering, and you have access to the window crank

 

Alleviation of the problem when "wet" makes me think it's more related to the edges of your window and the track/seals in the window frame (21546 and 21536 from Bill's illustration). I think this because it's hard for me to imagine water getting down to your crank/gear mechanism during a "normal" rain or car wash. The water might be lubricating the edges of the window glass and track.

Before taking your door panel off, I would personally put some WD-40 or other lubricants mentioned above into the crevice in the window track on each side. Might solve your problem without extra work.

My window is the same, but I haven't done anything about it yet. When rolling the window "up", the glass tilts to the side and the interference between the (admittedly dry) track and tilted window make for a bear to crank by hand.

Let us know how it works out!

 

I suggest silicon spray for the window tracks instead of WD40.

 

My humble '66 F250 opinion....I hate white lithium grease. It collects dirt, it dries up and causes drag. I have taken apart so many window regulators, doors and hood hinges that were sprayed with lithium grease that I can't tell you how many were bogged down by that stuff! WD-40 is water soluble and won't last. If you really want to do it right, take the regulators out...not that hard to do. Clean up all the old grease on the regulator and window roller channel. Check all the components because any one or all can collectively contribute to the problem. You may need new rollers as well. Lube the teeth on the regulator with a light grease, like disc brake or red grease...not the heavy wheel bearing stuff. If you want the cranks to work well, you need to open the crank housing, which may require drilling out and replacing the rivets which hold it together. If you do this, you'll see what I mean about old grease. There is no way to really clean it out and regrease it without opening it up. Often you have to scrape out the old/dried grease with a tool...some of it may turn rock-hard. So, solvent and wire brush everything and dry it well before re-greasing. As far as the window channels, they are not intended to be lubricated. If the felt in the channels has worn out, it should be replaced. The window is intended to slide in the channel on the felts....not on a wave of lubricant. This would be a good time to adjust the window guides to make sure that the glass doesn't tilt or bind, moving up and down. One more tip....if you care. A great lubricant for almost anything, that works really well is Tri-Flow. It has Teflon in it and is a super light lubricant. It will work pretty well on things like the window felts, if you still want some glide. It also penetrates very well into mechanisms like hinges and lock cylinders....even garage door tracks. It lasts very well. Good luck....when things get old and don't work, there's no magic spray to cure it all....you just have to service the components.

 

Beautiful Lariat interior!! "The ultimate in Ford Pickup comfort, style and prestige". So says the 79 brochure.

Be very careful when removing your door panels, they are usually fragile. It is not uncommon to break off the part of the panel that the clips mount to, making it hard to securely reinstall them.You want to use a panel removal tool & pry on the clip, not the panel. Be very careful with the panels when the are off, the edges, especially the top, can be very brittle & break easily.

 

I use what I got, lithium spray or just good old wheel bearing grease.

I have a few metal tubes of door grease my dad had, likely 60-70 years old now. It's thick and I think, meant for strikers. I just keep it aside.

BTW ……….. Beatiful truck!

 

I recently saw something similar to this issue on the show Wheelers Dealers. The same thing was happening on a car they had bought. It turned out it was a slightly bent vertical track in the door. When it got wet it "lubed" it enough to work better.

 

Just been though this. After removing the plastic panels (and then needing to repair the pockets that hold the steel clips, story below) and the Kraft paper underlayment, then figuring out how to reach inside to understand where the binding might be, discovered three areas that appeared to need lube. Applied standard brown-in-tub wheel bearing/axle grease (its what was available) to the teeth of the crescent shaped gear, and the slot that holds the wheel under the window. That helped much, but the crank was still binding about every revolution on the window descent. Then applied WD40 to where the splined window crank shaft enters the gear mechanism. That did the trick. While wet, followed up with one or two drops of engine oil. For good measure, sprayed the insides with WD40 in the event something else needed lube. Works like new now, but will take some elbow grease to remove the WD40 from the window glass.

Next problems: 1) how to reattach the plastic panels with their now fractured clip pockets (new panels ~$150 each) and 2) how to replace the Kraft paper underlayment

Fixed the pockets with postage stamp sized tabs of fiberglass fabric epoxied on with low viscosity slow cure resin (System 3 clear coat, its what was at hand, wets out glass fabric nicely). Cleaned and sanded the surface, wore the usual safety glasses and nitrile gloves, measuring carefully with the "two plastic spoon" method and mixing thoroughly. Result; the new clips slip on perfectly. Did not need any epoxy putty to fill the inside of any of the broken pockets. New steel clips courtesy Amazon. Also glassed various other cracks in the driver's side panel (use the right tool for removal, see below). Some epoxy/glass strips needed small pads of paper towel held in place with masking tape to ensure conformity with the underlying curvature. Tried using electrical tape on the reverse side (facing interior) to prevent bleed through, and....it sort of worked.

Cut new underlayment panels from an old falling apart blue plastic tarp using the old paper items as templates. Cleaned surfaces and attached with double backed carpet tape. Easy peasy.

Lessons learned; a 12 dollar panel removal tool will reduce damage to the plastic panel, but not quite eliminate it. The panels are repairable with epoxy and glass.

Hope this is useful

p.s. also sprayed some water based anti-oxidant (NAPA, looks like skim milk) on the fabric-foam tracks that hold the sides of the window.

 

Beautiful truck.

In 1976 Ford said to use polyethylene grease (C4AZ-19584-A) to all of the portions of the window mechanism. On my '76 F-250 I used synthetic wheel bearing grease (the red non-fibrous type) on the mechanism and a dry lubricant (graphite) to the felt track area. It worked well.

When you go to remove the interior door panel try to use a tool that will get under the top of the fasteners; otherwise you are likely to break the plastic. It gets brittle with age. It's cheaper to have to replace the fasteners than the panel.

 

Thanks so much! Every response helps!

 

Nice looking rig!

Re panel removal, on my '78 there are eight clips per door panel; three each across the top and bottom and vertically along the sides; e.g. at each of the four corners and about midway between the corners. New clips from Amazon. Yes on the $12 panel removal tool. Slip under the edge of the panel, slide until it finds a clip, straddle the clip if possible with the tines of the removal tool and pry gently. I cracked the first panel pretty good in three or four places from not using one. Cracks repaired using 4 oz glass and epoxy (System 3 clear coat), but an extra chore and some bleed through.

Re lube, I found at least three points where things can bind; the crescent gear inside the door panel, a grooved rail on the bottom that supports an arm with about a 1 inch nylon wheel that rides in the groove and the bearing or bushings on the crank shaft that holds the crank handle.

The crescent gear received a goodly smear of hand applied regular old brown bearing grease out of the tub. The grooved rail, same treatment. That helped considerably, but the crank was still binding approx every revolution when cranking down. That suggested a dry bearing or bushing holding the crank shaft. A healthy shot of WD 40 from the interior where the shaft enters the gear housing followed by a couple drops of engine oil got it working. Also gave the interior a general spraying of WD 40 just in case. This then created the meditative opportunity after everything was assembled of spending 10 minutes +/- cleaning the oil from the window! Re the foam inserts with the fuzzy lining that guide the sides of the window, they received some of that NAPA anti UV/oxidant stuff that looks like skim milk.

Result; windows now move up and down quite smoothly. The factory recommended lube sounds perhaps like a safer bet that what I used. I simply used stuff that was sitting in the shop and so far so good.

Next issue; repairing the eight pockets per panel that hold the steel clips which insert into the steel door frame. My truck uses the "bent hairpin" style metal clips. Neighbor said his '77 F 250 Diesel used the plastic ones that sort of look like mushrooms. On mine, the pockets that hold the clips suffered much damage on the panel removed without the special pry tool and lesser damage on the panel where the pry tool was used. Solution; cut about 1 inch squares of 4 oz fiberglass and attach with epoxy on the outside surface of the pockets after cleaning and light sanding. That both repaired the pockets that had a groove torn out of the middle and provided a strong surface for those with less damage. The added thickness was on the order of about 1 mm. Again low viscosity epoxy resin, System 3 Clear Coat. Let the tabs saturate in mixed epoxy on a paper plate, then placed on the pockets surfaces (pointy shiskabob skewers were handy for this) , a bit of runoff but good to go 24-48 hours or so later (colder weather here). Hardware store five-minute epoxy might not wet out the glass or might create too much thickness for the clips to slide over. The new clips mostly slid into the repaired pockets easily. Two or three needed some extra pushing from a small block of wood etc.

Then noted that the few remaining old clips had small foam pads that slipped over the tines of the clips. Seemed like a good idea for reducing rattling. A ~1/4" thick yoga mat provided the material. It seemed to compress to less than 1 mm. Again cut 1 inch squares, cut a small opening in the middle with a pen knife to fit over the tines of the clip and it seemed to work.

Issues? The epoxy and glass on one or two of the repaired clip pockets changed the orientation enough to where some minor bending was needed to line up the tines with the door frame holes. On some pockets where a groove was pulled out of the center, the epoxy and glass was thinner than the original plastic, allowing for some movement of the clip when replacing the panel. Patience and careful assembly got the job done. What seemed to work easiest was to insert the bottom three clips, next the middle ones on each side, then last the top three.

Whew. Got long winded. Hope this is helpful. Good luck with it!

postscript; It would have been prudent to have used a q-tip to tidy up any excess epoxy in the repaired pockets before the stuff set up. Also should have taken the opportunity to clean up the door insides per Ozzie H's following post. Oh, to replace the paper lining on the faces of the door frame, cut up an old blue plastic tarp and attached with double sided carpet tape.