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I bought a 1978 Bronco in Nov. and I have pulled the original tailgate assembly off and put in a replacement. The "new gate" has a stubborn as hell window. I am considering pulling the motor and possibly the window from the old gate and changing them out, the only reason I have a newish gate is that the original gate had severe cancer. Has anyone here pulled the window from the gate b4, or does anyone have suggestions to fix the problem?
Be ready to take your time and be patient and careful if you are going to replace the window. Start first with just the motor swap. Thats not too hard to do. You may however, need to drill access holes in the tailgate framing for access to the mounts to the motor. If I remember correctly, it is riveted in so you will have to drill those out, then use actual nut and bolts to install. Avoid seperating the glass from track itself. Its riveted in and you can drill em out, but if you knick the glass at all, it will prolly shatter before you can finish the job. Do a search in this forum for TAILGATE MOTOR. I saw a posting about a month ago that had a link to very detailed instructions on how to remove and replace the innards of the tailgate.
Good luck!
While you are in there I would clean all the tracks the window slides in ( blow out w/compressed air) and the guide on the bottom of the window will probably have dirt & grease built up in it . Clean out also and apply a film of very light grease I use white lithium grease . I also spray the channels on the ends with silicone spray (it dries & stays slick). In general anything you can do to reduce friction helps. Those motors draw a fair amount of "juice" from the battery. How good is your battery? Does it make the window move faster when the engine is running? Hope these suggestions help.
IMHO, before you go replacing parts, take a few minutes to troubleshoot the "new" window. Is the linkage dirty, bent, in need of lube or adjustment? Are you getting full power to the motor? Are the tracks alligned well? Are all the rollers present and accounted for? You may find that it just needs a little tune-up.
What about the slides (square rollers) that ride in the track, I've got one that the nut rusted out and now won't stay in the track. What do you replace it with?