The window motors in my '91 Explorer aren't working. When I took the gear drive cover off, I noticed a bunch of chewed up plastic debris. I'm guessing this debris was once a gear. Can I buy this part and if so, what is the part number? I need this same thing for all 4 window motors.

thanks.

Rob

 

I those little plastic inserts for the gear drive recently at a Pep Boys(local auto store) in PA, they were marketed by some company the specializes in teh odd ball and dealer only small parts. They packaged in a blister pac under teh name of "Help", I guess that's the name of merchandising line, or teh name of the company. Good luck.

 

The nylon pins come with the gear assembly, its marketed by help products which is a division of Motormite co.Here's the linl rihght to the gear. I hope its OK to post the website here.
http://www.motormitedormancatalog.co...tormitedormanb
I didn't follow the link far enough to see if you can buy direct fron the website. Good luck.

 

There is a place in Florida called South Florida Window Lift (or something like that). They sell repair kits which include the gears and the three nylon bearings for about $20. Look for them on the internet (Google) if you can't find them post here and I will look them up when I am at my office on Monday and post the phone nmber.

I bought some of these kits and a complete motor assemble from them. Good stuff, CHEAP.

 

thanks for all the help.

I found enough 1/4" nuts to fix all the windows. I just the nuts in place of the bushings. So far everything works great but only time will tell.

Rob

 

Just in case anyone wants the number:


South Florida Window Lift 800.552.4413

 

My 93 Explorer has two different window problems.

First one is the drivers side window shutters when trying to make it go either up or down. I have to take my hand to either push down on it or pull it up while the motor is running. Once I push down on it the window works like it is suppossed to until it is time for it to go back up.

Second one is my rear passenger side window just fell down on its own. The motor is getting power but I have to pull it up by hand. Once up it gradually starts falling down. I noticed a little white bushing and once you touch it the window will stop falling. Is there a fix for this or do I need to replace the whole assembly. By the way I have a stick holding the window up for now.

Thanks for any help you folks can give!

 

The parts are broken inside. Use the kits called out above or just clean the broken parts out and drop in three each 3/8" or 10mm ball bearings.

That white plastic bushing is broken, -get a new one.

 

Thanks for the help! I take it the Ford dealer will know what bushing I am talking about.

 

Great Thread! Thanks all, and especially Don96 for mentioning the little plastic inserts. Autozone also carries the "Help" name brand and had them for a couple of bucks. They are just three little plastic cylinders. There is a lot of scattered info on this window lift subject, so I'll try to cover some of the important stuff here. Sorry it gets long, but hopefully it is correct and useful info.

This weekend I did my two back seat windows and they had a cable lift system rather than the scissors. I did a front-right motor a few years ago and don't remember that too well, but it seems like the mechanism was a scissors action to lift the window.

The cable lift works like a flag pole. The good news is this whole "driven" mechanism looks very reliable and shouldn't need to be messed with, other than a coat of white lithium grease on the metal and plastic parts. Use silicon spray on the felt parts. Almost everyone reading this can safely skip the rest of this paragraph. The lift motor is at half mast and either moves the cable up or down (a capstan action for you sailors). The vertical metal track is centered in the door (halfway from the hinge to the latch). There is a plastic "slide mechanism" on the top and bottom of the metal track that serves the function of a pulley, although with no moving parts. The two cable ends have beads on them and terminate at the bracket that moves with the window. If these come loose, it is not the end of the world, just get a mirror and light and find the little slot and reinsert the "bulb end" of the cable. I removed the bottom "slide mechanism" because the cable is hard to stretch otherwise. The last thing you do is reattach the slide with the cable already threaded through it. (Replace the drilled out rivet with a bolt).

IMHO the problem will almost always be in the motor case. Possibly a blown motor which is easy enough to diagnose (the motor makes no noise and doesn't turn). Use a multimeter on the feed line to confirm the motor is getting about 12 volts. The blown motor was the problem with my front window two years ago. Bit the bullet to the tune of $75 bucks at Autozone. Seems like the new motor came with pretty good replacement instructions.

This time (rear windows) the motor turned fine (if it is making a noise, it is probably turning, but to be sure, you can plug it back in after removal and watch it turn). The culprits were the little plastic inserts which had been ground to little bits and needed to be replaced. When the munchkins in the back seat keep the window motor switch depressed longer than necessary to move the window, the motor still turns, but these inserts go into "slip mode" and won't transmit the motor's full force to the window (a good thing if you don't like glass replacement jobs). So the inserts take a beating during "slip mode" and over time disintegrate. Once the inserts are disintegrated, the perfectly good motor is limited in how much force it can apply to the window, thus the classic "It goes down, but it won't go up". I don't recommend using home remedies to replace the inserts since that may move the wear point over to another component that is harder to find at the store, and certainly more expensive than $2 for inserts at Autozone. I was amazed at how the inserts were completely destroyed down to small fragments and how perfectly undamaged everything else was (a good thing I guess).

Ok, cutting to the chase. Here is how I got the motor out of the cable lift system on the rear (back seat) doors. Parts of this may or may not have applicability to scissors type front door applications (you will need to be the judge).

The motor is located about dead center up-down and left-right in the door. The motor is the meat in a sandwich. The bread towards the outside is a plastic capstan unit that translates circular motor motion into the cable movement. The bread towards the car interior is a metal bracket afixed to the door by rivets. I learned two things the hard way. First DONT MESS WITH THOSE THREE RIVETS. Second, if you do try to drill out a rivet, first pop the center pin out of it with a centerpunch (the centerpin is made of hard material and resists the drill). As you will see below, there is nothing to be gained by drilling out the rivets. It actually makes the job a lot harder. I don't know whether drilling rivets may be necessary on other types of doors.

The sandwich is held together with three bolts. In my case, their heads were square drive, meaning you have to buy a special "male" screw driver (about five bucks). Only two of the bolts are initially visible. You can see the two heads through holes in the sheet metal. You have to drill the third hole yourself (I'll resist an editorial here). My door speaker is forward and high on the door. I had to remove the speaker to find the dimple where you drill the third hole. The bolt pattern spacing starting at the top, and working clockwise for the right door or counterclockwise for the left door is 2 3/8 in, 2 3/8 in, and 3 inch. If the dimple is absent, you can use the measurements above to find a drill location. The top bolt is the one you have to drill to access. The top bolt is approximately vertical over the bottom bolt (3 inch distance). The Ford dimple was a little off, so be prepared to use a big bit (half inch) and then oval the hole as necessary. No need to be concerned about the hole being too big. Before drilling, move any electrical wiring that is within two inches of the drill bit (this refers to the visible side towards you, since the interior side should already be free of wiring). File down the knuckle slicing results before you move on. You may want to lay out a "drop cloth" in the interior space to catch metal filings, since the filings will be a source of rust eventually. Definitely vacuum or otherwise remove any filings that get loose inside the door.

I can't guarantee this for other systems, but for the cable lift system, there is no harm in blindly disassembling the sandwich "in place". Nothing is going to spring out of the mechanism. If you haven't greased the fittings yet, don't. That way the window won't move much when you take out the motor. The motor electrical connection needs to be unplugged. You can do this at any point, but the pigtail is only six inches so you won't get the motor out until you do this. Note that the electrical pig tail passes the vertical lift rail on the interior side, whereas the glass is on the exterior side (never the twain shall meet). Remove the three bolts we talked about above. The motor will then separate on its own from the bracket and be hanging by the lift cable. Reach in and peel the plastic "driven unit" casing away from the metal motor assembly. Pull out the motor. At this point you should feel like a heart transplant surgeon. Plug the motor back in and confirm that its output drive shaft turns when powered on. Check both switch positions. The shaft should turn both directions. Unplug again. Use a star drive bit to remove the single screw holding the plate around the motor output shaft. Remove the plate. The output shaft can now be pulled off. You will see three spaces where the inserts go. Before reassembling, pull out the big plastic gear and clean all the debris off everything. Use toothpicks and be patient. Do all the gear teeth. I recommend AGAINST using a solvent, since you may dissolve the plastic parts (and it just isn't necessary).

Use white lithium grease on all the clean pieces and gears. Reinsert in order, 1)the big plastic gear, 2) the three new inserts, moving them radially outward as much as possible, 3) gently slide on the metal output drive shaft (if it won't go, move the inserts more outboard). No forcing is necessary. 4) Reinstall the cover plate. These parts are intuitive how they assemble, so even a clutz like me can do it without having unknown parts left over.

Check the motor to make sure it works in both directions. Then reinsert it into the plastic "bread". In case you don't remember, the motor is oriented such that the wires come out near the bottom. On my truck, there was a hand access hole both left and right of center, allowing me to use both hands for reassembling the sandwich. Once you get the motor gear inserted into the plastic cable housing, use an awl to line up the bolt holes on the meat and two pieces of bread. Reinstall the three bolts. Before tightening, move the electrical pigtail to the near side of the rail and plug it back into its connector. If the wires won't reach, you may have caught a wire in the sandwich or the harness may be routed the wrong way around the rail. Keep the wires on the near side of the rail. Reinstall any wire tiedowns that you may have unclipped. Check the operation. Grease the vertical slide bar. Silicone spray the felt parts. Put all the trim stuff back together.

The first one will take 90 minutes. You will get your time down to 30 or 45 minutes after that.

Have fun.