When I went to work today I raised my window and locked my doors, When I left to go home, I went to let the window down and nothing happened. I don't hear anything, but the window will not go down, How can I tell if it is the Motor or the switch??

 

I just had this problem on my 97 Chevy Monte Carlo, but I don't suspect it is too different. Unfortunately, mine got stuck in the down position and they were calling for rain. I too was trying to figure out whether it was the switch or motor.

I took the door apart and found I was able to hook up a meter to the two (disconnected) wires coming into the motor. When I flipped the switch, I could see I was not getting any juice. In my case, though, when I flipped the switch the other direction (down), I did get juice. Thus, only the down function in the switch was bad. But by seeing part of the switch was working, it helped prove to me that the other part was bad indeed and led me to believe motor was probably okay.

Switch was about $85 at Chevy and not hard to put in. One thing I also noted on this car was that the motor really torques when you turn it on. So much, that Chevy put this little plastic wire holder on it to keep the wire/plug from pulling out during the motor. Mine was also shorting a little bit so I modified it slightly to hold it tighter. After I found this, I did confirm that the switch was bad as well and that it just wasn't the short in the wire.

Good luck. My 95 E150 has 165000 and the driver's window sounds a little rough, so I expect I will have to replace it sometime soon as well. My guess is that the motors themselves are pretty durable and don't have to be replaced that often. Also, be careful if you do remove the motor. On the Chevy, the motor is incorporated in the whole window assembly/mechanism and they tell you to remove/replace the whole thing, not just the motor. There is some danger associated with just pulling the motor as I guess it is under tension or something. Anyway, read up on it and be careful if you do decide to pull just the motor. I'm sure you will get some more good hits from this web site.

Jim1995E150

 

power window motors use reversing polarity to go up/down. like Jim1995E150 stated pull the plug off the motor and check for voltage in both directions. check you other window(s) first it may be the fuse/circut breaker.
if your replacement motor comes with screws to reattach, do yourself a favor, find rivets that will do the job, most autopart store even rent rivet guns if you don't own one.

 

I have determined it is the Switch, Does anyone know where I can get another one??

 

Probably a dealer item. I got one from the dealer a couple years ago, I think it was about $8.

 

$8 would be a bargain for a Ford dealer part. I just paid about $85 for a two window Chevy Switch. I doubt you will find it at an Autozone type store. I looked around and found some used ones at the junkyard and even some "new" ones on ebay, but the savings was less than 1/2 the dealar part and it would be impossible to know how good they really were, so I just bought the new one at the Dealer. I figure it will get lots more use and was worth the cost to save future aggravation of doing it again. Plus I had the time to fix it and didn't want to wait for the shipment to arrive or the time needed to go to the junkyard.


Jim1995E150

 

Don't use screws or rivets. Use 3/16 or 1/4 inch bolts. That is how we did it in my '87 F150.. Never had a problem again. Does the passenger side work? If not I'd be replacing the ~$4 circuit breaker first.

 

Ooops, I erred. It was $13.35, a single switch #E6DZ14529C. I also got a box of 10 plastic clips that hold the door panel on for $2.70.

When I installed a new motor in my old '87, I used stainless 1/4" bolts with elastic stop nuts to replace the rivets.

 

curious to find out why not rivets? thats what the factory uses when it is built?

 

No problem using rivets, its just that 1/4" rivets are a little large for most folks to have laying around. I guess maybe you could rent a tool, but the bolts seemed to work OK, and cost just a few cents.

 

Also it eases removal if it has to be done again.

 

I've sorta got the same problem. (86 E150 Conversion)
I've got power at the switch, and to the motor (both wires) on the drivers side. And no movement either way.
The driver side switch won't operate the passenger window either, but the passenger's side switch will operate the passenger's window, although it is a little finicky about it (ie, a very light touch).

Patrick

 

My 88 E250 has one power window on the passenger side.The switch to raise and lower is just right of the raidio.It plugs directly into the fuse box.The electrical line dose have a fuse on it.Just wondering if this is a mod?Has any one ever seen this?