Thank you everyone for your input here, most particiularly Bulldoggie who really got the meat of the issue, that being FLEX.
When these mechanisms are new they don't exhibit a lot of flex or excessive freeplay and that's why they probably escaped the factory notice before production. If the factory had lowered/rasised them a few thousand times, I'm sure it would have become apparent and to be honest, fixing it was dead easy.
I didn't drill any holes. I wanted to see if I could fix this without resorting to that level. I think I did manage this.
First, after removal of the door panel ... was to unbolt the guiderail that the lift regulator uses to run the window retaining or lifting bracket up and down along. In stock condition, you can see where the angle of the guiderail, the lack of holding tabs on the 2 rear guideclips, and flex of this unit under operation causes movement of the window glass inside the plastic window holding clips on the window raise/lower mounting bracket, allowing the front to get "stuck" in the tight window frame runner while the back tries to continue raising and then the glass moves in the clips (because it isn't fixed well enough) allowing the flex of the badly mounted guiderail to permit even more freeplay to occur, and you have one bastard stuck window situation.
Once you unbolt the 4 bolts that retain this window regulator guiderail from the inner door panel ... go get 4 x 3/4" (or 1" if you prefer) bolts of the SAME METRIC THREAD (do not use imperial sized bolts) ... I think they are 6mm but you can easily match them with one of the ones you took out of the door, right ? B) Use a nut that matches to be sure that the threads have the same pitch, because your new bolts are going straight back into the welded nuts you'll find mounted on that window regulator guiderail. Get 24 or 28 (ok 30 in case you drop a couple in the grass) of flat washers to use for the Bulldoggie Spacer Trick. I used 5 on each bolt (6 might be even better) and one for each bolt head as the factory ones were flanged and your hardware store replacements will probably not be. Once you have it all tightly bolted back into place, it's obvious how much this eliminates the flex and regulator guide tabs leaving the guiderail ... the source of 90% of the problem in the first place.
I then moved the two plastic window holding brackets forward the 1/4" or available freeplay that was apparent, to balance the window pivot point further forwards (it's not much but every little bit helps) and reduce the tendancy to lift the rear, while the front sticks, causing the glass to tilt forwards and leave the window frame along the back edge.
I then epoxied liberally over both holding clips ...basically burying the plastic holding clips completely in PC-7 Heavy Duty Epozy Paste ... so that you couldn't see the clips anymore and the epoxy sets on the glass itself locking the clips inside. This stops the glass from moving in the clips which is where the dynamics of the window lift and the rearward bias of the regulator arm create a tendancy to generate flex that manifests itself through the freeplay of the glass mounted in those plastic holding clips. Since you eliminated the exaggeration of this with the repositioning of the guiderail outwards with the previous Bulldoggie Spacer Trick, then when you elimiate the movement or flex in the holding clip/glass interaction by burying it in this excellent PC-7 Heavy Duty Epoxy ... you're 99% fixed and long term too I might add.
Last thing. The last little 1%. Lithium grease. Run some of this inside the front rubber window guide just around (above and below) the sill line where the glass first rises out of the door skin. This is where the usual tight spot or binding occurs.
Leave the epoxy 24 hours to cure (at 70 degrees, more time if it's colder) and try to brace the glass INWARDS with a block of wood or something between the rear holding clip and the outside door panel while the epoxy is setting. This will help keep it all tight, and reduce flex or freeplay after everything is cured.
And that's it. Put the door trim panel back on (the front part of this can be really tricky to get in but don't force it until you KNOW you have it in the correct position (good advice at any time with anything B) and even then, don't force it too much although it might need some muscle to "click" into place.
No drilling. Total time about 1 hour not including curing time for the epoxy.
Cost to fix ... $10.
Working reliable electric window glass ...
Priceless. Heh heh ... never did that whole mastercard thing before. It wasn't that funny afterall. B)
Last edited by Doc : 03/11/2006 at 01:09 PM
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
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