'78 Window motor repair
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 103
Likes: 1
From: Bailey CO
'78 Window motor repair
Neither window wanted to go up and down on my car without a hand pushing or pulling them. I finally bought the rebuild kits and new anti-rattle pads and took the interior door panels off to have a look and here's what I found on both sides:
The rivets that hold the window motor to the door were all either broken or loose.
I pulled the motor out of both doors and found that the lower mount for was broken off at the rivets:
So I fired up the mig and fixed it:
And then pulled some 1" long button head screws out of my "I'm never going to throw any of this stuff away" drawer:
And tacked them in place:
And reinstalled the motor in the door and tightened everything up:
I just wanted to share the repair.. may not be original, but makes it a heck of a lot easier to service the window motor.
The rivets that hold the window motor to the door were all either broken or loose.
I pulled the motor out of both doors and found that the lower mount for was broken off at the rivets:
So I fired up the mig and fixed it:
And then pulled some 1" long button head screws out of my "I'm never going to throw any of this stuff away" drawer:
And tacked them in place:
And reinstalled the motor in the door and tightened everything up:
I just wanted to share the repair.. may not be original, but makes it a heck of a lot easier to service the window motor.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 5,236
Likes: 898
From: Myrtle Beach SC
Interesting fix. So basically, the windows motors were not working effectively due to the lack of solid mounting of the motors. It looks like in your first photo, compared to the last, that one of the rivets had corroded and fallen out. What you did was replace the rivets with screws, that you tacked into place. Is that about it?
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 103
Likes: 1
From: Bailey CO
The windows had some other issues such as 34 year old grease in the tracks and they weren't adjusted after the PO painted it. I did pull the tracks and rails to clean them and cover with white lithium. As for the motors, though.. The lower mounting tab was broken off of both at them where they rivet. I welded the lower mount on both motors and tacked those screws to them and now the motor is easily serviceable. The bottom of the doors had several rivet ends and some threaded inserts so previous owners had tried to come up with some sort of solution which makes me assume that this is somewhat of an issue with these old cars.
