Getting to know my new baby. Original plan was to take the door panel off to repair the upper right screw hole which pulled through. Noticed the power window motor, which was working but very slow, staring right at me and begging for attention. Hours later ended up taking the motor, window and complete track system out. It is amazing the thing was working. In the process notice all latch joints have about 8X the amount of grease needed, all caked and full of dirt. So taking all that out also for a soak in cleaner and will regrease. Question - how do you guys get grease into those small joints and what kind of grease do you guys use on moving parts for window, door latch and seat tracks?

 

Ok guys. Guess this one is too simple to mess with. My normal solution would be to use a can of lithium grease with a skinny straw on the nozzle to spray into these tight spaces (like the door release mechanism or window rollers ) but was thinking you folks would have a tried and true process.

 

Spray lithium grease cans only allow a very small amount of grease to get where you want it. Lithium grease is used to lubricate rolling/sliding/meshing slow-moving parts. You really need to use grease from a tube and put it where it's needed for decent lubrication. You can use the spray cans for getting lube into tight places. Just realize that it won't get very much lube in there.

 

I believe you have two separate questions here . First, the door mechanism. It may have 8x the grease it "needs" so that the grease can get into those tight spaces. i would suspect that the grease may have dried out,or got dirty with age, but I suspect the quantity of grease was not a problem. I am wondering out loud whether this isn't the "factory" quantity you are seeing and it worked well for almost 50 years. My mechanisms were not a problem so I did not touch them. .

I took the window out of my door and washed the inside of the door to remove most of the dirt that will get on the new grease. I am in the process of replacing the window seal and the felt to keep dirt and moisture out.

As far as the window regulator is concerned, the nylon wheels where worn and loose at the pivots. I replaced all of these. Recognize that the wheels slide in the track. They do not rotate. There is some slight relative movement between the pivot and the wheel ID though and this is where the wear was. I hand forced as much grease into those joints as I could.

The window motor worked, but it struggled. i replaced the motor and when I took the old one apart I found the commutator was heavily caked with a black burnt carbon build-up. This probably was the cause of my window not wanting to close properly.

 

Grease--even in places that see light use compared to a wheel bearing--isn't eternal. You may also be seeing an excess of such because of previous work.

Watch out with the spray lubes. Supposedly it can work its way through the fiberglass and cause the paint to blister.

It's not particularly fun but it sounds like you need to disassemble, clean, replace (where necessary) and lubricate everything inside the door. Definitely replace the outer window seal if it's not fully intact and subtle.

 

needle grease fitting

and yeah, you need to clean out all the old stuff which is going to resemble candle wax... mine did, '76... took forever to get it all out. My window speed doubled after cleaning and lubing with some good moly grease.

 

Thanks Fellas. If it was factory, GM sure was sloppy back then. The door handle mechanism was a big ball of dirty grease, all over the housing which will never make it's way into a metal on metal joint. I've got all the door internals out and are soaking in my parts washer. New parts and new motor on the way. Do think it was an original motor as had a big ole Ac Delco on the side. I also picked up one of those needle attachments for a grease gun to see if I can force a little in and around the joints. Outer seal also needed replaced to keep everything dry.

 

We must have been typing at the same time, that is exactly what I picked up. Glad to hear you had success with it.

 

great minds think alike :P

and they work great for old ball joint boots that don't have zerks