As many of you know I have stripped everything from my 73 preparing for the body removal.
I am getting ready to remove the glass from the doors and remove the power window motors.
I am leaving the door latches and strikers in place until the body comes back from the painter.

At this time the windows are partially up.
Do they need to be down or up all the way to remove the glass?
Do I need to remove the motors first or is there a manual gear on the motors I can access to move the windows up or down?
Do you guys have any tips or procedures on the best way to remove the glass?
The AIM and Service Manuals are really vague about how to do this.

Thanks in advance,
Greg

 

Hopefully you saw the "related thread" that shows up at the bottom of your post from 2008. If I remember right, that's how I took mine out too.

 

I see it now, Thanks!

 

That thread still doesn’t explain much.
Even the question about the springs being a hazard doesn’t get answered and the op never followed up.

 

I pulled my passenger door glass a couple weeks back and I don't remember exactly how I did it.
I was removing and loosening things until it came out.

First I removed the door panel and the outer window seal.

I removed the u-shaped stops from the top of the tracks, then I think I removed the nuts holding the glass to the channel - after re-reading this and thinking about it I would do this last.
These nuts go onto bolts that are secured to the glass, so there should be no need to hold those bolts from the backside.

Then I loosened all the hardware securing both tracks to the door, this gave me some room to get them out of the way while I maneuvered the glass out of the door.

Somewhere I read about tipping the glass forward, to slide it up and out. I think the front roller came up off the front track and I pulled the window up out of the door.

 

You can remove the glass with the motors in place. I raise the window almost all the way up - about an inch shy of fully raised. That lines up the nuts that hold the glass to the track with the access holes. You’ll need to bump the window up and down a bit to find the sweet spot to get a socket in there.

Once you’ve removed the nuts, you can pull up on the glass and wiggle it out. Usually tilting it forward or backward to get one end clear allows more movement to get the other side out. The rollers tend to get hung up on the top metal door lip, so for me it’s a matter of working the glass up, down and back and forth until it’s maneuvered free. A spotter helps in case your greasy hands or tired arms start to lose grip on the pane.

Hope that helps some. Wish I had some pictures for you, but it’s hard to hold a camera while wrestling with window glass.

 

I guess it would be a pita with inop window motors.

 

That sounds right.I did mine back in ~2004 so memory is a little spotty. Had to replace some rollers, etc.

Honestly though, if the alignment is good and the nothing is rattling, I would leave the glass in and roll it all the way down. With the interior panels remove, they can mask the top of the glass pretty easily.

Getting the glass aligned afterwards is a PITA. Worse on a convertible. I had to align my glass to my hardtop and then align the soft top to the glass.

 

Thanks, It really helps getting tips from those who have gone through it already.

 

This is pretty much like the UTube videos I watched explained how to do it.
Thanks!

 

It will be, because I’ve removed all electrical from the car and I don’t see anyway to manually adjust the windows.
One video I watched, the guy removed the motors first then he was able to pull the glass all the way up.

 

That’s correct. If the motors and regulators are out then the glass just slides up and down freely in their tracks. They’re probably sitting in the bottom of the door 🙂.

 

If you apply 12 volts to one side of the 2 wire connector on the motor it goes up, 12 volts to the other terminal sends the window down.
The motor case is the ground connection.
You have to move the window up & down to put the 1/4 inch bolt through the big gear. (nut in the picture) Now you can safely remove all the other parts.

 

Thanks Peterbuilt.
The alignment instructions are great and the diagram you sent is much clearer than the page in my AIM.
I knew I kept the battery for a good reason.
Now I can use it to power the motors, witch will make this much easier.
The side and rear window glass all look to be in great shape and may all be the original pieces.
I already purchased all new parts to rebuild and replace everything in the doors.
Thanks again!

 

Today I spent about three hours in the garage and removed the window, motor, slides and regulator from the passenger side door.
The videos and the information from everyone was a big help, but it turned out to be a trial and error kind of task.
After removing the stops, all the bolts across the top of the door and the nuts from the rollers on the window, I still couldn’t get the front of the glass to come up and out.
I removed the motor and loosened all the channel bolts, but the one bolt threads on the front of the glass and the front roller wouldn’t come out of the track.
I continued to try and manipulate the glass all over but no luck.
I ended up stuffing a large beach towel up into the door and removed the regulator bolts and let the spring uncoil.
Once I removed the towel and let the glass slide down everything was nice and loose but still no luck getting the glass to disengage and come out.
As I sat there going through the videos and looking at the door in 109 degree heat, I realized there was still one bolt in the lower front portion of the door that I missed.
Once I removed that bolt, everything slid out, the glass came up and out and all the rollers came off the slides.
The slides and regulator came out the bottom opening and I was done.
I didn’t even scratch or crack the glass.
It was a good afternoon.
Tomorrow I’ll get the other side done.

 

If you haven't found parts yet, Corvette Central sells everything you need to put the doors back together like new.
They also have a socket that fits the nut with two holes in it.

 

Corvette Central is great.
Thats where I buy most of my oem replacement parts.
I’ve found a few more things to add to my list that I need but I’ve already purchased most of everything I need inside the doors.