My passenger window has been working occasionally and now not at all. Is this going to be a PIA/expensive to fix?

 

Depends if you plan on doing this yourself. If it is just a bad motor- removal of door panel, inner door frame, and window regulator. Not to hard. Might want to verify a good working switch. You might luck out and just be a bad one. I've seen motors anywhere from 25 to 75 dollars.

 

Is there any way to check the switch before I tear into the door?

 

Mine was a bad switch. Actually it was the driver's side combo switch but only the driver's side window part failed, the passenger window side of the switch was ok. Easy and cheap fix.

I suppose one could check for continuity with a DVM.

 

On mine- I swapped the drivers side and the passenger side switches then tested. If trouble moves, it's the switch.

 

When my drivers' side window stopped working, I reversed the switches and I found out that the switch was bad. It's the easiest check and the most inexpensive. It's very easy to do. If you can use a screwdriver, you can do it. At least on my 85 it was simple.

 

Great info, but would you elaborate further, please. I don't have the problem, yet, but would like to have the information just in case.

Thanks,
JoeB.

 

If you look by the window switches, you will see a bunch of screws. You need to remove all of them. I believe you also need to remove the console screws, and some screws that are on the dash. What you need to do is remove the screws by the window switch, so you can lift it up the switch to get to the connector that the switch is connected to. If you tug on the switch, you will see and feel where the resistance is coming from, so you will know which other screws need to come undone. Keep doing this until you have good access to the window switch connectors (under the window switch). When you do, you need to pry them off. I used a flathead screwdriver. I pried them both off and reversed them. When the problem went to the other window, I knew I had a switch problem.

It can't hurt to disconnect the battery. You won't be able to accidentally short something if there's no power going to the switches.

 

If you look by the window switches, you will see a bunch of screws. You need to remove all of them. I believe you also need to remove the console screws, and some screws that are on the dash. What you need to do is remove the screws by the window switch, so you can lift it up the switch to get to the connector that the switch is connected to. If you tug on the switch, you will see and feel where the resistance is coming from, so you will know which other screws need to come undone. Keep doing this until you have good access to the window switch connectors (under the window switch). When you do, you need to pry them off. I used a flathead screwdriver. I pried them both off and reversed them. When the problem went to the other window, I knew I had a switch problem.

It can't hurt to disconnect the battery. You won't be able to accidentally short something if there's no power going to the switches.

By the way, I used to live in Levittown; Pretty close to your home.

 

I am in the process of replacing my Window Motors. Here are few things I learned.

1. If the Drivers side window motor OR switch go bad, then the passenger side won't work at all. So if both windows aren't working test the drivers side first.
2. To test a bad motor versus a bad switch, on either door, take the feed connector off of the motor and run power directly from the car battery to the motor. You can do this without having to disasemble your whole window regulator (which is a pain in the ***) and it helps you quickly isolate which part is defective. I took two strands of speaker wire and stripped both ends, hooked up jumper cables to the battery, connected a single wire to each open end of the jumper cables, then pressed the open end of the wires to the feed connectors of the window motor. Crude but it works just fine - reverse the wires for up/down motion. If motor works then you know you have a bad switch. If the motor doesn't work you will still need to test the switch. Easiest way to do this is hook up the new motor (doesn't have to be connected to the window assembly yet) to the feeder cable coming off of the switch. Flip the switch to see if the new motor turns, if not then you know you have a bad switch too.
3. If the left motor is bad and you are able to do the quick test, as described above, make certain you flip the switch for the passenger window while the new motor is hooked up. If you know your driver switch is good (with the new motor) and the passenger side window still doesn't work, then you will need to repeat step 2 on the passenger side.
4. The window wiring is a relay circuit so if the drivers side motor or switch goes bad then it will cause the passenger to stop working, but not vise versa.

5. Getting the window regulator out is not an easy task, even if you have done it before. It takes considerable time thus is the reason any respectable vette shop will charge about $850. The labor is probably 2.5 hours per window. If you do take it to a shop make certain they are only replacing the motor which only costs about $80 for the part. Because its a pain in the *** to get the motor off the regulator most dealers will just replace the whole regulator/motor assembly which costs about $375 for the part, though they won't tell you this and simply charge your for a whole new assembly even though one wasn't needed. The regulator itself rarely evergoes bad (unless its coil breaks - but is highly unlikely)

6. If you do the whole thing yourself you will run into one last obstacle. Once you verified the motor is bad and you get the whole regulator/motor assembly out of the door then you have to figure out a way to get the motor off the regulator. This poses a challenge because the motor is bolted to the regulator with inset rivet type bolts. There are no hexagon bolts, or screw driver heads to grab onto. The only thing I have been told is to drill them out. But once you drill out these bolts you must replace them with flush bolt heads. There is about 1/2 a centimeter between the regulator arms that will swing by each other as the window goes up and down which means you can't simply put a regular bolt/nut to replace the drilled out ones because the swing arm would smack right into the bolt. Once you get the regulator/motor out of the door you will see what I am talking about. Thus the last challenge is finding appropriate replacement bolts that won't interfere with the regulators swinging arms.

7. If you are uncomfortable doing #6, as I am. Then take the whole assembly and the new motor to your local dealer/mechanic and have them do it. I am not comfortable drilling out those bolts and not comfortable about finding appropriate replacements - which I haven't been able to find. I took mine to a local mechanic who charged me $48 to drill out the existing rivet bolts, and replace the motor (that I supplied) with new rivet bolts. The problem seems to be finding a big enough rivet gun to do the job right.

I have the Haynes Repair Manual for my 92 Vette. It tells you how to completely drop your motor, replace your axiles and a variety of other highly complicated procedures. But when you get to the section on how to replace your window motors it says "due to the difficulty of replacing window motors take your vette to your local dealer". For what its worth.