Automatic Power Windows?

[LCAM-01XA]

You bet! Better half somehow managed to persuade me into actually doing a write-up on this, so there ya go... The original file is a PDF, but it's too big to upload it directly as such, so instead of breaking it into pieces I chose to ZIP it. This mod can be applied to just about any older Ford vehicle with existing power windows, possibly to other makes and models as well but I haven't had time to test that last part quite yet

 

[TWeatherford]

Thats pretty sweet. Thanks for doing the writeup.

 

[subway]

nice, i like it. now i need to upgrade to power windows and this.....

 

[GreenDiesel]

After dealing with automatic windows in my Bronco, I condider the manual cranks in my XL an upgrade

 

[The Warden]

I've been spoiled by the Town Cars at work (and now by my Jetta)...this looks like a great mod, than you for writing this up!! I'm going to have to do this with my truck soon...

 

[Diesel_brad]

I am spoiled with my ranger for the auto down feature and am lost in my OBSs with out it

 

[itsacrazyasian]

I am spoiled with my ranger for the auto down feature and am lost in my OBSs with out it

add keyless with remote start and the auto up and down feature!

 

[Diesel_brad]

add keyless with remote start and the auto up and down feature!

Dont want auto sart. All my trucks are stick

 

[towcat]

i have no issue with the auto down feature. that's a good thing.
the auto up feature otoh, is a potential huge liability.

 

[itsacrazyasian]

my truck is manual too. Nobody drives it but me.

the auto up is only a liability if the safety balls are gone in the window motor. I put some nuts in the passenger door motor of my crown vic and my dog accidently stepped on the up button with his head out the window. Luckily i was nearby.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

good stuff!!!! thanks man.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

nice, i like it. now i need to upgrade to power windows and this.....

Oh, you will have lots of fun with that - front doors are easy, rears on the other hand, good luck tracking down a set of those - I put a full set of IIRC '96 doors on my crew, along with the harness for them, well parts of it at least. It's a lot of work, more annoying than hard really, but it was worth it IMHO.

After dealing with automatic windows in my Bronco, I condider the manual cranks in my XL an upgrade

You had a Bronco with automatic windows? Never seen one of those, what year was it, and what trim level?

i have no issue with the auto down feature. that's a good thing.
the auto up feature otoh, is a potential huge liability.

Actually I concur, auto-up is potentially dangerous, especially if as CrazyAsian said the plastic dowels from the motor gears have been replaced with 1/4" nuts or pieces of threaded rod or some other home-brew contraption. This is exactly the reason why I made my rear doors auto-down only, I simply cannot see behind me which moronic passenger is sticking which appendage of theirs out of which window. The situation around the front windows, on the other hand, I can easily see, so IMHO the auto-up feature is not nearly as risky there. There is also the fact that for all intents and purposes only two people actually drive these trucks (or can even start them for that matter) - me and the fiancee, which I'd like to believe greatly reduces the chance of driver-error. However, I do plan on adding a safety feature of a sort to the system, maybe not in the small truck but for the crew IMHO it's pretty much mandatory - a lockout for all the non-driver power window switches. Haven't gotten to that part quite yet, like I've mentioned before as odd as it may seem I actually truly hate wiring work, so it will be a while before I start ripping door panels out again and diving into the mess...

Thank you for bringing this up, by the way, as usually you have an excellent point there, and the example with CrazyAsian's dog clearly illustrates it. For that I will edit the PDF later on tonight, to include a warning about the dangers of the auto-up system - from there on it's everyone's own call which setup to install in their vehicles

 

[GreenDiesel]

You had a Bronco with automatic windows? Never seen one of those, what year was it, and what trim level?


Yea its an '87 bricknose, Came with the Eddie Bauer edition which means power everything, even the 4x4 is run off an electric solenoid like many of the newer trucks are.

The window motors gave a long time ago, I usually leave them down in the summer (no A/c) and fix them to stay up in the winter.

Although with this past summer's extreme drought and record highs, I took more drastic measures ;p

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Nice writeup though, I may do this if I ever do fix the fron windows in the BKO

 

[LCAM-01XA]

GreenDiesel, so you didn't have really automatic windows in that Bronco, just regular power windows - which is just what I had too, till I upgraded to these setups in the PDF. By the way, the "bricknose" style window motors are rebuildable, well it depends on the carnage inside them, but sometimes they are not really dead per se, just stuck due to rust buildup - take them apart and see what you find in there. If they are totally shot, raid a U-Pull-It yard and grab a pair of rear window motors from an '80s "box"-body Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, or Lincoln TownCar - they will fit directly in place of what you have now, and being in the rear doors of a nice air-conditioned vehicle chances are they didn't see much use at all.

Anyways, I edited the PDF to include more information on the risks involved with the auto-up feature, this should cover all bases pretty good.

 

[Boston]

seems like a good place to ask, I recently replaced the door on the drivers side of my truck. it was all power windows but the drivers side was broken anyway so I just nixed it and replaced with a manual window. But I also wanted to keep the passenger side a power unit. The only problem is that now that I've hooked it all back up I get no reaction from the passenger side. Do I need to cross connect the cut off wires on the drivers side thats no longer there in order to get the passenger side working?

Seems like it would short something out but then again, it is a Ford.