POWER WINDOW LIFT GEAR REBUILD for IDI vehicles

[SDEconVan]

Rebuilds of this sort are all over the internet, this is specific to our idi genre. More specific, this is for the E-Series vans, but also will apply to F-Series.
(in fact F-Series is a little easier because Ford marked where to drill in order to access the power window motor mount bolts, and in the E-Series they did not)

SYMPTOM:
Your power windows go down but they won't come back up on their own. You can grab the glass and "help" it back up in some cases before the clutch is
totally blown.

DESCRIPTION:
The window regulator inside the door is operated by an electric motor which is mounted to the regulator itself. The regulator/motor is RIVETED in place to
the inboard side of the door shell.

Between the regulator's driven quadrant gear and the motor is a transmission/clutch of sorts. Ford deemed it necessary to have this clutch to avoid injury
from shutting windows on people.

The worm drive coming out of the motor is quite powerful so the clutch is a semi-locked concentric pair of gears with 3 elastomer "dowel elements" which
squeeze slightly when the system gets overloaded, thereby letting the concentric pair of gears to "slip" and halt the window movement.

ISSUE:
The 3 elastomer elements degrade over time. With the IDI vehicles this happens quite often nowadays. The plastic pegs literally disintegrate letting the
clutch to slip under even a slight load.

(This is why we see the window roll down okay (very low load on clutch) but start to have problems rolling the window up (moderate load.)

SOLUTION:
There are various solutions available. One is to drill out the rivets and replace the whole regulator/motor assembly. Not only is this not necessary, it's a
big hassle.

The better approach is to remove JUST THE MOTOR from the regulator, leaving the regulator riveted in place. The motor is bolted to the regulator with
3 small bolts.

The motor removal requires removal of the Interior Door Panel, Handles, Switches, Speakers and any other door-panel-mounted devices, then DRILLING
3 holes in the sheet metal of the door shell (inside side,) to access the 3 bolts.

GETTING STARTED:
You'll need to get a kit(s) for your window. I got 2 although just my passenger's side was acting up, as I know it would
not be long before the driver's side would let go too.

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Dorman 747-412 "Window Motor Gear Kit" I think 747-409 will get you just the plastic parts and one gear, but for about 3-5 dollars more
you get a well-supplied kit. After shopping around a bit I found the 412 kit for 15 each, shipped. I think it was JC Whitney (not affililated.)

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With 412 you get all this including the lube! ha ha One gear is plastic the other pot metal, just like OEM, maybe better.

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Another view of the kit, just to show that metal gear.


Interiors vary, mine is a little more involved being a Club Wagon Van, but basic hand tools gets it done pretty quickly.

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With door skin removed, locate the window regulator mounting RIVETS (4 aluminum splay style rivets.) The rivets are easy to
spot, they almost look out of place in the door but are very effective in overcoming the primary shear loads from the kick back
of the regulator, much better than bolts would do it.

NOTE: This is a passenger's side door from a VAN (truck is very similar) Door hinge is to the left.

LOCATE THE 3 MOTOR MOUNT DRILLING POINTS
The motor is usually toward the hinge from these FOUR ALUMINUM RIVETS. You cannot see the motor, so the locations
of the motor mount bolts must be located. This is the hardest part, but it's not too hard if you have a template!

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NOTE: I am holding the plate in this photo BACKWARDS (square end should be AWAY from the regulator, towards the hinges)

This hole pattern is marked with dimples in the trucks! With the vans you will have to get a little mirror and sight that first hole. What I
did was take pictures of the inside of the door then look at the pics (phone pics.)

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View inside the door, looking towards the hinges, with interior of van to the left in the photo. Note the RIVETS.
(Motor casing can just be seen beyond the division bar of the vent window.)

*When you look at the aluminum rivet pattern, note the holes to be drilled are centered vertically between the horizontal rivet lines. That is, if
you strike a horizontal line through the two upper rivets and do the same for the two lower rivets, then the holes you make will be evenly spaced
in the up and down orientation. The only challenge is to get the HORIZONTAL location for that first hole (which is why we look at the inside
of the door so many times.)

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View inside the door, laying on your back, looking up at the motor housing, door hinges would be at bottom of photo. Note one
bolt can be seen in center of photo.

^^^NOTE: This hole locating effort is specific to the VANS. Trucks have the hole locations marked!

I used a Uni-bit but a 1/2" bit will do the same. Of course, you should first drill a small 1/10 inch dia hole first to "explore" then you can "push" your
larger and larger drill bits into a better position to correct for any miss on your first estimate...

The first hole I did was the uppermost hole (see the distress on the hole's edge from pushing my uni-bit)

Once you get that first hole the rest is easy, use the metal cover from the rebuild kit as a bolt guide, BE SURE to have the square end of that
plate toward the door hinges, NOT like I have in the pic (I was just locating the upper and lower holes, NOT the third forward hole.)
Zooming into those two holes I drilled, you can see the bolt heads that you will slide a long socket onto, to remove the motor.

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Once all 3 holes are drilled, remove the motor.

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This is the proper orientation of the motor in E-Series, Trucks are tilted, but that won't matter, since the holes you will drill are already marked
out as dimples in the sheet metal. NOTE the square part of the metal plate I showed earlier, is CORRECT in this photo.

(There is a fourth fastener, a smaller Phillip's head screw, to fasten the plate to the motor casing, but it has nothing to do with mounting the motor)

(continued...)

 

[SDEconVan]

REBUILDING THE MOTOR GEAR
Clean the motor off, I used Purple Power with a rag, seems to cut through this particular slime really well

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If you had problems with the window not moving, you will find pieces (along with a lot of grease)

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Two of the elastomer dowels were way out of round, and the third was in pieces. My window had just started to hesitate going back up.

There's a little rubber o-ring on the gear shaft that acts to hold the gears in place. Use a pick to get it off, then twist and slide the gears
whilst pulling up to get them off the worm gear of the motor...

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The grease supplied was also grey in color, although it does not smell like moly, (neither the old nor new grease.) The kit was generous with
the amount of grease.

I used Purple Power (got on sale a NAPA like 2-3 bucks!) and it cleaned really well. Used paper towels and got it scooped out,

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Here's a comparo of the old and new parts,

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See the pieces of the old elements, lower left. Also note the smaller metal concentric gear was different in the kit. BUT, this was
only true for my driver's side, it was an exact match for the passenger's side. (Another good reason to buy the full kit rather than
the 409, which is just the 3 elements and outer white concentric gear.)

This is how you want the new elements to sit,

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I show this because the fit is tight, and it took a little figuring, before I found a way (remember, all this stuff is to be coated in the
supplied grease,) I didn't grease whilst figuring and to show what I did:

ONE of the dowel pieces is down inside the white plastic gear, but the other TWO are up high

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The trick is to BAAAARELY insert the metal gear into the white plastic gear, like a 1/16th of an inch. This gives you juuuust enough
space to slip the other two dowel pieces in place, slightly sloped outwards to let them ramp into the white gear.

Both gears together with dowels in place,

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This is WITHOUT the needed grease, the dowels must be allowed to slip over the ridges of the tri-cam in the gear, so put lots of grease
on them.

View with the Plate in place,

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NOTE the Plate has a grease lip seal, which goes towards the metal gear.

Before buttoning up, be sure to slide the little o-ring onto the shaft, it retains the gear assembly on the shaft.

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Lots of grease, mostly inside the case...

(continued...)

 

[SDEconVan]

Ready to go back in,

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(At this point I did a bunch of other stuff, replaced the beltline and channels (be sure to shoot some silicone spray on the fuzzies,) and then
got it all back together)

Done!

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(Yeah, I got a little fancy and put some plugs over the holes, makes them look important, maybe for future service by somebody...)

Best regards,
George

 

[BDCarrillo]

There is another possible point of the slippage on some gearbox configurations. The gear that engages the regulator fits into a hexagonal hole on the part that engages the elastomer dowels. I had one motor where the hexagonal hole got wallered out and would let the final drive gear slip.

 

[SDEconVan]

Great info BDCarillo! What year and model had that?

Best regards,
George

 

[riotwarrior]

My buddies OBS SC drivers window did this.....I had spare reg and sold it to him....he did exactly what you did...apparently the holes were already drilled as someone was in there before....anyeay he pulled motor n gears from min stuck it in his...voila fixed...thiz was 3 days ago....now I see what he did thanks to you!!!

Thanks for this write up it needs to be a sticky or shoved to tech articles

 

[Koch13351]

Thanks for this write up! Been having to help my windows up since I've got my truck. Will be using this as guide soon!

 

[BDCarrillo]

Great info BDCarillo! What year and model had that?

Best regards,
George

Late 92 had a cast two-part piece that engaged the dowels. 91 spare part had a stamped one piece part that engaged the dowels and had the final drive gear attached.

1/4" nuts will also work to replace the round bushings/dowels, but that decreases thesafety factor if you roll the window up on your arm.

If I ever open them back up I'll contribute photos.

Pic stolen from net. Two part gear (silver). Note that the top geared tooth fits into a hexagonal cutout in the main body of the gear (that engages dowels)

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[SDEconVan]

Noted BDCarrillo!

I show that type of hex/cog system also used on the Lincoln Town Cars in the same year range (along with dozens of other models.)

The window regulator is a cable operated system that slides over the hex/cog kinda like this one:

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Then the regulator stays in the door and the six-toothed cog (and motor,) get put back into the regulator that is shown above.
That's a Lincoln Town Car, 1995, so I'm not sure on the specifics for your truck, but it's probably similar.

The good thing is the overall concept is the same, there's three elastomer dowels and there is the larger white plastic gear that
the metal gear sets down in (with a little persuading...)

Thanks for the contribution!

Best regards,
George