Stiff manual windows

**trickyrix** · 02-13-2007, 08:44 AM

OK... before I get slammed for probably kicking a dead horse in the mouth, let me say that I searched the forum for solutions to cranky manual windows... and only found the standard "grease it up a little" answers (not that that's not good advice, mind you).

Having said that, here goes... I've already taken the doors apart and re-greased the window tracks, but that only seemed to help minimally. I find that the driver's window (and the passenger one to a lesser extent) gets more uncooperative the further I roll it down. Cold weather seems to aggravate things further - to the point that I feel like I'm going to strip the splines on the crank or break the

thing off. Anyhow, I think my next step is to check the whole regulator out - esp the mechanism behind the crank. Can that get gunked up? Should I just suck it up and replace the whole regulator assembly?

...none of my RX-7s ever had this problem...

**POS Racing** · 02-13-2007, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by trickyrix

...none of my RX-7s ever had this problem...

Aw boo hoo.........

Good stuff here, and yes you can lube the regulator!

**Treibenschnell** · 02-13-2007, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by POS Racing

Aw boo hoo.........

POS Racing: he's all heart!!

**trickyrix** · 02-13-2007, 10:01 AM

Aw, shucks... you guys are the best!

**Radio-Active** · 02-13-2007, 10:24 AM

Maybe the window sill felt is all worn off or the sill is rolling under. This will cause the sill to grab on to the window. Also, you may want to check and see if the regulator wire is going around the pulleys and that the pulleys haven't broken, stuck, or become flat spotted.

Also, some grease turns really thick with cold weather. I used to use spray on motorcycle chain lube for mine on previous cars.

**Majik** · 02-13-2007, 11:29 AM

When you regreased, did you clean out all the old gunk?

**sammm** · 02-13-2007, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by Majik

When you regreased, did you clean out all the old gunk?

Isn't that a question for jrj512?

**black roadster** · 02-13-2007, 12:50 PM

Also spray silicon spray, not lithium grease, in the rubber window channels. Lithium grease works ok for the metal tracks but not rubber.

Did you look to see if it is hanging up on something inside the door?

**trickyrix** · 02-13-2007, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by black roadster

Also spray silicon spray, not lithium grease, in the rubber window channels. Lithium grease works ok for the metal tracks but not rubber.

Did you look to see if it is hanging up on something inside the door?

I double-checked and nothing's hanging it up inside the door, the felt lip at the top of the door isn't interfering, I used the right kind of grease, and I did a pretty fair job of cleaning out the old gunk... although I could probably do a better job of it if I took out the whole assembly. That being the case (and since it's really, really, really windy and cold outside), I couldn't help myself when I was at Town North just now, and I bought a new regulator...

I figured I could take it apart and put it back together a few more times while beating myself over the head, or I could just put in a new regulator and be done with it for a while... oh well.

Anyhow, I'm going to get the old one cleaned up and if I can fix it, I'll let y'all know...

Thanks for the input!

**johnwag** · 02-13-2007, 07:32 PM

My manual windows are progressively more difficult as well. My dad lubed the windows when I first got the car, but they've always been difficult. Dunno, what the deal is.....

**channelmaniac** · 02-13-2007, 10:53 PM

Take the old window out, clean the caked up lube off of the plastic sliders and check them for roundness. On my spec project car one of the round plastic sliders that screw to the bottom of the window had cracked and gone out of round causing it to be difficult.

RJ

**trickyrix** · 02-19-2007, 08:39 PM

I swapped regulators today and, sure enough, the old one was stiff and cranky, even without the window attached (but it didn't look broken down or anything). I got everything put back together and it works MUCH better. Also, I attacked the trailing edge window track with a can of carb cleaner and a bunch of rags - I cleaned out about 8 pounds of caked-on gunk and grease. It's still not 100%, but I ran out of daylight. Tomorrow I'll finish it up and re-lube everything - esp the front track, since it seems snatchy and squeaky even though it's clean. The good news is that nothing seemed to be really binding up. All in all, it was a pretty easy swap - I spent more time de-gunking the tracks than I did on the regulator R&R.

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