Early window regulator?

[rdvnac]

Well, the other day I was in a hurry to roll up my passenger window, and grabbed the window crank and pushed when I shoulda pulled. The result was a "pop" followed by a crank happily spinning its way to nowhere, and the window glass stuck inside the door below the level of the opening. Gotta love those early 914 window mechanisms....

I removed the interior panel, popped the roller back on its track, and everything seemed fine.

BUT, now the effort to raise the glass is much higher, and it makes a nasty grinding sound beginning about halfway up its travel. Two questions:

1. What got knocked out of whack to cause this grinding?

2. I am tempted to squirt Triflow or some other lubricant into the vertical window track and the regulator, but have some vague memory that this is not recommended. Any suggestions?

[red-beard]

I've already "fixed" mine twice on my "new" 914/6....I feel your pain.

Take the panel off the door and then manually raise the glass out of the way.

The glass has a couple of tracks which it runs on and the center one has the actual lifting mechanism. I bet you're going to find that one of the mechanisms is off the track _and_ that the stop at the bottom is bent (Running it the wrong way will do this). Which one is off the track, I don't know.

Also make sure that the center track is not bent, the stop for the cable lifter is not bent at the bottom and that the track is not off the guide roller.

Run the lifter up and down and find where it's not running right. If the window it self is hard to lift, the window is probably off the track near the end of the door.

It is times like these that the factory manual are invaluble. Pictures are worth a thousand words!

James

[rdvnac]

Thanks James! Your description is excellent and I can picture the parts you're referring to.

Extra parts are still trickling in from the guy I bought my car from, and one of the items he is supposed to ship soon is a factory repair manual. Sure hope so.

In the meantime, this is a great starting point. Now if I can only get more than 5 minutes away from work and kids to muck with it again....

[maf 914]

I suggest that when you have the door panel and vapor barrier removed, take the time to clean and lube all of the window winder mechanisms you can reach. I found that after doing this my windows operated much more easily and smoothly. Now to get around to my windshield wipers, which act as if the're in slow motion.

Mike