I read an old thread that said that lubing them will help. Lithium grease?
Thanks Randy

 

Slow usually means they are the way out. I've replaced one, in the middle of summer no less, and now I need to replace the passanger side one. It is not fun work.

 

Theres almost no slides to lube...

Most likely u need a new power window motor which stated above is NOT fun work...

what a pain in the ***.

 

What about old batt cables? I know my motors probly need replaced, but the cables on the car are original, maybe they need replaced also?

 

I just did this today in fact. I pulled the driver's side door panel to clean/lube the window and dool lock parts and install new inside and outside handles. It is kinda hard to get to all of the three channels to lube them. Anyway, first I shot the snot out of them with WD40 and tried my best to get in there with a rag and pick up some of the old grease and dirt (helps to move the window to different positions so you can get to more of the channels). Once you get tired of that, then shot the snot out of it with lithium grease. Don't expect any miracles, but it is certainly worth you time. I recently had to replace my passenger window motor, and it wasn't cheap (after reading the how-to's on DYI I decided I'd rather pay someone else to fuss with it). Call around though and see if a body shop will be willing to do it if you bring your own motor. I only paid $20 in labor, but got shafted $180 for the part (it's like $70 at Checkers). That low labor price was in part because I pulled the door panel before I brought it in. Good luck with it! Thirdgens and their lovely 10 ton windows!

 

Now, for my curiosity, just how slow are we talking about here? I always thought mine were what we considered to be slow, but then I heard/read some people discussing greasing and whatnot, and getting times of almost 20 seconds to roll up! For me it's about 7 up, 5 down.. I thought this was real slow, but is it?

 

No joke about the windows weighing a lot. My ***, Doing this by yourself is not advised. especially now that it's hot outside and unless you have a nice air conditioned garage, you will be sweating your *** off, and the window will be that much harder to hold on to while you try to get it lined up and in the channels.

Oh and do this in the shade, glass gets real hot in the sun.

 

hahaha

I normally would never take my car in for ANY sort of mechanical work that I can do myself... But... After hearing the horror stories about this...

I'm thinking about pulling the panel, going and buying the motor, then taking it in.

 

First of all, slow power windows doesn't necessarily mean you need new motors. Really really really slow power windows does. But our windows are slow to begin with and there's not much of anything you can do about that. Grease helps a little.

Second, replacing the motors aren't as bad as everyone makes it seem. It's a pain in the ***, and you should count on scraping up your hands pretty good, but it's not that bad. Use a drill to drill out the rivets that hold the existing motors in, carefully pull them out, put new ones in and fasten them with bolts that are the same size as the hole that the rivets were in. It's about a two to three hour job per door, but you could be doing something harder.

 

I havnt replaced mine, but when I do thats what I would expect it to be like. YES you could be doing something harder like replacing a flywheel!

 

Replacing a flywheel isn't that bad to me.

Just don't try to take any shortcuts, it will make it easier on you in the long run to just rip the damn trans completely... It's only a U-Joint and a few more bolts anyways.

I took a look at the window motor a few minutes ago and it doesn't seem all THAT bad. Do I have to remove the entire window assembly?

Seems like I could just drill out the rivets and pull it out from underneath without messing with anything else. Looks like a fairly quick and straightforward job actually, but I couldn't see how it was mated to the gearing on the window...

How involved is that part?

 

The scissor assembly will invariably be in the wrong position when you lower the window, and it will take 3 tries to get all the rollers in the tracks. And at some point you will loose grip on the windown and it will make the scissor part pinch your hand in the door.

It really isn't that hard, but for people with big hands it is a pain moving it around in the door trying to get the right angle on everything.

 

I took a shortcut in putting the flywheel in, put 4 longer bolts in slid the traine back, even left the drv shaft in, no problems.

 

Just to ask again - how slow is slow? I'm getting similar times to Justin - less than 10 secs each way.

Mark.

 

this has been discussed over and over but here are my results.....

i thought my windows were slow (approx 6 seconds for both up and down; but the pass side would stop with about 2 cm left and need a rest). after some research i found you could run some relays to the window motors and speed up the windows. the window motors do go bad but in all honesty if you are around 10 seconds and the windows go all the way up and down dont mess with changing them, you dont need to.

if you want to speed up your windows you need to make sure you're electrical system is in proper order, which i will bet you it isnt. these cars are at minimum 13 years old and everything is starting to go out on them. run new power and ground wires from your battery (or distro blocks inside the car) to your window switches (if you dont tie into a switched power source you dont even need your key to operate the windows, which comes in handy). that was my main culprit. but remember its more than likely not only one problem with these old cars. next run new power and ground wires from the switches to the window motors themselves. you wouldnt believe what new wiring will do for your car. finally for good measure take apart the tracks inside the door and clean them very very well and lube them up again. if you would like you could install new motors and you would then have the best thirdgen windows possible.

but take that info elsewhere....run new wiring to your headlights, foglights, fuel pump, electric hatch release, door locks etc etc and your car would start to work like new again!

any questions just ask

 

I didn't think it was half as bad as everyone here made it out to be. I didn't have any problems sliding the motor/scissors in and out of the door.... just mark and take out the bottom bolt out of the track that's in the way. It was rather simple. =P

I think the longest part for me was cleaning the inside of the door and laying down some soundproofing.

 

yea im sure it isnt that bad but i just didnt bother with removing the stuff. after i found out new wiring was needed i didnt hassle with it. i did lube up the three tracks inside the door tonight though and while i didnt notice much of a difference at all i feel much better that i at least slapped some white grease on them.

 

my driver window takes a good 15 seconds to roll up and the passenger takes about 8. i have new motors ready to go in but i heard that you should riviot the motors in instead of bolting them. is this true

 

I suppose riveting is quicker and easier, probably cheaper too.

Driver's window on mine suffers from some kind of dodgy connection (if I power it all the way down then it won't come back up without plenty of fiddling with the connector etc. - work around is don't power it all the way). Speed-wise the windows are fine, thanks guys!
EDIT - took the opportunity to add grease to the tracks and gears when I fitted new weatherstrips on the door tops.

Mark.

 

i never heard dont rivet them...bolting them just makes it that much easier to remove in case they need to be taken out again

 

i do beli=ve i heard it on this board or at a body shop. i cant remember where though but they said that because of the movement and torque of the motor it will loosen up the bolts

 

her power door locks and windows were slow or didn't engage all the way

pulled the panels off
hit it with white lithium greeze in the can
and they work nice now, almost as good as new

i personally hate GM power windows, they are always slow

 

my friend has a 79 rs and his windows are way too fast. i would love to have a set of motors like that in my car.

 

Friend comented on my power windows, he says we can have ah whole conversation while I put the windows up on my Camaro. he has a mid 90s eagle Talon, the power windows on it must have a turbo charger on them! Damn there fast