Well I had to replace both window motors. One motor went out and the other sounded like a gear broke.

The passenger side it did my taking out the entire actuator. This was a total pain in the but. And when I put it back in I scraped up my window tint!!!

So for the drivers side I did a search and some reading up and saw that some people use the method of drilling 3 holes where the motor rivets are located. And then drilling out the motor rivets. (Some one even put up a template to print out and follow for drilling the holes). I did this and the motor dropped off the the actuator with no problem.

Installing the new motor was a snap. Only issue was working in small spaces with big fat hands when bolting up the new motor. But a little patience overcame that.

Now my car I would have to say it's pretty cherry and I balk at doing anything that involves drilling or cutting. But I would recommend this to anyone replacing a window motor on one of our cars. It was fast and easy.

Wish I had taken some pics.

 

I did this once and you make it sound so easy. The metal coil in there flew off on me and i had to rewind it and all that ****. whata pita. All this replacing stuff on a older car bothers me cause something happens everytime you go to fix it. LIke in your case, your tint got messed up.

 

i did mine in the spring time. i think you make it sound wayyyy to easy, but maybe its just me.

This was me doing my window motor: lol

 

glad im not the only one!!! going through the same problem *sigh* dreading attempting to do this....im praying its just the switch as the trim piece is broken...and it feels spongy (for lack of a better term) than the driver side window....

 

I did both of mine not too terribly long ago. Passenger side motor was totally shot, while the driver's side worked but was a little slow. It's really not that hard, it's just time-consuming at first, especially since you don't really know what your doing. Trying to get the regulator and window motor both in and out of that small cutout on the rear of the door is the biggest PITA.

Once you do 1 and get the hang of it, it's really pretty easy. First power window motor took me a whole day, second one took me 3 hours.

 

Well it was a pain in the butt on the passenger side when I took out both the motor and the regualtor. But don't do that. Just drill the holes and remove just the motor. It was pretty easy. Especially compared to removing the entire regulator assembly.

And if you do it that way, you will not have the problem of the spring coil flying off. Like it did on the passenger side. Just use some thing to support the window when you remove the motor. I used a golf club shaft holder and a small clamp. Just clamped it onto the window so it would only go so far down.

I'll see if I can find the template someone made for the holes to drill.

 

Here is the timplate.

 

Just line this up on your door, drill the holes and then drill out the rivets holding the window motor in place and it will fall right out.

I'm the kind of guy that stuff never works for. Everytime I try something I encounter every problem that everyone else had. But this worked like a charm. I was very surprised and quite pleased.

Give it a shot.

 

Do you have the passenger side templete??

 

Just reverse it!

 

Great, thanks alot, thats what i was thinking but dont wanna take the chance you know...

 

I just changed mine yesterday using the template and 3 drill hole method. It was very easy and didn't take much time at all. I would have been done quicker but for a minute I was kind of nervous about drilling holes in my door. Anyway for those of you who plan on changing power window motors anytime soon I would recommend this method.

Jay

 

well i just bought a motor and its in the mail so looks like i'll be doing it this weekend hope its easy... and are the door panels easy to remove i haven't even looked yet but just wondering since im here and not in the garage

 

I just replaced my drivers side motor not too long ago. I just took the whole regulator assembly out, put the new motor in, and riveted the regulator back to the door. It wasn't hard at all, took about an hour tops.

 

im assuming that this is to put a fourth gen window motor in a third gen car??

 

I'm pretty sure it's thirdgen. What benifit would you have from putting a 4th gen motor in a 3rd gen car, and are they compatable?

 

My brother tried to replace my window motor on my passenger side and was having quite a time with the rivets that held the bracket to the door. He finally gave up and I had to have someone professionally put it back together. When I told them the problem with the rivets they told me you need special GM rivets to get it to go back on. Is this true? Did you just replace the rivets with bolts? My brother had mentioned doing that. Was just wondering if that is a better way to do it then spending money to have someone else do it for you. Just for future reference in case the driver side decides to take a crap on me.

 

Yes, you have to use the "special" GM rivets. Other places make them also, not just GM. They are 1/4" "peel" rivets. I ordered mine from this place
Rivets 1
They are specifically for the window regulators. You can try and bolt them on if you want, but I found it very difficult to get the bolt through from behind the door panel. I got 3 of the 4 bolts in before I said screw it and ordered the rivets.