When we go to roll them up or put them down, they only travel a few inches at a time, and then you have to wait about five minutes before you can get them to move an inch or so more. It's going on with both sides now. It started with the passenger side, and then a month later the drivers side started doing it. It's not the motors, correct? The switches seem to be working, otherwise they wouldn't even go down or up. Thanks for any help anyone can lend.

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"Clear your mind, relax, and float downstream."

 

It sounds like the window motors are drawing too much current either because there is too much resistance in the window assembly to raise/lower the window or the motor is going bad or ?

Inside the motor assembly is an electronic device (don't know what it's called, but acts like a thermistor) in-line with the power wire. The purpose is to protect the motor when the window has reached its limit and power is still applied.

When the window has reached its limit, and power is still applied to the motor, the motor will draw more current (because it is not moving). To protect the motor from burning out, this device will limit current by detecting the higher current.

On mine (91 Z) the the motor draws about 7 amperes when moving, then jumps to about 18 amperes when the window has reached its limit (motor not moving). When the amps jump up to 18 amps or so, this device will start to heat up, and then limit the current to the motor, in effect "shutting off the power" even though you still have the switch "on".

From your description, for some reason, the device in the motor appears to be stopping the motor because it is getting hot either because the motor is drawing more current than normal, or the sensor defective.

When the window does move, does it move at a normal speed? If it moves slow, that would indicate that the motor is drawing too much current (from too much resistance from the window assembly or the motor is going bad or a low battery voltage or a poor electrical connection, etc.). If the window moves at a normal speed, then I would suspect a bad “sensor” (whatever that electronic device is called).

When you remove power from the motor, you allow the electronic device to cool, or "reset" itself. This will allow the motor to operate again and repeat the whole cycle again. It’s sort of like an automatic circuit breaker expect that when this sensor “trips”, some voltage/current will be passed, although a very small amount unlike a circuit breaker that will remove all current/voltage.

Anyone that wants to see if this device is working (when your windows operate normally), try raising/lowering your window 5-10 times or more and notice that the windows will start to move a lot slower, reaching the point that the window will no longer move at all. Simply wait a minute or so for this device to cool (to "reset" itself) and normal operation will resume. (I found this out when I designed a circuit to operate the windows to their limit by simply depressing a push button switch once vice having to hold down a switch for the entire travel).

[This message has been edited by Stuart Moss (edited July 26, 2000).]