The joys of replacing window motors.

Finally got around to replacing my window motors this weekend (they've been non-operational for a year now, lol), and I must say that without the help of this site I would have been a bit frustrated, to say the least. I definitely am not somebody that is overly comfortable drilling holes in my car, even if it is hidden. But I checked out shoebox's guide which helped a ton. My main setback was the numnut at autozone that gave me the wrong window motor. I even asked him before I walked out if this was the bolt-on replacement motor for the riveted version in the car, he said, "yes yes, that's the right motor." I checked it briefly at the store and noticed the size was slightly different but decided that was just because it wasn't OEM. get home, pop off my door panel, drill the holes, pop out the rivets, take out the motor... Good lord. These aren't the same at all. The new one is too small, the wires are coming out the wrong end, it's a rivet on version (thought it was just to slide bolts through the holes, turns out they are WAAAY to deep to fit any size bolt that will fit in that area. So I go online and check autozone's stock, put in the part number he gave me... "Sorry, this part number does not apply to the vehicle you have selected." So I go in, armed with this newfound information and finally get the right part - sure enough looks almost exactly like the one I pulled. He was very apologetic about it, it wasn't really a problem just a minor inconvenience (store is about 1.5 miles away) Anyway, when you have the right motor, the walkthrough does a perfect job of telling you what needs to be done and where to make your holes. I was a tiny bit off on my holes but just expanded them a little bit to compensate, no biggie.

Taking out the speaker is not really a suggestion as much as a necessity. If you are thinking about getting around it without doing this. Save yourself the headache, just take out the speaker. Three screws and you don't even have to unplug the speaker, just set it on the floor int he car. you'll thank yourself when you're trying to get the bolts in the new motor. Which leads me to another thing worth noting. It's a PITA to get the new window motor lined up how you want it WHILE sliding the little pan-head bolts through the holes. I also had to plug in the motor out of the position and move it a little bit up/down to adjust the gears to fit correctly on the teeth, otherwise the holes did not line up correctly and the bolts would not get in all 3 holes, only 1 or possibly two. Have some patience and a bright little drop light that can fit int he door cavity and your life becomes a ton easier, that's for sure.

When I got everything back together though, I was left with 2 working windows and a happy grin at not having to open my door and get out to get a random late night drive through at the local Del Taco or wherever else I would sometimes crave. I'll tell you, people would give you some strange looks when they see a nice car and I'm having to get out of the car to get my food.

I guess I just wanted to share my experience with this and add one or two minor things that I experienced during my swap. Other than that shoebox's guide was dead on as to what I should expect.

Ya i know that feeling of having to open the door at the drive through. My daily beater is a BMW, and all my windows work except for the driver one, motor works, just the clip that holds the window itself broke. So the motor will actuate down, but the window goes nowhere. I get those same looks. But hey our cars are probably still more :cool: than what they have parked a few feet away.;)

My 92 was like that, both motors fried and the AC not working.. UGH
God bless Ttops

Good info, but please post in the correct forum.... window motors don't belong in "LT/LT4 Engine Tech". Moving to "General......"

My buddy replaced both of his yesterday, I did one before but he wanted to do it himself, so I just had a drink and offered support. Used shoebox's instructions again with no problems.

I just replaced both of them last week. With the help of Shoebox's tutorial, I was done with both in a little over an hour. I was expecting the worst with this job and I thought it was going to be an all day affair. It definitely would have been alot harder without Shoebox's site. The pictures of where to drill the holes to access the rivets was the most help. Thanks again Shoebox.;)

i just got done replacing the drivers side today and am going to wait till tomorrow to replace the other one. not the hardest job, but IMHO the crappiest. except maybe changing the plugs.

GZ28

having had to do this on all of my 4th gens, I can do each side in about 25 mins total. I did mine both last weekend, I don't even need to guide to know where to drill anymore. :lol:

I also lightened my door in the process. i tried to eyeball it for the holes. i was only off by a little bit so the door isn't that much lighter.

GrayZ28

I've found it's still easier to have an extra set of hands for the job. :)

So what window motors does everyone reccomend?

So what window motors does everyone reccomend?
I just bought a pair of remanufactured motors from a local parts store and they carry a lifetime warranty and ran 53.00 bucks a piece.

Does anyone make a motor that is faster than the stock ones? Mine both work so far, but when they go out, I'd like to replace them with faster ones.

Does anyone make a motor that is faster than the stock ones? Mine both work so far, but when they go out, I'd like to replace them with faster ones.

Supposly u run a thicker power wire to make them faster...


How are those ebay motors?? any expericence?

I just did my drivers side motor today. It was made in Korea so, lets see how well the Koreans make F-body parts.

I just did my drivers side motor today. It was made in Korea so, lets see how well the Koreans make F-body parts.
:lol: where did u get it from?

MY dad knows some Korean guy who owns a shop:o

autozone lifetime warranty motors are like $52. Once you replace it once, the hard work is done, and its a 10 min job. So if they ever go out again, its free and only 20-30 mins of your time max.

Supposly u run a thicker power wire to make them faster...
:lol:

It's all about the resistances so if you can do anything to lower the resistance of the current, your motor should go a little faster - putting a little dielectric grease on the connectors supposedly helps - I didn't have any on hand but they go infinitely faster now than they were before (not at all).

I got mine at autozone, brand new lifetime warranty 46 bucks each.

It's all about the resistances so if you can do anything to lower the resistance of the current, your motor should go a little faster - putting a little dielectric grease on the connectors supposedly helps - I didn't have any on hand but they go infinitely faster now than they were before (not at all).
If you were lucky, doing stuff like that might make the windows move 1% faster.

I'm talking about roughly doubling the stock speed.

:lol:
ive read that somewhere on here, someone had defintly talked about running a bigger guage wire to increase speed a lil bit.

I did my window motors a few weeks ago--with Shoebox's guide, is was an easy affair. I tried an interesting experiment, however. I bought a new motor from Murray's for the driver's side. For the passenger side, I removed the old, barely moving motor and bypassed the thermal fuse in it. I also took apart the window tracks, cleaned/greased them, aligned both windows properly, etc. On an even playing field, guess which motor goes faster? I was very impressed with the speed of the new motor (having never seen an f-body window work well), but I have to say, my old '93 motor without the thermal fuse smokes it. Now that my windows work well, the next step for me is to hook up the A/C so I never have to open them again :D

If anyone's interested in trying the thermal fuse bypass, there's a great writeup in the forums here. The search function does wonders.

It's all about the resistances so if you can do anything to lower the resistance of the current, your motor should go a little faster - putting a little dielectric grease on the connectors supposedly helps - I didn't have any on hand but they go infinitely faster now than they were before (not at all).

I got mine at autozone, brand new lifetime warranty 46 bucks each.:confused: When I was doing my bro's window motor, I got different responses from different A/Zs...but none had the Siemens with LT warranty....just Dorman so that's what I used.

When did you purchase this and what make is it?

The one I put in last spring is going out again....

ive read that somewhere on here, someone had defintly talked about running a bigger guage wire to increase speed a lil bit.

Here....
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269680&highlight=window+motor+relay

I did my window motors a few weeks ago--with Shoebox's guide, is was an easy affair. ... I also took apart the window tracks, cleaned/greased them, aligned both windows properly, etc.

Do I read this correctly and you actually removed the regulator (tracks, wheels, etc.)? So you drilled out their rivets as well as the motor's and pulled the whole thing through the openings in the inner door panel? I'm amazed but thrilled to hear it because I have a mess sitting in my garage right now.

I'm embarassed to say that I didn't read the instructions properly and instead of drilling holes in the inner door panel to acces the rivets in the motor to then drill them out, I drilled the rivets that hold the regulator to the inner door panel and now it's all loose and I have no idea what to do now :(

Anyone else actually remove the regulator? I heard they could only be removed by removing the outer door skins!!!!!! Yikes

I also used the shbox.com write up. It was awesome, took me about 30 minutes. I greased the tracks and roller with white lithium grease too.

I purchased my motor from Advance Auto Parts, It was 50.00 Made in the USA, with a lifetime warranty.