Front Passenger Window Electrical Issue

[sperold]

90 SHO.

Up and down was failing when operated from drivers door master switch. Noticed it worked ok when drivers door was fully open.

Took door panel off, seemed ok in the door. Looked at the can thing on the front of the door and noticed the wiring "scrunched up" when the door is opened. Thought that "scrunch" moved wires in the cabin area and wore off the coating, exposing the conductor metal.
Took the foot panel and the door-sil plastic parts off and rolled back the carpet to look at the wires, and they seemed ok.

I knew the wire colours from looking at the door switch, so I could identify the wires in the harness in the door-sil area. Problem was, both passenger windows have the same wire colours (red /black, yellow /black), so I had to run the window with the door open to isolate the 2 wires that run the front door (with a stab the wire and a light turns on thing).

Put tags on wires to avoid doing this again in the future and while doing that, tugging on the wire resulted in the window not working with the door open.
Tugged a little more and the wire came out of the pin cushion on the bottom of that can-thing on the door front.

Serious action required.

Took the door off, and put it on a stack of 3 tires to look at the bottom of the can, to try and put the wire connector back in the pin cushion. The wires are all still connecting the door to the car at this point.
There were so many blank holes in the door can, that I could not tell where it came from.

But when I ran power to my loose wire, the window went up, so I knew that wire was intact.

I ran a new wire to my door master switch and exited the door just under that can-thing, as there is a space there.
I attached the new wire to my loose wire (outside the can, and outside the rubber boot) and all things worked well.

Reinstalled the door with the help of some jack stands and a small hydraulic floor jack, and fiddled around until it fit well.

Not a pretty fix, as you can see the rogue wire where it enters the rubber boot at the bottom of the door can, but the results are good.

Another thing I learned was that can thing on the door front, I always thought it rotated to make the wires stress-free, but it does not, it is no better that the rubber boots on all the other cars.

Fixing the one wire made both the up and down function properly, I was expecting to have to fix 2 wires, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[shoray]

The electrical demons always scare me. The fact that you did all this work just to get your window to work properly is a testament to how much we love these cars. None of mine work

 

[sperold]

Another testament to these cars is I was able to do all the work alone without a helper.

With the 3 tire table, the top tire has to be without a rim, so that the door mirror can hang down, and the 3 tire height brings it to the wire entrance point on the body. Taking the door off was a rookie mistake as I thought looking at the bottom of the can would show me where to put my unattached wire, but I was wrong, and caused myself some extra work.

I have no idea what happened to my wiring system to pull out the one wire from the door-can, but in the end, the cobble system I used is fool-proof.
If i could have figured out how to get the door can apart, I could have fixed it with a little more finesse, but I was running out of time and it was about 90 degrees F.

If anyone knows why one wire fixed both my up and down action on the window, let me know.

Shoray, you will be able to get all of your windows to work, but getting the Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual (EVTM) for your year will guarantee your results (usually about $10.00 on E-bay).

I am pretty happy to get the window working as this is my winter car; and when you pull up to an intersection in the winter, it is nice to roll the window down to see what is coming on your passenger side.

 

[shoray]

Amen to that! I do need to find that book thanks for that tip. As shaky as I am on electrical work in general, I am however getting damned good at suspension work lol. Did you have any trouble resetting the door in the proper place, no shims or anything like that?

 

[sperold]

Actually, no problem at all. Which really surprised me.
No shims, no tricks at all.
The only tip I have is the door fit really well no matter where I put it, but the best location was at the top of the adjustment and as close to the door panel as it could go.
It is surprising how close to correct the door is no matter where you throw it on, the cars have very little margin of error for fitment.
I unbolted the door from the hinge and left the hinge on the car. I thought about somehow marking the location of the hinge on the door (like spray painting around the hinge), but I did not even do that, and it still turned out OK.

 

[tommyturbo]

I replaced the passenger side front door on my beater 95, as someone had drilled a hole in the sheet metal by the door latch. No idea why. Got a door the same color. It took alot of playing around to make that door line up and fit right, was a pain.

 

[sperold]

Could be that the hinge location where it fastens to the body was at different ends of the tolerance between the 2 cars you had to deal with. With my door going back on the same hinge it came off of, it went really well.

When I first threw it on with no thought to where it would best fit, the door closed and body lines aligned, but it was really deep in the setting, like you had to slam it to latch and you could feel all the weatherstripping was collapsed.
I simply adjusted it out and went up as far as it easily adjusted, and it fit pretty well.

The only other thing I did was put another wire in the door while the door panel was off, that run from the area of the gang switch to the outside of the door at the can contraption.
This was done so that if another wire goes bad, I will only have to remove the gang switch from the door panel, and from there, troubleshoot the wire from the body harness, and join them up at the door can bottom.