WINDOW WOES
From the queries I get many members are not too enamoured with
their windows and their clankety operation – or lack of any operation.
I could say that the design is none too clever – which in some ways it is –
but I suspect the real cause is simple old age.
Bear in mind that the design life of all auto components is no more than 7
years - and you will realise that we are living in ‘bonus’ time. Fortunately
Toyota seem to have built some fairly heavy design ‘safety’ factors into the MK1
design. So, in many ways we are fortunate, but back to the subject of windows—
Design – it is a cable operated unit of considerable glass length operating
in a large frameless door – not a good prognosis for longevity. I personally
would have preferred a non-cable manual winder system – if anyone has one – I’ll
buy them off you! Most ironically the early US cars had these manual winders –
the sales logic - knowing the US mindset (and waistline) is quite beyond me to
fathom.
Problems – various—
Jerky operation – especially on the ‘upstroke’
This is mainly because the window is quite heavy for the mechanism, and with
no frame ‘slot’ to guide it up – well it wobbles and part jams on the way.
Wind noise
This is again because of the frameless design – nothing to hold it against
wind turbulence. See below.
Rattling
Yet again – a design fault – but at last I have a partial solution (which
helps with wind noise as mentioned above.)
The glass to rubber fit is ‘controlled’ by 3 felt spacers near the top of the
door. Naturally they wear in time – but at least they are adjustable – they
slide on a ramp plate to minimise the clearance between them and the window
glass.
The bad new (was it ever thus) – is that the entire door card needs to be
removed to get at them – not exactly rocket science but really boring – takes
about 40 minutes.
Once done though the adjustment is dead easy – a 10mm hex spanner is all
that’s needed, it takes about 3 minutes.
Bear in mind though that you still have 40 minutes of dreary effort to put
the door card back on!
I choose however the inevitable male solution – 40*2+3 minutes in a pub wins
over any door card job– so I just use foam ear defenders in the car – works
wonders! (Stops you hearing the police siren though – so caution is advised!)
Failure 1
I can pretty much guarantee (well OK 65:35%) that these will come on the
drivers door switch when operating the passenger window. Sounds a bit obscure –
but there is a fundamental reason – poor electrical design.
Perhaps I’m being a bit over critical here, after all these cars are all way
way beyond their design life, so I’ll back off
The reason the switch tends to expire when it is operated by the driver is
that it is simply not rated to take the load of the passenger window – so it
fails first.
OK – why?
As mentioned above these windows are big, heavy, and frameless – exactly the
worst combination for an electric drive system.
Given this the drive mechanism needs to be pretty damned good - and a cable
system simply isn’t – wear and slop come into play all too soon. This puts a
massively increased load on the drive system.
Any automotive switch can only take its rated load for a certain number of
cycles - and there is a major anomaly in the design of the drivers door window
switch.
Put simply – it can only take the current rating of the drivers window –
using it to operate the passenger window is a recipe for failure.
OK – yet again – why?
The drivers door switch operates on a relay – but only this only helps on the
drivers door – if the switch is used for the passenger door there is no relay
and the contacts have to take full arcing load – which is considerable and
massively shortens the switch life. Equally the passenger side switch has no
relay for protection and is also at risk
When the switch does fail – there is about a 10% of temporarily reviving it
with Electrolube or WD-40, but a new switch will inevitably soon be needed.
The best way forward – fit another Toyota window relay into the passenger
door circuit. I can’t take any credit for this – it was fellow member Roger from
Nottingham that showed me this brilliant tip. The relay should be fitted into
the passenger door and spliced in after the switches and upstream of the door
motor.
Failure – 2
This is usually where the drive motor unit fails – or more precisely its
gearbox. These units rarely fall under human gaze – so to describe them they are
roughly similar in size and appearance to a windscreen wiper motor – which can
easily seen by lifting the bonnet.
The gearbox is obviously used to step down the motor output speed - but the
nylon gears that do this eventually start to deteriorate under the difficult
loads put on them. When they do - and they will – tooth shedding is imminent –
followed by rapid and total failure.
Although only the gears fail – the unit has to be replaced – no manufacturer
sells bits down to that detail! Even worse I suspect with Toyota – the whole
drive mechanism could well be their minimum replacement– at God knows what cost.
The thought is so unpalatable that I haven’t even bothered to check it. If any
fans of Toyota Spares Dept - surely long since extinct – they all died at the
counter waiting for the wrong part! - can prove me wrong – then so be it!
Whilst this is a failure that I have not yet had (the kiss of death cometh in
saying this!) – the only alternative would seem to be to buy a second-hand unit.
I am told that replacement gears are available in the US via e-bay &
although I don’t know the source cost - postage and customs costs will all add
up.
I have heard though that there is a (slim) possibility that there might be a
UK production source for these gears – I am pursuing this– but don’t hold your
breath!
That's enough from me for now on windows - but as always contributions and
even constructive criticism are welcome – so I can know what topics to write
about.
ALAN JONES
THROWAWAY TIPS – WINDOWS
This is not so much an article as a collection of thoughts
accumulated doing various jobs on this part of the car.
The ‘stuck window’ syndrome.
Doesn’t this always seem to happen when the window is down
and it’s just about to rain, or you need to park and leave the car! Yes I’ve
been there too!
Quite often it’s the switch contacts that are failing, so I
remove the switch and spray into it with WD-40 and ‘shake it all about’.
RadioSpares switch cleaner is probably better but not everyone has that. It
seems to work, well at least for a while.
The ‘clunky jammed window’
This is usually a stripped tooth on the nylon gear on the
motor output shaft. I have a few spares – but I tend to keep my spares as
‘AJ strategic stocks’. I never want to run out of spares for my 2 MK1’s!
Sad or what!?
However I think they are available from the States via the
internet.
Wind Noise and water leaks!
This is never
100% curable, the frameless window design is just too weak to prevent this, but
careful glass adjustment can minimise this and water leaks!
To do this the door card has to come off, an easy job, not
even worth describing here. Then there are 3 main glass adjustments possible -
Fore and aft. ‘Up’ stop. Lateral
Taking these in turn –
Fore and aft This is done by undoing the four 12mm clamp bolts on the
window regulator mechanism, and resetting so that the gap from the ‘B’ post
moulding strip to the glass is 7-9mm.
Frankly, unless you’ve fitted a new mechanism to an
existing door I’d leave this adjustment well alone.
‘Up’ stopthis is much easier. The upper glass limit is set by 2 rubber stopper discs
clamped by bolts. The Toyota instructions are a bit complex and the roof weatherstrip has to come off –
don’t bother as this can cause more leak troubles!
I use the ‘fingernail’ test – to just be able to force
it between glass and rubber. Not very scientific and slightly painful, but it
works for me.
Lateral This is how much the glass ‘jams’ against the seal as the door slams shut.
The adjustment is by two felt-faced brackets which push the glass inwards. Again
they are simply clamped by bolts.) Toyota exhort that they shouldn’t be
adjusted too far inwards, but I do adjust them in to the point that the door
just doesn’t quite ‘bounce back’ out on closing the door with medium
force. I do this to try and minimise wind noise and leaks!
Incidentally these lateral and ‘up’ adjusters are easily
seen at the top of the door panel and easy to get at for adjustment. The actual
adjustment is a bit fiddly as the clamp bolts are tightened the adjusters tend
to ‘drift’ so it’s a bit repetitive to get it right.
Also, if either the ‘up’ or lateral adjustments are way
out, they both have to be ‘homed in’ progressively to start approaching a
good fit before final adjustments are possible.
If all the above sounds a bit complex, it isn’t really,
once the door card is off all is revealed! (If only life were so easy-no
chance!)
On the other hand if it stops you getting wet it might just
be worth the candle of effort!
ALAN JONES
POWER WINDOWS
Replacement window gears http://twosrus.com/index.htm David
Hawkins oscar_77@yahoo.com
The Nylon drive cogs on electric window motors can strip causing the window
to not work. Sometimes the switch is just full of crud, and a good cleaning will
fix the problem.
MK1 power windows gears $42 each - Power window regulator $40-50
Window problem - bad switch Window replacement Window: If your power windows no longer go up, or they miss/clunk on going up, a
common problem is the teeth on the plastic gear inside break off. You can buy an
entire motor assembly from Toyota or a junkyard but it is not cheap. And a used
motor will probably still break off the teeth again.
We created a new replacement gear out of strong delrin material. It should
last a long time. Replacement is easy and the cost is reasonable.
Now, rarely, the problem is the OTHER gear on the motor side, and
if that is your problem, sorry. We investigated and the labor is just too
difficult to expect people to be able to fix that one with an aftermarket gear.
This is the new gear and the old gear.
Buy here
If it is the switch, it is very easy to
make the window go back up. Just remove the door panel, disconnect the connector
from the switch assembly, and short pins 2 and 3. To identify which are pins 2
and 3: Unplug the connector from the switch assembly and look at it. The pins
are arranged in two rows. One row is interrupted by a clip. On one side of this
clip are 2 pins, on the other are three pins. You are interested in the side
that has three pins. You need to short the two pins CLOSEST to the center clip.
Another way to identify pins 2 and 3: Pin 2 will have a green/yellow wire
attached. Pin 3 will have a light blue (or light blue with a red trace) wire
attached. If this DOES cause the window to go back up, you will need a new
switch to permanently fix the problem.
Basically all you do is take the lining off,
take the plastic inner cover off, take the outer window trim piece off (or you
can't remove glass)...undo the glass stops on the top of the door. Undo the
bolts holding the glass - pull glass out - undo bolts holding regulator assembly
in, then you have to wiggle the mess out the access hole. Installation, as they
say, is the reverse of removal.
I got the regulator through Fusz for $70. The
bolts that hold the regulators are in plain view and easily removed! There are
six regulator nuts and two bolts to hold on the manual crank, three to hold on
the auto motor. The whole thing comes out relatively easily once you figure out
the sequence (how they did it at the plant). The sequence is as follows:
Remove Door trim and water shield
Remove outer door belt
seal (critical to getting the window out). This involves removing two screws
(one each end) and popping off the plastic clips.
Remove the two felt "pads"
and the two window stops
Run window down to the bottom location so you can
see the three bolts, and remove the two nuts and one bolt. Remove the window out
the top. Do NOT take off all the various pieces attached to the
window.
Regulator:
Disconnect any power connections
Remove the
six nuts that hold on the regulator
Remove the two (or three for power) bolts
that hold on the crank (or motor)
Push out the two clips holding the
regulator cable in place
Remove the regulator through the large hole in the
door inner. Make sure the crank (or motor) stays above the door beam and it will
come right out.
Latch:
Disconnect the power connection (if so
equipped)
Disconnect the 4 lock rod connections (simple clips...
easy)
Remove the three bolts holding the latch in the door
Remove the
latch assembly
Reverse for installation, then adjust the window so it doesn't
leak. I don't think I forgot anything.... This whole process for both doors took
me about 3 hours. I did it myself and, of course, the second door went much
faster than the first. I removed the power windows/locks and installed manual
windows/locks, and am very happy I did. Not only did I save a lot of weight, but
now I can run the windows up and down without having to turn on the car. The
doors are noticeably lighter.
