Strange Electric Window Problem (Jamming?)

[andrewjameshoward2]

Ford Galaxy c. 2000. Had it from new.

 

The electric front passenger window does not work. It is not the wiring to the door (I can here a little click from inside the door when the switch is actuated).

 

If I take off the door card, remove the gooey edged piece of foam rubber beneath that, remove the 5 torque screws which hold the window stays in place, lever out the 2 metal lugs which fix the position of the stays relative to the door so everything is then a bit loose, then operate the switch, the window works fine. If I put it back together, it still works fine. If I leave it for a couple of days, the problem recurs. Not intermittently, but permanently, until i go through the whole procedure again. It is as if something is under tension which prevents the motor from operating. Release the tension and it works again. But then the tension is re-created. It is difficult to see (a) how the mechanism works, (b) whether there is any means of adjustment, or even © how to remove the motor/motor assembly, as it is all sandwiched between the metal door panels and difficult to see except through one of the apertures in the inside panel. There is presumably some mechanism in the motor which stops it running when the window is fully open or fully closed and I am guessing that this may be causing the problem.

 

Anyone got any insights?

[gregers]

welcome to the forum,

you say you have a gal reg of 2000,but you have posted in the mk3 section of the forum.can you please confirm

what version you have so i can move it to the correct section,cheers.

 

did the window jam a tad?if so if you are releasing tension then i would suspect the spool has overrun?this require removal

of the motor and regulator and removing the motor etc CAREFULLY then grow another pair of hands to keep it all in :rolleyes: and inspect the plastic spool,if the thread within is threaded then it will always happen,so you will either need a new/2nd hand regulator or purchase a repair kit from ebay.

[andrewjameshoward2]

Fair enough, mine's a Mk II. Though I thought the electric windows were the same as on the MK III. The kits I thought were for snapped and tangled cables. Whatever is wrong with mine seems to be correctable rather than a permanent fault with a cable. I do not understand what you mean by "the spool has overrun" and the "thread within is threaded". If we are coming to the conclusion that there is nothing to adjust and the only cure is replacement of parts, in an ideal world, since I have no garage or covered parking,  I would buy the replacements before stripping the thing down and having a close look. There seem to be 3 kinds of item on ebay; (i) a £10ish kit which is mainly cables, but includes some clips and a white plastic spool (ii) a £20ish kit which includes a big chunky piece of black plastic which surrounds the white plastic spool and (iii) a £40ish replacement regulator which includes the stays and all parts but the motor. Is it possible to predict which I need to buy?

[gregers]

its difficult to explain,the plastic spool has a thread on it this is where the cable runs,the cable will enter 1 way say from the top and another from the bottom.iirc when it undoes say from the top the bottom does up.as i said its really difficult to explain.

whereabouts are you located as you havnt filled in your profile?.

as for which 1 to buy,i cant really advise you as i may recommend something that turns out not to be what you needed.

[BrianH]

You might be able to get a better look whats going on with a small mirror and a torch inside the door since you've already had the door card off.

 

I think if I remember correctly when I was troubleshooting mine the cable goes more than one turn around the spool (its in at the top and goes around a whole turn and around 3/4 of another turn before exiting the spool, Can't be 100% sure though, I think thats what Greggers is getting at).

 

Your best bet might be to have a run up to a local scrapyard if you can find one and have a look, if you can't be sure then at least you can take the regulator out there and see whats involved to accessing it.

 

The only other thing i've known to cause problems is the weatherstrip on other vehicles - they corrode inside and swell up, eventually pinching the glass and either making it impossible to move or difficult.

[andrewjameshoward2]

I took it out and had a look.

 

2 vertical metal channels (stays I called them) hold the weight and are bolted to the inner door skin. Running in each channel is a big plastic clip - 2 clips with rubber inserts grasp the bottom of the glass. There are 3 cables. When the motor operates, one is wound of a spool, a 2nd is wound on. So the motor is either pulling the window down, cable to the bottom of 1 clip, or pulling it up, cable to the top of the other clip. The third cable joins the 2 clips - unpulled bottom to unpulled top. So there is a complete "circle" of cabling, wound either one way or the other depending on the direction of the motor - window up or down.

 

Contrary to the TIS, on my 2.3 Ghia, the whole mechanism can be removed without taking out the window.

 

I then found that the frontmost plastic clip had skipped out of the channel, one lug in one lug out. In that position it was probably fouling something - hence the intermittent fault - loosen everything up and it found a way to unfoul, screw it all back together and it fouled again. Plastic clip was quite loose (worn?) and also had a little crack. So whilst I might have been OK just to put it back in the channel, I have instead bought an ebay kit (about £15 for one which claimed to be a decent one) and replaced the one clip. All back together now and working, we shall see how long this lasts!

 

The spool has grooves for the 2 cables and holds in fact several turns of cable. I expect the grooves could get damaged or the 2 cables on it interfere - not what happened with mine but what the op above was getting at.