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Passenger rear window no power down

Bkazin97

New Member
Joined
May 22, 2019
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City, State
CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
97 Explorer XLT 5.0 AWD
Thought the problem was the motor so I got new. Before I installed the new motor I decided to plug it in and try it. It will power up but not down. Tried a different switch I had and same thing. Tested with volt meter - 12 volts when I push "up", 0 volts when I push down. Suggestions?
 



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If the motor will go UP the problem's not the motor. Everything works through the master switch on the driver's door. It could be a bad master switch, or a broken wire in the driver's door barrel connector. My issues were all due to the master switch being bad, but I proved that before spending any money (or doing unnecessary work).

Study a wiring diagram and starting testing wires/continuity by unplugging the master switch and testing through the master switch's plug.
 






I have the same problem and suspect the wire in the driver's door hinge boot/barrel area broke, instead of the switch, largely because that window is hardly ever used so the switch would have the least wear of any of them, by far.

Heh, I use it so seldom that I'm not in any hurry to fix it, since it failed fully closed, but I will eventually.

Here is the wiring diagram, and a driver's door master switch pinout pic courtesy of Craig Kulbacki.

Window Master Switch Wiring.JPG
 

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  • power-windows-4-door-1-of-1.pdf
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Besides wires breaking in the wire bundle boot on the driver's door jam, they have also been known to break in the area behind the driver's side kick panel. Not sure why, you'd think wires would be more likely to break inside the boot due to them flexing 1000's and 1000's of times over the years with the door being opened/closed.
 






Ended up being a broken wire in the driver's door jamb, yellow with a black tracer. What a PITA to repair. Thought that the broken wires in the door jamb was mostly a problem with the later model explorers. Also, the cheapy new motor I bought was bad so that made trouble shooting even more fun.
 






I usually just remove the door to examine/repair wires in the driver's door jam. Sounds difficult, but it's not.
 






There are two ways to fix that, well at least two... Pull a little (on the existing wires to get some slack if in an area where you can), strip insulation and solder it back together, or the better method of adding some high strand count new wire so you don't have only the same stressed wire plus a less flexible solder joint in the area that's going to continue to get flexed every time the door opens.

Ford should have used higher strand count wire there in the first place. The typical sources/applications for short pieces of such wire is silicone insulated wire for R/C hobbies. It does cost more but you can find sellers on amazon, ebay, etc, selling a few feet at a time instead of a whole spool. I wish the local hardware stores sold this by the foot but unfortunately they do not.

Then again if the original lasted this long, just the same fresh new wire type that's cheap at a hardware store to get another several years of use might be a good compromise.
 






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