Power window switch advice

[JDFBear]

So. Couple of questions. I have a 2 door sport that does not have a window lock button. Well I was taking my dogs for a ride yesterday and Cody was looking out the window. He managed to step on the window switch rolling it down and was wanting to jump out as I'm turning a corner one hand on his collar and the other on the wheel. How can I go by locking out the power window switch so that can't happen again. Also does the panel have to come off to get to the switch ?

 

[donalds]

Should be a big lockout switch on the driver side control panel at the bottom
Locks out all doors except the driver door

 

[JDFBear]

Should be a big lockout switch on the driver side control panel at the bottom
Locks out all doors except the driver door

I got a 2 door sport. Just two buttons

 

[J_C]

There are 3 alternatives that come to mind.

1) Put in your own panel mount lockout switch. See attached wiring diagram. You'd put a switch in series with either the white/yellow, or the tan/light-blue wire. Doesn't matter which one since these switches reverse polarity to determine window-up vs window-down instead of just a power feed and ground having permanent assignments. Then neither the driver's door or passenger door switch work until this new lockout switch you add is in the on position. This only requires pulling the driver's door panel, or maybe more depending on where you want to put the switch.

Where I wrote "panel mount" switch above, I mean a specific type, where you drill a hole, it has a flange on top, and a nut on the back to secure it to a panel. It might require some hunting to find one with a threaded body for the back nut, that is deep enough to work on a relatively thick padded armrest, or could be easier and open up more switch style options to find somewhere else to mount it on an area that creates a thinner panel. I could be wrong about your armrest all being relatively thick, there may be some thin area that works fine with the average switch.

2) Disconnect the passenger window switch and have that window not work. Yes you have to pull the passenger panel AFAIK but not the driver door panel.

3) Do #2 above, unplug passenger side switch but also jumper around it to retain use of the driver's side switch to operate it. Connect white/yellow wire to yellow/red, and connect tan/light-blue to red/yellow going to the window motor.

As far as finding a lockout switch, if you're willing to pay a bit more instead of settling for the cheapest thing that'll do the job, there are many thousands of switches you can sort through at an electronics supplier like Digikey.com. The circuit is probably running through a 30A fuse so a 30A rated switch would be the easy choice but getting up there in capacity, limiting choices, while the real draw of a single window is all you need and so a 10A switch should work, as long as it's a major brand switch rather than a generic where it's anybody's guess if accurately rated. If it's a generic (made-up Chinese name) brand then I'd shoot for a 20A rated switch.

Any capable of enough current will be capable of enough voltage, sometimes you have to be concerned about current at DC (specifically) voltage because it is hard on switch contacts that arc to switch a live DC feed but not so much in this case because you won't usually be operating both the window switch and lockout switch simultaneously so there isn't any contact arcing during regular use. Heh, I guess if you wanted to be really cheap you could get a 50 cent, 15A Leviton wall switch from a hardware store but it would be a bit more work to mount than a typical panel mount that drops into a round hole. Might be easier to mount something like that under the dash on a fabricated metal bracket bolted to a portion of dash subframe.

 

[CDW6212R]

I thought the 2dr models had a master switch on them also, to disable the right window.

If they don't, all you need is to duplicate that switch, put it inline to the red/blue wire which is the one power wire for the non driver's windows. In the 4dr, the master disabling switch is at the rear behind the other four, and it internally disables the red/blue wire which comes out the bottom of the master switch panel. That red/blue wire runs down to the body and through the body harness, to each of the other doors and their window switches.

That one wire powers that right door window motor, it has nothing to do with the left front window. The master power wire is blue/black, and feeds the master switch and all window motors(it feeds the red/blue wire inside the master switch).

 

[J_C]

^ I was wondering if that one wire to all the other windows, is also used for the driver's window if it's a stripped down model without the one-touch down driver's window feature.

JDFBear, do you have the one-touch down driver's window, where just poking the button briefly makes the window go all the way down?

 

[donalds]

^ I was wondering if that one wire to all the other windows, is also used for the driver's window if it's a stripped down model without the one-touch down driver's window feature.

JDFBear, do you have the one-touch down driver's window, where just poking the button briefly makes the window go all the way down?

Boy I wish I could disable that

 

[CDW6212R]

The auto down function is in the GEM module from the first model of GEM, 1995 I think. Before that the auto down was a small module mounted near the driver's switch. See it pictured below, I installed the old one from my 93, into the right front door, for that window.

All of the window motor power comes through one wire, blue/black, in the LF door jamb. All of the ground for all windows also goes through one wire, large black, again in the LF door jamb. If either of those two wires have a break, none of the windows can work.

The red/blue wire is solely to power the passenger windows. The same one ground wire is for all of them, the power has to go through the motor(s), and back through the blue/black, and solid black wire.

I had to learn how the window circuits worked, so I could figure out how to install a 2nd master switch, on the right front door. It was interesting, it took six extra passenger window wires, and eight added relays, plus the altered master switch and trim. Fun, I'd guess a good ten hours of work.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Another option... Could you fabricate a cover for the switch, that would keep the dogs from stepping on the buttons?

Maybe the cover could slide behind the switch panel???

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Bushwhacker - Paws n Claws Vehicle Door Protector for Dogs - Sold as Pair - Car Door Scratch Guard K9 Truck Back Shield Pet Side Panel Cover Back Seat Sedan SUV Scratching Protection Guard.​

You can get the above product through Amazon. Might be your simple and effective solution. Maybe.

 

[donalds]

Bushwhacker - Paws n Claws Vehicle Door Protector for Dogs - Sold as Pair - Car Door Scratch Guard K9 Truck Back Shield Pet Side Panel Cover Back Seat Sedan SUV Scratching Protection Guard.​

You can get the above product through Amazon. Might be your simple and effective solution. Maybe.

That's awesome

 

[J_C]

Boy I wish I could disable that

I have never tried but here's a post from gijoecam suggesting you can toggle that feature on/off:

Help! Where is the "one touch down" relay?

After pulling apart the driver's side door and testing the power window motor, I think that the problem is in the "one touch down" relay. The owner's manual only says that this is in "relay module #4" located by the instrument panel. It is NOT part of the fuse panel at the left side of the...

www.explorerforum.com

 

[donalds]

I have never tried but here's a post from gijoecam suggesting you can toggle that feature on/off:

Help! Where is the "one touch down" relay?

After pulling apart the driver's side door and testing the power window motor, I think that the problem is in the "one touch down" relay. The owner's manual only says that this is in "relay module #4" located by the instrument panel. It is NOT part of the fuse panel at the left side of the...

www.explorerforum.com

Didn't work thanks tho

 

[J_C]

Didn't work thanks tho

If I'm reading the wiring diagram right, it looks like the wiring alternative is to cut (or pull pin out of connector) the #3 position tan/light-blue wire at the GEM, but making sure the circuit is broken between the gem and S272 on the diagram so the power still loops through the (non-energized) one-touch relay -OR- disconnecting the gem pin #7 yellow/red wire that grounds the relay coil to activate it, -OR- creating a break in the circuit in the same place, by pulling the one touch down relay and breaking off either relay pin #1 or pin #2, which are for both sides of the relay coil so the gem then can't activate the relay.

Since the relay is a modular replacement, I'd try breaking the pin off first instead of altering the wiring, or perhaps as a sanity check before breaking a pin off the relay, leave the relay out and in the socket it goes in, jumper together pins #3 and #4 positions with a piece of wire (I'd take a piece of 12-14ga solid core copper wire and flatten it in a bench vise till as thin as the relay contacts) to confirm the window operates as intended, then decide whether the jumper wire is reliable to use long term without a relay in the socket, OR to break a pin off the relay and reinstall it, or pick up a relay from a junkyard for a buck to alter, or new from amazon for $7 to have a spare. I think this might be the one I bought off Amazon as a spare a few years back:
Amazon.com: Standard Motor Products RY612 Relay: Automotive

Since there are so many of that type of relay in the vehicle, I think I'd break a pin off the old one and buy a new one from amazon to keep in the glovebox then you've got the spare to get the one-touch down feature back if you later want to, or to replace one of the other relays if they fail in the future.

 

[donalds]

If I'm reading the wiring diagram right, it looks like the wiring alternative is to cut (or pull pin out of connector) the #3 position tan/light-blue wire at the GEM, but making sure the circuit is broken between the gem and S272 on the diagram so the power still loops through the (non-energized) one-touch relay -OR- disconnecting the gem pin #7 yellow/red wire that grounds the relay coil to activate it, -OR- creating a break in the circuit in the same place, by pulling the one touch down relay and breaking off either relay pin #1 or pin #2, which are for both sides of the relay coil so the gem then can't activate the relay.

Since the relay is a modular replacement, I'd try breaking the pin off first instead of altering the wiring, or perhaps as a sanity check before breaking a pin off the relay, leave the relay out and in the socket it goes in, short together pins #3 and #4 positions with a piece of wire to confirm the window operates as intended, then decide whether the short is reliable to use long term without a relay in the socket, OR to break a pin off the relay and reinstall it, or pick up a relay from a junkyard for a buck to alter, or new from amazon for $7 to have a spare. I think this might be the one I bought off Amazon as a spare a few years back:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C83SRC/?tag=serious-20

Since there are so many of that type of relay in the vehicle, I think I'd break a pin off the old one and buy a new one from amazon to keep in the glovebox then you've got the spare to get the one-touch down feature back if you later want to, or to replace one of the other relays if they fail in the future.

Thanks I'm gonna look into this
I have a bag of relays from the jy

 

[CDW6212R]

If the auto down function includes a separate relay, it will be easy to disable that. The window doesn't need that to work, so the trick will be to interrupt that feature by stopping the relay's functioning. I'd pull the relay first, and see if the window still works. If it does, you've done it, if not, then the power is being stopped by having the relay out.

 

[J_C]

^ See the wiring diagram I attached previously. The one touch down relay operates like a dual throw switch, normally closed to one throw when not energized, it completes the circuit for the switch to the window without GEM intervention by having a closed contact between two pins. When it is energized, it toggles to the other throw, the gem keeps power flowing even while the window switch itself is not held down.

This means you can't pull the relay and have the window work unless you jumper between the relay box socket position for the two pins #3 & #4, unless my wiring diagram is wrong. It is definitely not all-inclusive, does not cover all variations of vehicles out there if there are Explorers that don't even have the one-touch down feature, though it could be that they all do and it's just the stripped down base model Rangers that don't.

 

[CDW6212R]

I'd like to test that on my truck too, but not to disable the feature. If it's a critical component, then it should be replaced at this age.

 

[donalds]

I was just reading the ford manual it says the gem provides a ground for the one touch relay so in theory I could they cut the ground pin off the relay and reinstall the relay so the SPDT relay still Set to the right spot
Ill try this tomorrow

 

[J_C]

^ Yes, it grounds through relay pin #1, which is electrically connected to one end of the electromagnet coil in it, and input power into that coil is on relay pin #2, so you can cut either of those two pins off with the same effect, though when I write "cut", I would grab the pin with needle nose pliers and see if it can be bent close to the relay casing without too much deformation, as it might be easier to just bend it back and forth a few times to fatigue-crack, break it off rather than using a cutting tool.