DS Window comes out of track.

[whitman31]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some help with my 01 ST. When I try to power down my drivers side front window the window moves only a little before coming out of the track and jamming in place. I can "manually" get it back on track and try again. This get's me about an inch at a time until it's just over half way down, then it's good to go. Going up doesn't seem to be an issue.

This issue has developed over about a week, getting real bad real fast. When it comes out of the track, it is tipping forward, like only the front is being lowered. In worst case, the top left corner gets about 1" from the left track.

I'd like to get it fixed this weekend, but want to know what I'm in for before tearing it apart. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks,

 

[ncranchero]

This might help

 

[whitman31]

Just in case someone else ever comes across this same issue. Here's what we found.

After pulling off the door panel it was pretty easy to see the issue. One of the scissor portions of the lift mechanism was binding pretty bad. It appeared to be bent toward the window. We started by lubing the sliders, this helped. We then lubed the center pivot joint of the scissor lift. This helped a little more. Not satisfied I applied "pressure" to the center pivot, effectively bending it back toward its original position. This made a huge improvement, but it was still coming out of the track a bit, right at the top. The scissor portion seemed to be twisted. I twisted it back with a gator grip and that did the trick Up and down nice and smooth, no tipping...

I wouldn't normally twist and pry on things so much, but the part was in rough shape. I was either gonna get it fixed or have to replace it. After looking at what was going to be involved in replacing it, both cost and time, I went to the pry bar...

 

[ncranchero]

Good fix! So what caused that to happen? That's an unusual problem to find without a cause, like ice/object placed in window path/etc.

 

[whitman31]

I'm wondering the same thing. I was amazed at how much torque the window actuator motor had. When the parts would bind the actuator had enough power to put a lot of bend into the part. Once the part started to bend it would bind at one of the joints and lock up pretty solid. I'm guessing at one point the bend was started by either some ice or lack of lube. After the initail bend it would simply bend a little more each time it got stuck.

I was suprised too at the amount of rust on the parts in question. Ford really went cheap with the coating.