How to: 1992 Power Window Bushing Replacement

[kbsmith_48]

tryed to force the window up and then unhook it to try and bypass the switch figured it might be bad wouldnt work we plugged it back up and my dad hit the door a couple times the window went straight up now it work as good as ever and i dont thinks its the bushings cause all of yall had problems with it inching down or going down or up very slow the window is still really fast my mother always used the air conditioner rather than the windows so as for now it is working

 

[Tony H]

tryed to force the window up and then unhook it to try and bypass the switch figured it might be bad wouldnt work we plugged it back up and my dad hit the door a couple times the window went straight up now it work as good as ever and i dont thinks its the bushings cause all of yall had problems with it inching down or going down or up very slow the window is still really fast my mother always used the air conditioner rather than the windows so as for now it is working

Your dads name isn't Arthur Fonzarelli, is it?

 

[kbsmith_48]

Your dads name isn't Arthur Fonzarelli, is it?

no but his first name is Arthur

 

[YBCold]

ill just add my $0.02 cents on securing the regulator. on my explorer i used vice grips to hold the regulator from springing back. on my aunts lincoln town car there was an already made hole on the sprocket and so i drilled a hole throught the bracket. and inserted an screw with a bolt to jam the mechanism.

 

[MandrewG]

You guys are so great! Awesome write up and it made my job very easy.....I've never done this and wasn't even thinking about it till I saw this! Well, I followed these directions and wow....I was done in less then a hour! THANKS SO MUCH! GREAT WORK!!!

 

[wolbear]

many thanks

My second bushing replacement and could not have done it without 85 Dave's help. I found that the "C" clip holding the metal gear in place was difficult to see unless the shaft was wiped completely clean of grease.

In replacing the bushings and fitting them back into the plastic gear, place a spot of grease on the metal gear and the bushings will hang on long enough to get them started. Also, the new bushings seemed to have a very slight taper so placing the rounded end down allowed the installation to go easily.

Now for the rear door on my '94 and not quite sure what the difference is from the discussion. Is it the cable that is troublesome? or the bushings and the cable?

 

[Tony H]

My second bushing replacement and could not have done it without 85 Dave's help. I found that the "C" clip holding the metal gear in place was difficult to see unless the shaft was wiped completely clean of grease.

In replacing the bushings and fitting them back into the plastic gear, place a spot of grease on the metal gear and the bushings will hang on long enough to get them started. Also, the new bushings seemed to have a very slight taper so placing the rounded end down allowed the installation to go easily.

Now for the rear door on my '94 and not quite sure what the difference is from the discussion. Is it the cable that is troublesome? or the bushings and the cable?

On my '91. It was the Cable that was bad. I bought a version... actually your '94 migt have it... that doesn't have the cable setup. After the Bicyle Cable disaster of the early 'X's, Ford went Back to the Old School way of doing it with gears and a lifting Arm.

 

[Downriver65]

Great instructions. Made the replacement a piece of cake. Thanks.

 

[Fordexplorerguy1]

where do you get the bushing from?

 

[notorioustcd]

where do you get the bushing from?

Autozone
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Help-3-pcs-Ford-Lincoln-Mercury-1965-2006-Window-Regulator-Gear-Plug/_/N-25bw?counter=0&filterByKeyWord=ford+window&fromString=search&itemIdentifier=426078_0_0_

 

[Downriver65]

where do you get the bushing from?

I got mine from Rock Auto. Paid around $12 including shipping. They have an online catalog you can order right there and have every part ever manufactured. The product shows up in a couple of days and even on the big stuff (I've bought manifolds, entire exhausts, etc) the shipping is very reasonable. I always compare their prices to Advance Auto & Auto Zone and it's usually cheaper and you get higher grade products.

WWW.rockauto.com

 

[bayGuy]

This fix worked great!

Dave,
thank you for putting together this post; I had exact problem and your pictures and instructions got me through the job. Window now works just as it should!

Contrary to my expectation, the hardest part wasn't removal of of the motor, it was finding the right bushing size to fit into the motor gear casing.

Ended up raiding my son's discarded Connex toy box to find 3 stubby round plastic connectors that I flattened on one side to fit the inside of the gear box. That was after trying some parts from the auto store, some Legos, some megablocks parts, and even joints from giant plastic tie wraps.

Even scored some points with my son who thought it was most amusing to think about discarded toys being used for a car part.

 

[Bwana Bob]

I used the plastic bushings from the auto parts store (NAPA), but I wonder if wooded dowel material of the right diameter would work. It's readily available at any hardware store.

Bob

 

[J_C]

^ yes a dowel would work, it just wouldn't last very long

If you're into DIY, make a cast and use polyurethane, or metal fortified, fiber reinforced epoxy would work too,

 

[bayGuy]

It's my theory that the reason the gear box was engineered with the plastic bushings was to create a sheer point with the window in case it gets stuck. Presumably the plastic would sheer off before you crushed your dog's neck in the window. Would work much like a woodruff (?) key in a lawnmower - you want the key to sheer off when you hit that stump so you don't destroy the engine. This instance you want the window to stop working at a certain force point.

So I thought about wood but figured it would probably get chewed up to fast, and the other end of the spectrum, a metal rod would not sheer off. Maybe lead would work?

Now why the engineers couldn't figure out how to make the motor cutoff at a specific force point - that's another matter. Seems like there should simply be a reset switch or pin.

 

[J_C]

Considering the extra current drawn when an electric motor stalls, I wonder if a slow blow fuse would allow using a more durable bushing.

I'm not so sure the bushing was plastic so it would sheer though, I assumed it was just cheaper and lighter weight.

 

[Bwana Bob]

There are certainly more sophisticated ways to do it, but the plastic bushing approach is cheap and in 19 years, I've only had one set fail.

Bob

 

[ekamm]

I know that this is a really old thread but, I came across it because I had the exact same problem. Thanks for the write up I never would have considered repairing instead of replacing unless I had read it.
I completed the job with only a few hiccups. I would however like to add a few things to this to try to make this repair even more painless.
The bushing were difficult to figure out but I did after a little trial and error. I wasn't able to find them at home depot, but at Lowes they had some. The picture that was posted didn't show a hole but the ones that I found have one. I struggled to figure out what the bushing was for, thinking that the bushing had to turn. Actually the whole thing stays one piece. The bushing must act as a shear of sorts which is why the motor turns but the window won't move.
this is the bushing that I ended up with

The bushings are a little to large and need to be turned down. I put the bushing on a small machine screw and spun it with a drill against a strip of emery cloth. They ended up measuring .480" after I finished.

I made sure that the fit was very tight as any slop wold have the gears wear more rapidly

One of the other things that I want to suggest is that when you try to install the repaired window motor the shaft coming from the end of the gear has to fit into a hole in the inner door. I had a difficult time getting the motor to line up. So I put the three screws in just enough to hold the motor on and held it as close as I could where it needed to be and then I bumped the up button until I felt the shaft fit into the hole and then tighten the bolts. I have to say do not use the down button or you'll risk some injury(Don't ask me how I know).

 

[mr cribb]

This has got to be the greatest write up on here. I think most everyone has the rear window issue (unless they fixed it) and I was pricing new motors n such. I just happened to search this forum under power window motor, found this write up in another posting. Advance sells the gear kit for $30 each. Then I seen where someone pt the link to Autozone for 7.99 each.

My wife hates my truck and despises me needing money to fix anything on it. I'm also on a mission to do any and all repairs/ modifications for as cheaply as possible the right way.

My only question is my front windows have the "skip" to them. Meaning you push the switch and it does the go pause go pause thing. I put slight pressure down on the window and it goes down like normal. What could this be?

 

[MrQ]

Its probably the bushings in the front motors as well.