power windows no workee -- driver window stuck down

[jonbangs]

reading here about the myriad different possibilites. I have the driver door opened up, and I checked the continuity of the two black wires. Both show 1 ohm to ground, not open. I did notice that the puddle light changes intensity based on the position of the door (brighter when door is all the way open). This sounds like an intermittent ground or some other funny contact.

I had first thought of a fuse, but the manual does not specifically call one out for the power windows. What did I miss here?

 

[Number Twelve]

(brighter when door is all the way open

Any simple circuit that changes when you wiggle it is defective. Get back in there and wiggle some more. You missed the real problem.

 

[jonbangs]

Will do.

But the window switches didn't even work with the door all the way open and the puddle light at full brightness.

Edit:

Now the puddle lights don't go on at all. I wiggled mightily again, and one wire did come apart. I think I separated the black insulation after the copper conductors gave up the ghost.

My next question is "how do I get the other end of the wire in order to splice another piece onto it? I cannot see how to get to the other end of the wire bundle inside the passenger compartment.

When I tried grounding the wire with a jumper, it had no effect. I now surmise that it's not a ground at all, but a common return to some control block somewhere. I really wish I had access to schematic diagrams . . .

 

[Number Twelve]

Don't forget, wires break INSIDE the insulation, then the insulation gets ripped open. Tug on each wire to see if it stretches in the middle.

 

[jonbangs]

Even if I find more broken wires, I don't know how to get to the other end to do a splice. Is there another thread that explains that?

Some posts describe the rubber conduit between the door and the body as a "boot". In mine it's more of a pipe with accordion folds to give it flexibility. The body end is obscured by many other parts which I'd have to remove. Is this practical?

 

[Number Twelve]

That accordion thing is the boot.
The way I do car splices is to find the break, cut both ends square, and strip them back about 5/16ths.
Get a hunk of wire the same size. Same color if you are lucky. (I have a bucket full.) Cut a few inches of that, like 5 inches or more. Strip the ends, and slide 4 pieces of shrink tubing on to the old wire, two on each side of the break. Soon, you will hold the wire ends in place with two spring type wooden clothes pins on the edge of a piece of cardboard. Splay the strands on each raw end and jam them together. Then roll the splice in your fingers to smooth it. Attach the clothes pins. Solder the splices, then let them cool. Slide a piece of shrink tubing over the splice and shrink it. Then another layer. Fold the excess wire into a loop and put the boot back on.

Read that twice. I never wrote this before so you have to skip back and forth to get the sequence right.

Of course, you don't have to do it my way.

 

[jonbangs]

I am an oldtime electronics experimenter, so I have several choices of how to splice wires.

The boot comes off??? it seems to be a closed tube with the wire bundle fed through it . . .

My problem is how to find the car-side of the broken wire. It's buried and inaccessible without some clues as to how to expose it. I appreciate all the info I've found in these forums and hope that somewhere the procedures I need are already documented.

I lament the loss of the pictures about removing the door panel (I should have saved them when I first saw them).

 

[Number Twelve]

The boot just slides right and left. The wires break in the hinge area because that's where they get bent back and forth. If you find a broken wire in the non-bendy part, it will be a first.

 

[swshawaii]

I lament the loss of the pictures about removing the door panel (I should have saved them when I first saw them).

How To: Remove/Replace 3rd Gen Door Panel | Ford Explorer and Ford Ranger Forums - Serious Explorations

 

[jonbangs]

Number Twelve :
I just came back and re-read your splice description and it makes much more sense now that I have done the splice the easy way (it didn't hold). Now I will solder the wires together. Thanks to Mother Nature I have a few more days of warm weather to work outside before the real autumn sets in.

Lesson learned here: do it right or do it over! You'd think at my age I should have known that inherently...

 

[Number Twelve]

A late memory...cut a notch in the cardboard about 1/2 inch square, and place the splice so it is not covered on the back by cardboard. That way you can solder all around the splice without moving it.

And don't worry. I do lots of things over until I get them right...all the while muttering, "details, details, details".
It's that attention to details that finally puts the polish on a job well done.

Meanwhile, I'm in Florida and the weather is just now cooling off enough for me to climb back under that beast and find out why the rear is roaring like it's wearing snow tires.

 

[jonbangs]

Lived without window control for a year. Finally figured how to expose the body end of the broken wire: I forced the rubber boot back with a vise-grip pliers (with tape around the teeth) and got the two pieces of blue-black wire soldered together. Oh, I spliced in a piece of #14 stranded wire to relieve the stress between the ends.

Now the windows work again, and I'll move on to the other problems...

 

[Drewmcg]

That accordion thing is the boot.
The way I do car splices is to find the break, cut both ends square, and strip them back about 5/16ths.
Get a hunk of wire the same size. Same color if you are lucky. (I have a bucket full.) Cut a few inches of that, like 5 inches or more. Strip the ends, and slide 4 pieces of shrink tubing on to the old wire, two on each side of the break. Soon, you will hold the wire ends in place with two spring type wooden clothes pins on the edge of a piece of cardboard. Splay the strands on each raw end and jam them together. Then roll the splice in your fingers to smooth it. Attach the clothes pins. Solder the splices, then let them cool. Slide a piece of shrink tubing over the splice and shrink it. Then another layer. Fold the excess wire into a loop and put the boot back on.

Read that twice. I never wrote this before so you have to skip back and forth to get the sequence right.

Of course, you don't have to do it my way.
...
]A late memory...cut a notch in the cardboard about 1/2 inch square, and place the splice so it is not covered on the back by cardboard. That way you can solder all around the splice without moving it
.

Good stuff!

 

[A_Bussan]

I had several wires go bad, power windows, puddle lamp, and remote unlock started acting up. You have to remove the door panel and unplug all the harnesses from the inside to pull off the boot. This is easier done by removing the door. From there splice in new wires. Had talked to a ford tech about it and he told me about wire issue and said best bet is to remove the door.