Date:         Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:54:20 -0700
Reply-To:     Luke Bakken <luke@BOWBAK.ORG>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Luke Bakken <luke@BOWBAK.ORG>
Subject:      Power window electrical question.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hey everyone,

My van has always had a slow passenger side power window. Finally,
this winter it got stuck in the up position.

I had Stacy Schneider rebuild the regulator and it came back looking
like new. While it was getting a rebuild I verified that the motor
works by hooking it up to the battery directly. At his recommendation
I used some triflow to lubricate the motor at the main shaft as well
as the bottom bearing via the weep holes.

Today I put everything back in and tried the window ... still slow! I
tweaked the alignment of the window to the regulator, thinking that it
may not be getting pulled down or pushed up perfectly straight.

Still slow!

OK, so I hooked the motor directly to the battery. Zip! Up it went.
Reversed polarity and Zip! Down it went. Even faster than the driver's
side window which is really fast. Lesson learned: try this before
sending regulator off for a rebuild!

So I know the motor and regulator are working. Next I fixed some
questionable wiring between the window switch and plugs on the
passenger side. This helped a lot as the window goes up and down a bit
faster but still not as fast as the driver's side.

On the driver's side I applied battery power to the two yellow wires
that go to the passenger side and the window goes up and down pretty
well, though not as fast as the drivers side and about as fast as if I
use the passenger side switch.

If I try to run the passenger side window via the switch on the
driver's side it's slower even than using the switch on the passenger
side and can't even roll the window up all the way.

Now I'm stuck in the usual Vanagon conundrum ... do I get two
replacement switches, take the time to solder them in and hope that
fixes the problem (and if not, start replacing wiring through the door
jambs), or do I just get the GoWesty switch relocation kit and get rid
of the problem once and for all?

Opinions welcome ... thanks!