Those pesky rear quarter windows

[darth_linux]

Please watch the video in the link below and leave your comments if you care to, or have any insight.

For what it’s worth, yes I’ve read the factory service manual and the section that details adjusting the window might as well be written in pig Latin, because it’s almost no use.

Also, the two adjustments at the back of the window I believe are nearly perfect because the back window engages into the weatherstripping correctly without smashing it.

And the front two adjustments have the window in almost as far as I can go, which is why I have a nice big gap when the window is up, but it still has almost no gap when the window is down. EDIT [in fact, I may have too much gap once the trim panel and it's attendant window sweep is in place for the interior].

Tomorrow’s plan is to take the trim panel off the other side and look at the settings for those four adjustments on that window, since that window does not have any problems at all. I wish I never had taken this thing completely apart two years ago. It’s been nothing but a nightmare ever since then.

The photographs show where the metal window trim was catching on the metal part of the window sweep at the leading edge of the window. This was happening long before I bought the car.

Thank you.

 

[HOT FURY]

for the scratching you may want to use a small fine file and file the surface of the rivet or small screw that you have attaching the cat wiskers. I replaced my sweeps and had the same issue. As for the adjustment I had no luck like you and found a glass company locally that had a really old dude working there who was able to get mine adjusted, although he complained horribly how bad mopar was compared to the fords and chevys for window adjustments. just an idea, check with some auto glass repair places near you

 

[Mudeblue]

Please watch the video in the link below and leave your comments if you care to, or have any insight.

For what it’s worth, yes I’ve read the factory service manual and the section that details adjusting the window might as well be written in pig Latin, because it’s almost no use.

Also, the two adjustments at the back of the window I believe are nearly perfect because the back window engages into the weatherstripping correctly without smashing it.

And the front two adjustments have the window in almost as far as I can go, which is why I have a nice big gap when the window is up, but it still has almost no gap when the window is down. EDIT [in fact, I may have too much gap once the trim panel and it's attendant window sweep is in place for the interior].

Tomorrow’s plan is to take the trim panel off the other side and look at the settings for those four adjustments on that window, since that window does not have any problems at all. I wish I never had taken this thing completely apart two years ago. It’s been nothing but a nightmare ever since then.

The photographs show where the metal window trim was catching on the metal part of the window sweep at the leading edge of the window. This was happening long before I bought the car.

Thank you.



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[Mudeblue]

I feel your pain! Had the same problem with my 65 SF. Put in new weatherstripping and replaced the window guide. Have nice polished chrome trim for both sides but never installed because of the same problem your having. Final solution, adjust as good as possible and then when putting down and up, guide manually and no problem. Pain yes, but it works! Remember, the old gal is 60 years old and my old parts don't work very well either! Good luck!

 

[MoPar~Man]

 

[413]

Be careful if you take it to an auto glass place, they will either not take the job, or overcharge you and make it worse.

 

[darth_linux]

Be careful if you take it to an auto glass place, they will either not take the job, or overcharge you and make it worse.

No, I won't be doing that.

 

[darth_linux]

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As you can see, the instructions are none too clear. Thanks for posting.

 

[Mudeblue]

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Oh if it was only that easy!

 

[darth_linux]

SUCCESS!!

I was gonna take photos of where the adjustments landed, but I got distracted and forgot - doh! I don't know how many more times those rear interior trim panels can come off before they fall apart, so I'm just going to describe the adjustments for posterity's sake (and anyone who searches in the future.)

The passenger side window regulator was the one I completely removed from the car two years ago, cleaned, greased, and put all new nylon rollers and sliders in. When I bought the car, the window wouldn't move (it was all the way up already), and made horrible grinding/scraping noises if I tried to do anything. In my naivete, I paid zero attention to where any of the adjusting bolts were set when I took it all apart and removed it from the car. Putting it all back together in the car was one of the biggest automotive nightmares of my life. Probably took me 6 hours to get the window and regulator assembly installed. As I had no idea where the adjustments should be set, I chose "the middle" for each one. This was a mistake. The window did move up and down, but it was not happy about it, and it made awful clunking noises (I know now that a clunk indicates that one of the "lock" nuts is not tight, allowing that adjustment point to move/flex).

When I went to the driver's side to replace the nylon rollers/sliders, I did it all in situ, having learned my lesson. In my still ignorant yet somewhat more intuitive mind, I left the adjustments as they were, and when the nylon bits were all replaced, voila, the window worked as designed. This paid dividends today!

Even though the fit and finish on these 60+ year old cars is sketchy by modern standards, I made the (correct) assumption that if I set up the passenger side adjusters similar to the driver side adjusters, I should at least be in the ballpark. I was right!

One more thing - when I took the window sweep off the car to try and repair all the damage, a couple of the clips stay behind and a couple more were a bit deformed. I reshaped them the best I could, re-crimped the two that wanted a divorce from their homes, and then undid the bottom crimp of the backing plate. Once the felt was all cleaned up and straightened, I used spray adhesive to re-adhere the felt to the backing plate, and then re-crimped the bottom of the backing plate to hold it all together. Once back on the car it was still a bit loose and wanted to "walk" backwards when rolling the window down, which encouraged the window frame to hang on that leading corner of the window sweep. I used a dab of E6000 adhesive to bind the backing plate to the body of the car and moved it as far forward as I could so that the window frame was less likely to "catch" on the front corner of the sweep. I'm happy to say the E6000 is doing a great job of keeping it in place as I roll the window up and down and after filing with the point file to remove the sharp edge, it's working pretty smoothly.

SETTINGS for the ;tldr folks.

The upper adjusters, both front and rear, need to be about 3/8" extended from the fully seated position. For me this was about 3 threads visible.
The lower adjusters, both front and rear, need to be between 5/8" and 3/4" extended from the fully seated position. For me this was about 9 threads visible.

It does take some tweaking of the rear lower to keep the back corner of the window from catching on the roof rail weather strip as the window comes up. What I did is keep bumping that adjustment OUT until the window no longer catches on the rubber.

For the rear upper, it seems like that affects how "tight" the window feels as it nears the top of its travel. Moving the adjustment OUT seemed to reduce the tightness.

The front lower adjuster seems to pivot the top of the window near the door in and out. Moving the adjustment way OUT brought the top of the window IN. Initially, the bottom front adjustment was almost fully in, and that was what was kicking the top of the window out and wiping out the window sweep.

The front upper adjustment seems to move the bottom of the window in and out towards the window sweep. This adjustment being almost all the way in seems to move the bottom of the window OUT when it's rolled all of the way up.

I left my parallel adjuster centered after fiddling with it and not seeing anything really change.

I used an old POINTS file to file down the leading edge of the outer stainless trim on the window sweep since the window trim wants to catch on it (this is what caused all of the scraping marks in the past). I got it rounded and smoothed enough that the window trim happily slides on past it now. If it does want to hang as you roll the window down, pressing inward on the glass will allow it to pass by. From there you shouldn't have any more problems.

Thanks to everyone for their stories, tips, and instructions!

 

[HOT FURY]

Be careful if you take it to an auto glass place, they will either not take the job, or overcharge you and make it worse.

The one I found by me charged me $100 and the guy older than my car knew exactly what he was doing, now their alignment and function are perfect so not necessarily true just gotta find a shop that knows what theyre doing. well worth $100 after my frustrations

 

[Sixpactogo]

I agree the instructions are vague and are no fun to adjust and lots of time and re-do are all necessary for success. I gutted mine when I restored it and can't remember how many hours I spent getting them functional. Glad you got it handled.

 

[darth_linux]

I agree the instructions are vague and are no fun to adjust and lots of time and re-do are all necessary for success. I gutted mine when I restored it and can't remember how many hours I spent getting them functional. Glad you got it handled.

Can you imagine being the person on the line who had to install window regulators on these cars all day, every day?? I mean obviously you'd figure it all out to the point where you could do it pretty quickly, but my goodness, what an awful job. I replaced the regulator on my daughter's 2000 Ford Focus and it took 30 minutes from start to finish, including removing and replacing the door card. The new regulator just bolted in with a few bolts and there was no adjustment needed - it just worked!

 

[Sixpactogo]

Replacing the regulator in the old cars is not as disruptive since you don't have to do any re adjusting as when replacing the window itself. Albeit no fun either.