They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

[P.J. Romano]

Just finished repair of passenger side window mechanism. After hours of fiddling with cable which was unwinding from the spool each time I thought I had it right (about 20 times) and trying to put the fallen cable back on the upper wheel for the 54th time, I learned what real suffering means.
Opel Gods, forgive me for repeatedly cursing the designer of the window mechanism but he deserved it. Only those that did this job will understand me.

[sawdust]

The question now is, does it work.?.

[P.J. Romano]

It works fine. My nails are dirty from the cable grease, my arms are scratched from trying to reach upper cable wheel from the bottom of the door, my knees are hurting from kneeling beside the door but yes, it works!!!

[Dennis Texas]

Originally Posted by P.J. Romano It works fine. My nails are dirty from the cable grease, my arms are scratched from trying to reach upper cable wheel from the bottom of the door, my knees are hurting from kneeling beside the door but yes, it works!!!

perseverance pays off ....

[BQS4]

Been there, done that, have the greasy t-shirt to prove it... Glad you got it fixed. The feeling is ssssoooo much better when you do it yourself....no matter how many times it takes.

[Tru-Craft]

Originally Posted by P.J. Romano My knees are hurting from kneeling beside the door but yes, it works!!!

Did mine a few years ago, what a pain!
I pull the panel every couple years and spray white lithium grease on all moving parts, seems to help.
I'm so spoiled from power windows.
In Traffic a guy pulls up on my right, and wants to talk. By the time I reach over and crank the handle 5 times the light turned green!
Next time I work on my GT I will "Kneel beside the door" and pray to the Opel god's for help.

Lyle

[P.J. Romano]

Originally Posted by Tru-Craft Did mine a few years ago, what a pain!

Lyle, I am glad that I am not the only one...

Originally Posted by Tru-Craft I'm so spoiled from power windows. In Traffic a guy pulls up on my right, and wants to talk. By the time I reach over and crank the handle 5 times the light turned green!

Actually, I installed power windows as well but they are powering GT's standard window mechanism (see the pics).
I have also installed power locks (the last pic).

[GTJIM]

After several hours 'working' on my window winders I shrieked: "F..k me over again - and I will stab you with this screwdriver!"

... the next door neighbour rushed over to 'save' my best lady (the beautiful Trish) from this vicious assault - and I had to, shame-facedly, inform him that I was speaking to my GT's window winding mechanisim!

Trish thought it was quite neat that she has such a 'White Knight' next door.

[BDD]

Just a second bub, where's the info. about horses? Like, what do they eat, what do they think about, do they really sleep standing up? That might be elephants though.

I can see how "fixing" your window regulator mechanism could, at times, be mistaken for the sounds of a mass murder taking place. I usually just mutter things though. The places that were so cleverly designed to accept and conceal dropped nuts and bolts is worth mention too. The way the carburetor, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, throttle linkage, etc, are designed to act together to almost force you to drop that nut or washer and then how the sheet metal (heat shield? sure that's what they want you to think) below jumps out to grab it and never give it up is pure genius. Evil genius to be sure but genius all the same. As a co-operative system it is absolutely flawless. It is only rivalled in Nature by the Venus Fly-Trap and the marvelous symbiotic relationship between the ancient fig tree and fig wasp.

Say, how about a thread about things you've called your car, or even veiled threats? I bet that it won't always be like the way GT JIm describes the lovely Trish.

[wlkelley3]

Been there myself a couple months ago. I was fighting the drivers side. I finally had to walk away (it was getting late) and went back to it a couple days later and it all just went together smoothly. It even works. The Passenger side was a little easier as I learned which cuss words to use and which side of my mouth to hang my tongue out of.

[BDD]

I find that it's very difficult (too difficult to bother with) to get a single length of cable wound correctly in each direction on the drum such that when fully wound in one direction the window is fully up and in the other direction fully down without running out of cable on the drum, while maintaining correct tension on the cable, etc. There are also wracking or twisting loads that the cable puts on the regulator, frame and door frame to deal with. The glass window is also probably curved in 2 directions and it has to be adjusted to correctly ride in the track and close at the top correctly. Also, over time the cable probably gets stretched a bit. I figure that's something some guy named Hans or Dieter could have done in the factory but not afterwards. My passenger side window was never screwed up by anybody and it's operation is perfect.

What I've found that works and which allows you to adjust the tension is to use 2 lengths of new cable. They can be wound on correctly and the tension adjusted, you even have extra cable in each direction to adjust how its wound on the drum so it works at the top and bottom of the window travel. The excess cable can be trimmed off later when your satisfied that everything works. When it's about 100 degrees in the summer might be a good time to adjust the tension and take the slack out from the cable lengthening due to temperature.

This way, but now not quite requiring the patience of a Zen Master, you can fix your window mechanism and not use any bad language.