348 problems and fixes

At this point, I reinstalled the glass and the inner door. I don't have pictures of this, as I was very paranoid that I would break the glass, so I needed both hands. The glass and assembly is twisted back into the door. Make sure that the motor, which seems to dangle, doesn't hit the glass. The the inner door goes back on. Some bolts of the inner door attached the inner door to the frame, and other bolts attached the glass guides to the back of the inner door.

 

Window
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

the above picture is part of the kit sold at Home Page. What this kit does is as follows. Most electrical components on a car only have 1 wire going to them, as the -ve side of the battery is connected to the car frame and hence any electrial component can get the -ve side from the car frame. In the case of the electrical window motor, there are two wides going to the motor, as the polarity of the wires is reversed depending on up/down on the switch. Wire = resistance so in the case of the window motor you have double the resistance as double the amount of wire.

This little mod taps into the two wires as well as a third wire to the ground. When the mod detects the switch being active, if routes the other wire to the ground, thus halving the about of electrical cable and (in theory) having the resistance. Less resistance = more volatage = faster windows

 

Here are the two wires that need to be spliced
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Nice ground for the mod
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Wires being spliced
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Kit comes with a nice sticky tab to stick the little box inside the door
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Ok. Ran out of photos. Here is the scoop. The window went back in, and I tested it. After all the cleaning / greasing / mod kit the window is still very slow. The mod kit certainly helps. If you hold the ground off and on the door whilst operating the window, you can see that it visibly speeds up. Unfortunately in my case, it goes from very very slow to very slow.

I also have a problem where the window seems to travel too much up. I would say it overshoots my about 1/8 inch. When the door is closed, it's travelled so much up that there is a very visible gap between the door and the rubber. Pretty sure it wasn't like that before.

Does anyone know how to adjust the window ? I know there are little stoppers that you can adjust, but in my case i have all the way out, and when I feel with my fingers I can't see they are touching anything when the window is all the way at the top.

I'm wondering if the gap issue i because I put on the new rubbers / brackets holding the window at the bottom. Perhaps I didn't push them all the way home, and this is why the window is travelling to far.

The other odd thing, is that if you just connect the motor, without the assembly to the wiring, and push the swtich, it seems to turn and turn for ever. So the question is, what is cutting out the motor when the window reaches either the top or the bottom ?

I had to leave this for another day, but I'm now wondering what to do next. In summary :

- Windows are still very very slow
- Window seems to travel to high.
- When the window is in the middle of it's run, it seems to be a little faster, but gets slow at the top. (I read somewhere that you can undo the little plastic triangle sale and perhaps this is how you adjust it ?)

I'm wondering also if I should scrap the fastferrariwindow mod and go for the 2-relay approach that I've read about.

Any thoughts welcome ....

 

Also - I have one other question.

On the 308, the motors were packed with grease which overtime hardens and effects the speed of the windows. I have taken out my 308 motors and cleaned them a few years ago. Does the 348 suffer from the same problem ? I know I read somewhere this week about the 2-relay solution and it was noted that you must clean out the motor before doing this, as the motor could burn out if you apply the 12v 2relay fix.

Having searched for 348 windows I didn't see any reference to this, and could only find one post where somebody actually took the motor apart.

Thoughts welcome

 

Mike. Here is a picture of the speaker.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

And the back. I assumed this was stock but I'm guessing from your comments that this may not be so.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

So. I speculated that the reason the window was going up to high has the glass wasn't fully seated in The new brackets/rubbers. So I took the whole think apart again and got out my fine adjustment tool.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

As I was resembling the inner door, there is a cable which connects the door latch pull on the inside to the door lock assembly. When connecting to the door lock, there was too much tension in the wire. It was pulling the lever on the door lock even when in the open position. I tried adjusting the adjuster but no luck.

On closer inspection of the inner door I found this. The wire had snapped and the PO had bodged it. Unfortunately the "fix" didn't work as there is too much tension in the line. This has the affect of pulling the lever to much and the lock assembly jams or the central locks "dance".

I now fully understand why my passenger door got jammed back in August. I will be buying another cable !
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hi,

So I just updated my profile so people won't call me jford10014 anymore - HA !

Thanks for the replies. I think (?) I've fixed my window going up to high. I think the "fine adjustment tool" did the trick. The new brackets are very tight, and I don't think they were pushed all the way home. Or I just put everything back differently ? I'm still curious how the motor knows how to stop at the top and the bottom. When the motor is detached from the assembly, and given power, it just turns forever.

All this talk of speakers has made me add "new stereo" to the list of projects. My 308 came with (and still has !) a tape deck, and my 348 came with a CD player. Yeah ! if only I owned some tapes or CDs.....I was looking on amazon today at single DIN bluetooth stereos...

Jeff : Thanks for the reply. I have read your thread from start to end. If anyone is reading this, and wants a good thread, check out Jeff's. The level of detail is amazing and inspiring. There are many procedures, outlined in great detail, which I will be doing to my car. Namely, the section on the engine bay foam, the piston in the center console, the relay replacement (I ordered 6 last week), the painting of the capliers. On and on. Great read. Jeff - I will be in the UK at the end of the month, and will be visiting Tesco's for some carpet cleaner !

Having re-read the pages Jeff has posted above, I will be taking my lock out again, so I can respray the barrell !

So - as I was upstate with just my son this past weekend, and hence had an opputunity to take the car out, I decided to put the passenger door back together without the cable to open it from the inside. So - here goes :

The glass goes into the door, followed by the inner door. The glass assembly needs to be connected to the inner door, as well as the inner door connected to the frame.

 

Pic
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Speaker connected and back in
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Top bit of trim
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Lock thing
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Next level of trim
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks Mirlojub for the explanation.

 

Hi Mirlojub. I really meant to write more than that, but got distracted and hit send.

So - you are saying that the power is also on at the motor when the switch is held down (assuming no cutout). So if you held your finger on the switch, then you would eventually burn the motor. I need to test this with a volt meter. Assuming that my FastFerrariWindows don't give an good result, I was reading about the 2-relay mod, but wanted to make sure this wouldn't have a negative effect on the motor if you held the button down accidently.

Jeff - I did get the hill part. I'm also faced with the same choice as you w.r.t the srping. in the passenger door I did find the spring in the door, but in the drivers side I did not. I may just swap the driver / passenger around given that the drivers door would be the most used.

I really liked (and was holding out hope) for your fix using the key chain rings, but i'm guessing that this didn't work. Why didn't it btw ?