Red tube in doors and lubricate window motors questions.

I don't know, could you check if your drainage holes at the bottom are free? Many find that they had been completely filled with sealer at the factory. Lube the wires and all the moving parts after cleaning with a strong solvent.

 

I thought that the front doors had cables, but your photo inspired me to look at the parts diagram. It appears to have a similar mechanism to the rear windows, where the window is pushed up by a sort of spring that goes inside the tubes that you see coming vertically in front of the guides. The spring passes through the middle of the motor, where it is screwed up or down by bearing that push the spring windings up or down. The spring extends into a tube on the other side of the motor when the window goes down. It's hard to explain but makes sense once you see it operating. The motor is #12 in the attached snip, and you can see the extension of the tube to the left of it where the spring goes as the window goes down.

I haven't worked on the door windows, but I have lubricated the rears. If it is similar, the tube has a slit in it that allows some access for cleaning. If you feel behind the tube you will find the slot. You will probably need to remove the entire mechanism, which may require taking out the window so that there is enough space to lift out the mechanism. It doesn't look like you could snake it out through the openings in the inner door skin.

The grease gets dried out, so you will need to flush it with solvents, then put in a new lubricant. I ran jumper cables to the motor wires so I ran the window up and down while applying the grease. I am not sure what type to recommend, I used white lithium but fear it is too light. My rear windows did go from barely moving to being quite quick, so it certainly worked.

If you don't want to pull the mechanism out, you could probably rub some fresh lubricant into the slot and maybe it would loosen up what is already in there.The reason I think the lithium may be too light is that the motor got somewhat noisy after I did that so I wonder if it needs a bit more resistance.

I don't remember exactly how but there is a chance that the bearings will fall out of the screw mechanism. They aren't hard to put back in, but at about half the size of a BB you want to be able to find them.

You can also lubricate the track that the windows actually slides up and down on, which should be a lot simpler than the spring. you can wipe it out with a paper towel them add fresh grease and run it up and down a few times I think the channel at the back (part 61) is probably more of a guide that doesn't need lubrication, but take a look.

Is it possible the red tube is just there to stop vibration? Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Put window down about 4”.. Use Masking tape , over the top of the frame,, oops, yours is a Cabriolet.
( I forgot how I did this on my Cab., 25 years ago.) ha ha,,
Anyhoo,, you will want to tape the window in place.
Use a Sharpie, mark the cable.
Pull it.

 

Blow into it to roll up the window if the drive motor conk's out?