TR Doors

Steve, I am planning to rebuild my window motors/cables also. There was a post on the old web site about doing this so you might want to do a search of the archives. I will also do some research and we can compare notes. pd

 

I put this together for my 512TR and assume similar to TR but don't know. It can also be found in the Parts and Service section of old fchat.

512TR DOOR PANEL REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT

Note: As I assume these procedures are the same for the passenger door as the driver’s door and therefore left and right sides would differ, when I refer to the “front” of the panel I am referring to the side of the panel closest to the front of the car and the “rear” of the panel as the side of the panel closest to the rear of the car.

Removal Steps

1. Lower the window glass completely.

2. Disconnect the power via switch under bonnet.

3. Attempt to unscrew the door locking knob. (If it does not want to come off and you feel you are forcing it don’t worry it will squeeze through hole. At least mine did.)

4. Remove the arm rest pad located to rear of grab handle by gently pushing the arm rest to rear while swinging/pulling the front portion of the arm rest pad out toward you. There is a tab on the front of the arm rest pad which slides under the grab handle and there is a spring metal clip on the rear of the arm rest pad which clips under the door panel and provides tension to keep the tab on the front portion of the arm rest pad under the grab handle.

5. Looking down the opening created by the removal of the arm rest pad, you will see a cable coming from the front connected to a rod which goes into a hole and is held in the hole by a green plastic retainer. This cable is connected to the interior door opening lever/handle and is part of the mechanism which opens the door from the interior. Rotate the green plastic retainer so that the rod can be removed from the hole. By removing this rod you will now have more free play to unscrew the interior door opening lever/handle.

6. Raise the inside door handle and you will find two 3mm hex screws under the handle. When these two screws are unscrewed the handle and switch assembly can be removed. There is a tab on the front edge of this assembly, so pull assembly up from the rear being careful that pin hinges for the handle do not harm leather.

7. Disconnect window switches remembering which one is which. (On my car the white plug was for the driver’s door.) To remove the mirror switch you must swivel out the two tabs (one on each side of the plug) which lock the switch to the plug.

8. Remove the screws along the bottom of the panel along with the screw on rear side just under the top ledge, the screw on the forward edge and the screw under the top of the grab handle. Note: the screw under the grab handle is a longer screw than the others.

9. Remove the two10mm nuts located under where the arm rest pad was removed and also remove the 10mm nut located under where the door handle/switch assembly was removed.

10. The lower portion of the panel which contains the grab handle and the speaker enclosure can now be removed separately from the rest of the main panel. However, when removing the lower portion of the panel you must reach in and unplug the yellow speaker wire connector located on the speaker.

11. The main panel can now be removed by gently pulling the lower part of the panel out far enough to free it from the three 10mm bolts and then pulling the panel up slightly from the top rear side while sliding the whole panel sideways to the rear. Don’t pull the panel out toward you too far as there is a metal tab/guide located on the front edge of the panel which goes under the front edge of the door frame. This tab is located just above the switch area and to the front of the area where the top of the grab handle was screwed into the panel. The top of the panel is held in place by a groove on the top of the door frame at the level where window comes out. The panel can be lifted straight out on the rear side, but on the front side it must be slid out in the direction of the rear until the front edge is slid out about all the way to the front edge of the window glass.


Replacement Steps

Reverse the above procedure with the following caveats:

A. If you were not able to do so earlier, disconnect the door lock knob from the rod. It is easier to put the door lock rod into the door frame and green retaining pin first, before installing panel. Let it dangle down while partially installing the panel. Don’t worry about trying to feed it through from top while installing panel. (It is easier to get down on floor and reach up from below to feed rod through the top hole in the middle of the process.)

B. Lower the front edge of panel into top of groove in the area just below front edge of window glass. The panel slides in tilted at an angle with the rear of the panel being positioned higher than the front of the panel. The rear is lowered as the panel progresses to the front edge through the groove. However, before pulling the panel totally to the front edge, remember to reach from below to push the door lock rod up through top hole in panel. Don’t slide panel too far to the front edge before you push locking rod up as you do not want the retaining tab near the grab handle to be engaged while you are trying to reach up and feed rod through hole. After you get rod through hole attach knob.

C. When pushing the panel the final few inches to the front remember that the tab near the grab bar must go under the door frame. However, don’t push too early or too hard in the area of the tab as you do not want the tab to cut into plastic before it gets to edge of door frame.

D. Once panel has slid into groove all the way to the front edge you can attach the three 10mm nuts and washers. Put them on loosely so that panel can be moved slightly if needed to get all the screws around edge of panel to line up correctly.

E. Before starting each screw, I inserted a large paperclip with 3 inches or so straightened out into the screw hole as a guide to be sure the holes in the panel are aligned with the holes in the frame. Once screws are all inserted, tighten the three 10mm nuts.

F. Reverse rest of procedure.

 

I have the same plastic material. As I only was taking off the door panel for the speaker, I did not have to take off the plastic. As a result, I have no info on the plastic. I wouldn't be surprised if it is film used by many car builders, especially FIAT.

 

If your plastic is damaged or needs to be replaced, I've used just run-of-the-mill paint drop plastic from Home Depot. Get the thickest they sell, and use an exacto to cut it to shape. The purpose is to serve as moisture barrier between the textiles on the door panel, and the rain that gets get in interior of the door.

 

Disassembly (85-91 TR)

1. Remove approx. six #4 machine screws located in the carpeted area of the door.
2. Remove the pocket box located in the arm rest. Be careful not to break it at the corners, as the plastic is brittle.
3. Where the pocket box came from, you'll find two 10mm bolts to remove. Also, there's a cable connection for the door handle that needs to be disconnected.
4. Remove the interior door lock stalk. If the stalk doesn't want to come off, you can disconnect the stalk from behind the panel at a later point.
5. Directly under the upper part of the grip handle is a #8 machine screw that needs to be removed.
6. With all screws and bolts removed, lift the bottom of the interior panel out from the door. Reach up under and disconnect the ashtray lamp connector.
7. Now lift the door panel vertically, up and away from the door. Remove the inner plastic, hopefully without damaging it.
8. Roll down the window about 1/2 way.
9. Mark the window cable with a bright paint to indicated where to reconnect at a later point. Disconnect the two cable attachments at the bottom of the window (you'll need a 10mm end wrench, and a 10mm socket wrench). As you do this be careful that the window doesn't fall down.
10. Once disconnected, the window will want to go to the bottom, but you're better off raising it to the top (by hand) and securing it somehow (I use a wood stud to hold it up).
11. Remove the window motor, noting the routing of the drive cable.
12. Disassemble the transfer gear part of the window motor, remove all the old grease and re-grease with a high quality grease (I use Mobil-1 Synthetic grease).
13. Replace the window channel felt, if needed. This is important.

Reassembly

Essentially the reverse of disassembly.

When reconnecting the window to the cable, make sure to reconnect to the original points. The window will be "level" and not cocked in the grooves. If it is crooked, the window will drag excessively.