Window Crank for 1990 Testarossa?

I figured today I'd take my door panel off the passenger side of the Testarossa, to diagnose an inoperative window. With the door panel off I see there's a hole for what looks like the same tool my 1979 308 used to operate the window. No tool like this in the TR toolkit, has anyone operated their windows with an emergency crank?

I'm thinking I should check the electric motor gearbox grease, since it's probably turned into concrete, but I would like to at least see if I can move the window with a crank. Checking current draw on the electric motor, it shows it is drawing current going both directions, but the window doesn't budge. I remember repairing these on 308's and with the cables, it's NOT a lot of fun. I did a search in the TR section and didn't find any posts on cranks.

 

In the eighties, I owned an auto repair shop, and worked on mostly Ferraris, Maseratis and Jags. In my 328 Tech manual I have my hand drawn diagram of the cable routing for the 328. I ALSO have a tool that I made out of a fairly heavy oil seal, that I slipped over the cable while it was mounted in the motor. Basically a "C" shaped seal that could be pulled out after the motor was in place. Without it, I think I would not work on cars for another fifteen years, and by then I'll be drooling and not even thinking about Ferraris. I DO know the pitfalls of the cable! I did quite a few 308 motors, replacing the rock hard grease, and rerouting the cables.

It's been 20 years since I've worked on these but the window winder crank I'm pretty sure has to disengage the worm gear from the motor driven worm. I may try and make a winder real quickly and just see if I can budge the window, before pulling my hair out by removing the motor and cable. Looks exactly like the 308 from the front. Wishing at this point I KEPT my 308 crank when I sold the car.

 

Yesterday I did make a crank, copying dimensions of one for sale on ebay. It doesn't seem to disengage the worm gear from the worm, or allow the cable carrier to freewheel. So I'll disassemble the unit, and have the requisite fun getting the cable routed.

I have a hundred machine- machine shop, so MAKING tools is actually what I do.

 

I finally found the little blurb in the workshop manual on replacing the window motor. 3rd or fourth step in the process is to use " special crank" to wind window all the way down.
This certainly would make disconnecting the cable from the window easier, but if I could LOWER the window I might not have to deal with it. Once I remove the motor, I will investigate why my tool didn't allow the window to go down, and then make sure I make some that will.

I KNOW i had the special tool for holding the cable on the drum, but after 20 years it doesn't seem to be visible in my toolbox. I DO however have a heavy seal that I cut into a "C" to use for this purpose.

I appreciate the input from the posters. I have read some interesting prior posts on this project, and certainly know some of the pitfalls.

 

I have dismantled my window motor and can report that the window SHOULD be able to be operated with a crank. The spool that the window cable is wound around is attached to the gear with a part known as a curvic coupling- a very fine toothed gear that meshes with mating teeth. The front of the window crank, when it gets pushed in THEORETICALLY will disengage this coupling allowing the spool to free wheel. I couldn't get mine to disengage yesterday, so am going to school on it today. Being curious, I'm trying to dismantle this gear just so I can see what they did. BUT it does not want to come apart despite putting it in an arbor press. I'm NOT so curious I want to BREAK it to find out, and may quit while I'm ahead. So the worm gear driven by the window motor IS a separate part from the cable drum, able to rotate on a common shaft. There is a substantial bellville washer that keeps the teeth in mesh.

The only thing I could find wrong is the front bronze bushing in the window motor looked rusty. I dismantled the motor cleaned it, lubed the bushing and put it back together. Electrically it works fine. My car which is a 1990, had grease in the motor gearbox that was RED, and was still very much like grease. It had NOT hardened at all, in 25 years!
I can certainly warn people to not even think of using LUBRIPLATE to grease their gears. I KNOW in ten years it turns into a solid mass that you have to SCRAPE off. I USED to use it as assembly lube for machines I manufacture, but after seeing a brand new 10 year old machine thoroughly locked up, with the grease hard as a rock, not anymore.

My car had TWO black plastic covers in the door. If I'm not the first person to have gotten into this motor, I'd be surprised. The plastic would have to be completely replaced to be as perfect as it was. The black plastic makes it difficult to see the cables, and if I had the job to do over, I would have removed the inner cover first, rather than try and leave it in place. The plastic is Eight- thousanths (.008)thick and I'm going to replace it with equal thickness CLEAR plastic, so at least I can see through it.
Ferrari did an impressive job sealing the door, very professional , unlike some I've seen in earlier cars. It would bother me to NOT do an equal job resealing the door.

Since my window was inoperative and UP all the way, I removed all three nuts on the bottom window pulley mount to relieve the tension on the cable, removed it, which allowed the window to come down to where I could remove the TWO socket head cap screws that attached the cable to the window. I removed the window from the door. I'm betting I can completely install the motor and cable, route the cable correctly and then just attach the cable to the window after I know it's working right. I DID wrap the window cable with green masking tape on the top and bottom of where it mounted to the window. The TAPE has been a real aid in figuring out the routing, giving me a visible reference to look at for reassembly. I'm being careful moving the assembly around that I don't MOVE these tape markers.

I'm using an OIL SEAL to hold the cable onto the drum. It is a 45 mm ID 68MM OD by 10mm thick. I cut the seal just slightly more than in half, so it's sort of a "C" shape. It holds the cable really well, and will be able to be removed after assembly by just rolling it out. My national seal catalog show the same seal but with a 12 MM thickness, that may even work better. It's a Timken 710345. My 10mm thick seal would cross to a Timken 45X68X10V. I'm an hour and a half into the project at this point- door panel removed, motor out, along with the cable. I'm surprised to see all the cable pulleys are plastic.
None are broken or seem worn out, so they must work.

lear60man, the drum is 1.840 in diameter. Not sure what the ID of any abs pipe or pipe fittings may be. It may work as well as the oil seals to hold the cable if you're lucky enough to get the right size. You also have to be able to remove it, once the motor is installed, so it can't snap over the cable too tightly. LOUSY access to get to once installed in the car.