Window Drive Unit - Cable

Well, I'm sorry to drag this old topic out into the open again, but I'm stuck! I was driving my 83 308 QV last week when the passenger window suddenly "grinded" to a halt! And it "GRINDED" to a halt! For months I had thought about tackling the "slow window repair". Well, now I had no choice since my window was half way down when it stopped. So I took the door panel off hoping to find that the cable had simply jumped off one of the plastic roller wheels, but no such luck. After pulling the window drive unit from the car, I found a very hard black piece of circular plastic jammed between two of the three posts that hod the cover on the dive unit. It appears to be some sort of round plastic that may have fit in the hole where the door handle protrudes through the panel?? Not sure where else it could have come from, but it sure cause a lot of damage to the cable.

After taking the drive apart to find the usual suspect, "hard grease", I only found new grease and this piece of plastic jammed on top of the cable. Unfortunately, it disfigured the cable so badly that I can't even come close to wrapping the cable back on the spool in the individual grooves. The cable was wrapped, twisted, bent and basically ruined by this little piece of hard black plastic that was jammed in there! Damn!!

Now what? I was reading one of the other 20 threads on this "typical" repair and one of them mentioned that a hardware store would carry aircraft qaulity 1/6" stainless steel cable. I could replace the cable and be on my way! Well, I have no idea how to separate the plastic gear/spool from the metal shaft and metal plate on the spool. I would need to remove the plastic spool in order for me to remove the cable since one of the ends of the cable terminates in one of the holes that is under the metal cap on the plastic spool. Are you following me?

Has anyone replaced the cable? If so, how do you separate the spool from the metal shaft to get to the other end of the cable that is under there? Is the shaft simply pressed through the plastic gear/spool? Also, when you found the correct cable, how did you attach it to the spool? There are metal pieces on the end of the cable that stop it from coming apart where it was cut to proper lenght. Maybe you simply solder the end of the cable to prevent it from coming untwisted into individual strands?

Or is my best bet to simply find a replacement unit. I'm sure they are not inexpensive. Please help!

Thanks,
John

 

Kim,

Thanks so much! Thanks for the words of support. I have read every and all threads on this topic. I did read yours and the diagrams are a big help. The problem I have is that the cables are kinked and damaged for the first 2 or so inches, so wrapping them back on the spool in the correct grooves is just about impossible. So youi tip about pulling the unit apart to get the cable out is what I really needed and appreciated!

I will try to pry the "slotted hub" off the plastic spool to expose the back of the cable ends so i can remove the cable and try to find a new cable. The cost for the unit at Rutlands kills me since I know only the cable is bad.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Thanks again.

If anyone knows where to get the correct cable for this thing, I would appreciate the tip!

John

 

Just to be clear, I have the entire assembly apart, no problem. What I do not yet been able to do is to separate the actual spool from metal plate and hub it sits on in order to expose the one end of the cable that is under the spool and out of sight.

I will look at the slotted portion of the hub to see if it "snaps" off.

If you have a picture of it separated, that would be great.

John

 

Kim,

Thanks so much for you help! I still have only one end of the cable with the lead visible. The other end is under the spool side that I can't see. There is the metal "cap" on that side of the spool. The "slotted" hub is still in place. Maybe I should get my camera out and post a photo. But I have not yet figured out how to get he plastic spool off the metal cap and hub that runs through the center of the plastic spool. I can only see one end of the cable as it is now.

Thanks again!
John

 

To help, here are two photos. One shows the plastic side of the gear with the "lead" on the end of the cable. The other shows the metal cap on the spool. How do I seperate the metal cap, shaft (hub) and plastic spool that will allow me to see the other end of the steel cable? The plastic spool is on the metal hub. Note, the metal washer on the metal cap side of the spool spins, but does not seem to come off. I need to get the plastic spool off the metal hub in order to replace the cable. My cable is very bent. Any help with respect to separating the metal hub/cap from the plastic spool would be appreciated!

Thanks,
John
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I sure hope you are correct. However, I can't seem to get the cable wound on the spool smoothly enough. Should I re-install with the cable on the spool as best as possible and then run the unit "up and down" to get them to seat better? I just don't see how the cable will roll neatly in place with the existing kinks. You can't really see the bends in my photos. I will work them with the needle nose pliars a bit and try it before I purchase a new unit ($500+) from TRutlands.

Thanks for the help!

 

Ask and you shall receive! Thanks again Verell! I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to take it apart. Makes sense! I will give the first option (wind and re-install) to see if it works itself out. If not, then I will take it apart and replace the cable.

Thanks a million everyone!

 

Thanks to everyone for their help! I took a shot and put it back together with the "bent" cable. I ran it back and forth many times and it seems to work fine. It's about 30% faster now! I would assume that if I could clean out the window tracks with something appropriate it would be even better. I'm thinking about maybe putting some graphite powder or even silicone spray in the track. Thoughts?

Regardless, thanks to all of you!

John