I replaced my original with a junkyard unit from WCCC. the original regulator worked fine, but the gear teeth were worn out at the up end of travel and caused some annoying slippage.
The replacement part does not slip going up, although it is quite tight. However, going down it makes quite a racket, and I cannot figure out what’s causing it. I cleaned and lubed everything as necessary. The racket seems to just be a lack of smoothness going down, so it’s a bit “jumpy”. It’s possible the spring is just not cooperating, sticky winding up or down. It wouldn’t be too surprising, since there’s no telling how long the regulator has been sitting on a shelf.
I’m not sure if I can post a video here, but I’m gonna try. Somebody may recognize the noise. Thx
The video is in my photo album, but apparently videos aren’t allowed. I get it. Lots of band width for that.
Anyway, any thoughts? Prolly go back to the original soon. I’ve been exercising the replacement daily, but there has been no change.
I just went through that on mine this fall too. Everything smoothed right up after I replaced power window motor gear torque pins, lubed all regulator pivots and gear with lithium grease, and guides/runs were cleaned with mineral spirits and lubed with Sil-Glide.
Hmm, the fact that is different going up than down does seem to point to the spring. I know on the power window regulator, it is possible to get the spring tension wrong if it is installed backwards. Sorry to not be more help on the manual one.
Thx. Can I replace the spring on the used regulator with the original spring? It didn’t make noise. But that spring is wound up pretty good. Looks like it could be risky getting it off the tab.
Noisy spring makes sense. I had the springs off my quarter window regulators by carefully removing the motor while holding the arm in place, and then allowing the arm to extend past its normal stop to release spring tension. Didn’t try that on the front windows since the springs were larger and still under quite a bit of tension even with the arm in window up position. Maybe you could clean the spring up with brake cleaner and then spray lithium grease between the coils?
I had no problem swapping the springs out. The regulators I wanted to use had rusty springs. I had another set with beautiful spring so I swapped them out. They were noisy, especially rolling the window down. I packed them with lithium grease and it didn’t make any difference. I took the rusty springs and sandblasted and cleaned them and had the same issue with them. Got tired of fighting the noise and just went with it. The noise is hardly noticeable now. I took pictures before I took them apart so I know I put them back correctly. I don’t think you can over or under load the springs since you can only only turn them about a half a turn and then lock them in. Sorry that I did not have an absolute fix for you.
I have a new reproduction regulator on the passenger side that’s noisy. I regret not getting both NOS regulators when I had the chance too. I have a NOS one for my driver side and it’s perfectly quiet and smooth.
I got mine from the previous owner. When I bought my car he offered me both sides which I declined. Several months later he had not had luck selling the driver side and offered it to me for 100bucks. Regretted not getting both when I could have.