Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

well since we had the door card off already on the passenger side, I decided I was a bit tired of my son not being able to roll down the passenger side window easily, as if he needed yet another reason not to go riding in daddys car, know what I'm saying fellers?

so first we took some pics of all the screws that may be responsible for holding the window rectifier on the inside of the door, and maybe a few innocent by standers

[Gregski]

and a few cuts and bruisers on the ol' forearms and the door window and regulator were on the garage floor

now I may not be the saltiest fry in the bunch but I believe the black plasticie roller wheel thingies ought to spin and turn freely, it appears as only one spins, another sorta wobbles and the third refuses all together

[Gregski]

oh Rust, oh Rust, you're no friend of mine

LMC Truck wants $50 bones per window regular, that's actually not bad, but I'm not sure if they come with the rollers already rivitted in, maybe if one of youz who have purchased one before from them could comment

also, did GM seriously reinvent the window regulator THREE TIMES, 1973, 1974-76, and again for 1977-87

I can see it now, Jimmy it says here you graduated magna cum laude from Cal Poly, boy do we have a project for you, you see these window regulators we have now in 1973, well they're all wrong, can you figure out a completely different way to make this here winder go up and down??? ha ha

[Gregski]

dance of the wire wheel

I also gave some love to the rusty sections of the window regulator before brushing it with some Phosphoric Acid, maybe I can save it, maybe all it needs is The Three roller Amigos (maybe I can get them at the local parts house)

[Gregski]

ok am I the only one who looks at the Window Regulator and thinks of the Executioner and his Axe?

[Gregski]

anyway moving right along, The Greg has no media blasting cabinet, so he relies on the One Two Punch of abbrassion and acid to clean rust

[73kay]

Originally Posted by Gregski

dance of the wire wheel

I also gave some love to the rusty sections of the window regulator before brushing it with some Phosphoric Acid, maybe I can save it, maybe all it needs is The Three roller Amigos (maybe I can get them at the local parts house)

I just broke 2 of my wheels (got a little impatient with them)
And I'm curious if you can get new wheels otherwise time to hit the junkyard.

[enaberif]

The reason there is differences in the window parts is because they used 2 different widths of glass from 73-76ish and 77 and on.

[68Timber]

Rockauto stocks the regulators, I'd buy there before LMC.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 73kay

I just broke 2 of my wheels (got a little impatient with them)
And I'm curious if you can get new wheels otherwise time to hit the junkyard.

Andrew we know you can get the rollers from online catalog places like LMC Truck, for $5 bucks a piece. Tomorrow I will check if places like AutoZone or NAPA have them locally.

I would advise against replacing a used piece such as the regulator with another used piece as it is a moving part and those rollers wear out. Chances are you will be replacing a broken part with another broken part.

[moody38]

Gregski and 73Kay--

As an alternative to the regulator sliders, you might consider something like this--

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Lin...-100183882-_-N

I found them when I ran into the same problem with the back window on a Bronco. I did have to grind down the roller pedistals and drill a hole in the regulator arm, but that was no big deal. They've held up fine for 10 years now and are available locally at most hardware stores. If they can handle that back window, I'm sure door windows would be no problem.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by moody38

Gregski and 73Kay--

As an alternative to the regulator sliders, you might consider something like this--

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Lin...-100183882-_-N

I found them when I ran into the same problem with the back window on a Bronco. I did have to grind down the roller pedistals and drill a hole in the regulator arm, but that was no big deal. They've held up fine for 10 years now and are available locally at most hardware stores. If they can handle that back window, I'm sure door windows would be no problem.

well dingle dangle bud, I may just could try them today - this could be the Redneck Fix of the year, and I mean that as a complement

[Gregski]

man you guys (and gals) won't believe this, so yesterday afternoon I am painting the window regulator with some POR15 I had left over, the regulator is hanging on a wooden stick I have screwed to the top of my wooden fence, when all of a sudden the screws come out of the fence beam and the regulator falls to the ground and it just so happens it lands in a plastic storage bin lid, which is flipped upside down and full of rain water

my heart sinks, I already hate painting in the winter time and now I have a completely painted part under water, I pull it out upset as all heck, lay it down on a metal patio table and without skipping a beat using the same brush, brush off all the water beads, then I hang it inside my garage over night

well this morning I go look at it and its all dry, my goodness how did that happen, it dried in the dead of the winter and it was like 28*F last night and looks fine

you know what they say sometimes POR15 works in mysterious ways!

[Gregski]

so there are many options when it comes to fixing our window regulator roller problem

Option 1. buy a brand new complete regulator - now this seems like a logical option and there most likely is a reason why parts houses sell already completely assembled regulators as opposed to individual rollers, we could take this option and be done with it, but than this Post would be so boring, so we entertain other options

Option 2. - get just the rollers from an auto parts house even if they are for a different make and model, after spending half a day driving from one outfit to another and see if they will work

Option 3. - get rollers from a home repair outfit such as Home Depot because surely they specialize in bathrooms, kitchens, roofs, and of course GM interior car door parts, LOL

[Gregski]

bet you didn't think I could use a digital caliper let alone own one, ha ha

first we take a measurement of our existing rollers outside D, digital one says .946 which is close to what my analog read when it said 15/16th

[Gregski]

then we go waste $8 bucks on a Dorman 74430 box of assortment rollers which believe it or not claim to fit, 1975-2001 trucks

let me repeat that they will work on 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, etc. you get the idea, but not on Rusty who was born in 1974

when I first saw this package I assumed all three rollers had a screw on the back end, but only one does, the other two must be rivited on, I guess that's what the word "ASSORTIMENT" was implying but I don't speak Spanish

[Gregski]

then we visited Home Depot and stared at a wall of "choices" four different posiblities really so we bought them all

we had small squarish wheels

we had small rounded wheels

we had large squarish wheels

we had large rounded wheels

[Gregski]

back at the garage we eliminated the small wheels and decided to give the larger squarish ones a go, so we measured them first

[Gregski]

since the Dorman auto rollers did not roll all too easily in the track for some reason, I was leaning towards using the Home Depo tub and shower ones, either way, the old rollers had to come out, so it was time to drill them out

took about 10 minutes (love the new drill bits, they [ahem] work!!!)

I chose not to grind them off as that would have been ugly, and I would have marred the regulator arms / brackets what ever you wanna call them

[Gregski]

with the old rivited rollers out, we see now we have a new problem, the holes are about 3/16th big and the screws are only about 1/8th thick so we have wobblage

off to Ace Hardware!

[brakenit]

What, no Vernier Caliper?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by brakenit

What, no Vernier Caliper?

ha ha, got one

[Gregski]

well after much to do about nothing, I figure I may just check out some already assembled and complete regulator prices, you know, just window shoppin' (pun intended)

so there appears to be two brands of these scissor kicking bad boys

there's the GOODMARK GMK4144420741R here are the prices for comparison

• RockAuto - $18.21
  
• Summit Racing - $24.97

and the OER - Original Equipment Reproduction T70521

• Summit Racing - $39.97
  
• Classic Industries - $39.99

plus the unknown brand LMC Truck carries for $44.95 and the unknown brand Classic Parts has for $41.95

so dummy whats stopping you from buying one of these, well I would like to buy a pair but RockAuto is out of the Left Hand ones plus I can't tell if all of them come with rollers, some don't show rollers in the pictures

[brakenit]

Originally Posted by Gregski

ha ha, got one

It even has a depth rod.

I don't think any of the vernier's I've used have had one but really the only one's I ever used were 36" or 48" models.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by brakenit

It even has a depth rod.

I don't think any of the vernier's I've used have had one but really the only one's I ever used were 36" or 48" models.

Is that what the pokey thing at the end is, I thought it was just part of the slide mechanism, ah embarrassing