1963 Power window barely goes down

[crjohnso]

The power windows in my 63 work, but the passenger window barely goes down and won't go up. I can disconnect the plug in the door and use a 12v battery and it goes up and down fine so not the motor. I swapped the driver and passenger switches, and the passenger switch rolls the driver motor/window up and down fine and the driver switch has the same result of barely moves the window down and it does not go up at all, so it is not the switch. I test the wiring at the motor, and I get 12.4V both up and down off of the switch, but the down circuit always has 6V even when not in use. I believe this trickling power always on at the motor is the issue. Is it possible i have a bad breaker and how can I test it at the fuse box where it is located? Any other ideas?

Thank you!

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[74 Harley]

The breakers have nothing to do with this issue.
If the switch works well on the other side then you probably have bad wire connectors in the passenger door, or a bad wire.

 

[Frankie the Fink]

Prob corrosion, poor connections or a marginal motor... It may operate fine off direct 12V from a separate battery but not on the voltage drop of decades old wiring and connectors. I would be tempted to CAREFULLY run some jumpers from the PS side motor connector to the DS motor and see how that side operates, if it is slow also then you have a PS wiring issue and your constant 6V reading may well be an indicator.

 

[Frankie the Fink]

Prob corrosion, poor connections or a marginal motor... It may operate fine off direct 12V from a separate battery but not on the voltage drop of decades old wiring and connectors. I would be tempted to CAREFULLY run some jumpers from the PS side motor connector to the DS motor and see how that side operates, if it is slow also then you have a PS wiring issue and your constant 6V reading may well be an indicator. If the DS operates fine then you have a PS motor issue.

 

[crjohnso]

Thank you 74 Harley and Frankie the Fink for the feedback. Let me provide a bit more detail on what I have done / observed so far.

At first there was no movement on passenger window, so I removed the motor, and it was rusted through the housing in the back and therefore frozen. I carefully pulled it apart got it cleaned up and freely moving / spinning both directions. That said, if I do more than just snug the housing screws (same ones that hold it to the door regulator) it does not spin freely, so it is just snug and seems to run smoothly. back in the door jumping it off of a 12V battery it goes up and down super-fast no binding etc. If I hook the switch plug back to the motor, I have the issues noted in my first post. I have pulled the motor out and back in several times to make sure it is not binding again, and it seems to work fine. I pulled the wires out of the door all the way to the fuse box, and they are in remarkably good shape. The ground that is also used for the interior door light seems fine and clean. I suspect there may be an issue between the wiring from the fuse box to the safety relay on the firewall as the driver window works fantastically well. I can swap the driver and passenger window switches in the consul, and it is exactly the same either switch works the driver window perfectly and passenger has 6V always and 12 volts plus when I hit the switch up or down. Of note when I do hit the switch for passenger window it dims all of the interior lights so there is a heavy load or draw when that happens as well also indicating a short or bad wire or?

This is a car I acquired a few months back that was last registered in 2004 and sat for 30 years, Obviously, it is not a daily driver or urgent I get fixed. I do have it running and driving after a fair bit of work and would like to drive it more, but. it will be triple digit heat here the next few weeks so no window working = no driving and I will also not be working on it until it cools back down into the 90's.

Thank you again for all your help and any additional suggestions!

 

[Frankie the Fink]

And you're sure the window glass is not binding or cocked ?
On old Corvettes the felt for the window channel could get balled up over time and jam things up.

 

[crjohnso]

I really don't think it is binding. The speed in which it goes up and down off of a straight 12v battery is impressive. Faster than the driver's side on the switch and that window goes up and down way quicker than most modern cars (at least the ones I have owned). I'd be happy to test it manually to see if it feels like it is dragging if I knew an easy way to do it, but don't want to mess up a good thing either.

 

[74 Harley]

Replace the motor. If it's drawing enough power to dim the lights it's pulling way too many amps. Shorter wires off a battery while jumping it can provide the amperage needed to operate. The armature itself it most likely shorted out.

 

[crjohnso]

The Motor being the issue did cross my mind, but I wasn't making the connection you noted with amp draw. It looks like you can swap driver motor with passenger motor just to confirm so I'll try that next. These motors are expensive, so I want to be sure that is what it is before I go searching for a replacement. I'll post a response once I get to it -- thanks!

 

[Frankie the Fink]

Replace the motor. If it's drawing enough power to dim the lights it's pulling way too many amps. Shorter wires off a battery while jumping it can provide the amperage needed to operate. The armature itself it most likely shorted out.

That's my assessment too.

 

[crjohnso]

Hey Frankie the Fink and 74 Harley,

I finally got back to this today and you were both correct it is absolutely the window motor drawing to many amps, and it will need to be replaced. I wanted to thank both of you again and confirm this as the issue in case anyone else comes across something similar -- Cheers.

 

[Frankie the Fink]

One thing you do NOT want to do with these old power window motors is "hang" on the buttons.
Once the window reaches its up or down limit don't continue hanging on the button - its hard on the motor and the window stops...