Windows

[bucata206]

I believe it's a common problem but has anyone else had an issue with the passenger side and drivers side manual windows being difficult (next to impossible) to roll up and down? Does anyone know how to fix this? It's really difficult to completely close the window.

Also while the truck was just sitting at my old house not being used, a rat and some mice decided to make it a nice home for themselves. Now the cab (especially when the heater is on) has an extremely strong smell of mice. Any ideas on how to get the smell out of the heater vents and the cab in general? I'd just leave the windows on it open to air it all out but it rans ALOT up this-a-way.

 

[89Suburban]

Pop the door panels off and get some spray lithium grease for the window regulator hinges, rollers and tracks. And put the window down and spray the window channel felt with silicone spray.

Try pulling the heater fan motor off under the hood on the pass side firewall and vacuuming out that box of any debris. Does this truck have air condition system?

 

[chengny]

On the mice infestation:

I had the same problem - the truck I am currently restoring was a lumber yard truck. It never left the lot. For 21 years the mice had lived in it and made it their home.

It had a strange smell but the guy I bought it from smoked - a lot. So I thought it was stale cigarette smoke. I should have known better. I smoked two packs a day for years and none of my trucks ever smelled like that.

By the time I figured out what the smell was - dead mice?? - it was too late, I owned it. The interior smelled so fr**kin gross - it'd make you almost gag.

No amount of vacuuming, wiping down, de-deodorizer, etc. would get rid of it.

Long story short:

I completely stripped out the interior. Headliner & trim, pillar moldings, seat, the complete floor coverings, dash board pad. Only thing I didn't remove was the door panels.

Next, I vacuumed everything out with a shop vac. I used home made attachments to get into the tiniest spaces.

They worst areas were above the cab corners - those void spaces behind the seat that lead down. They were packed (I mean solid packed - a foot deep) with ... I don't even know what the hell it was .. dead mice, mice crap, mice mattresses...who knows. To be honest, I didn't inspect what came out that closely.

Next I pulled the plastic plugs on the floor (located under the seat - had it still been there) and disconnected the battery.

For 2 hours, I scrubbed (with a strong solution of Simple Green) every corner of the cab.

I hooked a garden hose up to the hot water supply for the washing machine and turned the water heater up to the highest setting.

Finally, using a nozzle, I hydro-blasted and rinsed out that truck interior till you could eat off of the floor. I blasted everywhere; under the dash, into the defrost/heat ducts, and especially down into the areas above the cab corners (they drain out on to the pavement if the crap has been cleared).

Reassembled everything and thought I was good to go - NOPE!

They had also packed the entire outside air ventilation system. The passages leading from under the windshield cowling all the way down to the vents were packed with more mice stuff. Getting that out took for-fr**kin" -ever.

Vacuumed as much out as I could from the top by sticking the vacuum hose down into the corners under the cowling. That didn't clear it. Hot water flushing didn't work either - it just kept backing up into the void space under the cowling or flowing out of the vent doors and into the cab.

What finally cleared the bottoms of the fresh air intakes was vacuuming through the vent doors and blasting compressed air back up from the drain holes at the bottoms of the plenums.


Good luck. Whatever that mice residue is - it packs in like stinky cement.

 

[chengny]

Spraying some kind of lubricant (into the roller/track interfaces and the channel runs as per 89Sub) will occasionally work. But that's if the window is only slightly harder to crank up than normal.

It sounds like your windows are really stubborn. That is generally caused by the glass getting cocked in the frame. And the most common reason for that is worn rollers at the ends of the arms:

You must be registered for see images attach

When these get worn - where they attach to the arms - they don't push straight up on the glass sash track as designed. They tilt and that causes them to push the track either out/in or twist it.

That results in an excessive amount of torque on the crank to raise the window. Best bet - hit the junkyard and find a pair of regulators that are still in decent shape. Even a slightly worn OEM regulator is better than a brand new aftermarket one. And much cheaper.

 

[bucata206]

Great thank you everyone! I will have to hit the junk yard again soon to find some regulators... It does feel like the drivers side window anyway isn't following the track and looks like it is shifted toward the front of the door.

I am not looking forward to figuring out the mice smell. Thank you for your experience! Hoping it won't be AS much of a nightmere as yours. haha

 

[89Suburban]

Spraying some kind of lubricant (into the roller/track interfaces and the channel runs as per 89Sub) will occasionally work. But that's if the window is only slightly harder to crank up than normal.

It sounds like your windows are really stubborn. That is generally caused by the glass getting cocked in the frame. And the most common reason for that is worn rollers at the ends of the arms:

You must be registered for see images attach

When these get worn - where they attach to the arms - they don't push straight up on the glass sash track as designed. They tilt and that causes them to push the track either out/in or twist it.

That results in an excessive amount of torque on the crank to raise the window. Best bet - hit the junkyard and find a pair of regulators that are still in decent shape. Even a slightly worn OEM regulator is better than a brand new aftermarket one. And much cheaper.

Are those rollers replaceable?

 

[chengny]

Long Motor Company has them - @3.95 per:

 

[89Suburban]

Long Motor Company has them - @3.95 per:

I'll have to pull out the spare regulator I have and take a close look at how they are attached. I want to take a good look at the motor on it too and post up some pics at some point.

 

[chengny]

It looks like the roller has a socket and the little shaft (that is pressed into the arm) has a ball on the end. Apparently the roller socket just pops onto the ball. I didn't want to wreck my only good set by forcing it off - so I guess we'll never know:

 

[theblindchicken]

My windows were always a little tough to roll up (passenger windows especially) since the truck sat for quite a while. My fix for it was to use molybdenum grease on all the moving parts I could reach. Roll it up and down a few times, add more if necessary and it worked like a charm.

But like chegny stated, if it's very difficult to roll them up, you may have more of an issue than just some missing lubrication.

 

[smurph20]

Mie has a spring n it that is broken and half hanging out of where it is supposed to be. It has it locking up. You might check that. With mine like that my driver window is near impossible to get down even an inch or so.

 

[bucata206]

Hmm ok. It could be hanging up on something too.

 

[MrMarty51]

I got involved in a mice infestation nightmare, an old F700 ford, once coal mine/gone to farmer truck.
Heater core was leaking, had fan box for A/C but no A/C.
It took two day of removing bolts, the dash pad and heater core. Was able to split the A/C box, remove fan motor.
Using compressor air and shop vac. Some of them clumps was so big they would not pass through the vacs. nozzle, and it is a big shop vac; digging, blasting, vac-ing, remove dash pad and bilevel vent ducting, blasting, vac;ing until the vacking thing was clean.
Use a weed sprayer, fill it with a fairly strong solution of bleach and water and hose everything down before any dust is raised, blast it down with the solution as often as necessary. You do not want to breathe any dust that has had any thing to do with a mice infestation. Have You ever heard of "Hanti-Virus" it kills people very quickly.
Scrub parts in bleach/water then scrub with detergent/water for the final cleaning.
One thing about it, You will know every inch of the makings of a Square Body truck by the time You are finished.
May I suggest, that while You have the heater box apart, replace the heater core, You do not want to have to disasemble any of it after You have already put in so much time and labor making it look and smell as new, besides, mouse piss rots brass and there`ll be plenny a dat chit to last You a life time.

 

[89Suburban]

Also lube try lubing the return spring on the regulator.


Chengny, I was tinkering around with those rollers, they do pop off and can be damaged in the process. I am sure the new ones would pop on without damage though. Also those rollers like they are 2 piece (if you look at the back side of the roller you can see the seam, and looks like there is some type of metal shim or spring inside of them.