73 Sedan Deville front passenger window motor

[Steve S Heracleous]

The passenger window motor went out. After the requisite troubleshooting, the motor is bad, I was able to obtain a replacement at O'Reilly (ACardone 42-13). I do have the Fisher body manual and tore into the door. The manual says to remove the window to get out the regulator. The motor is bolted onto the regulator and there is no access to the three mount bolts. It looks like a scary job. Has anyone else done it? The last thing I need is a broken window... 

[TJ Hopland]

Its been a few years since I had one out but I kinda remember getting the door panel off without damage was harder than getting the motor out.

I wonder if its something that originally GM only sold it as an assembly that included the regulator(mechanism)? So that is why the book says the glass has to come out?   I can't remember is the motor riveted in or am I thinking of my 80?    I know when I did the 73 I didn't have to remove the glass.  I kinda remember rigging it up for support but that could be because I had to leave the car outside so I didn't want the window down.     

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Once the regulator/motor is out, then you can access the motor fasteners.

Bruce.

[Steve S Heracleous]

The motor is not riveted in. Three bolts hold it to the bottom of the regulator. The regulator cannot be removed without removing the glass first. The regulator is held on the door frame by 4 bolts. I have to remove the 4 bolts and push the whole assembly towards the skin of the door to give me clearance to remove the motor mount bolts. I will have to keep the regulator/glass steady because it will want to move all over the place once the regulator mount bolts are off. Of course, once the motor is removed, the whole assembly will want to scissor down so I will have to figure out a way to hold the glass up.

May be I can rig something up to where I won't have to remove the glass. I have to do some more fiddlin'...

[beastly beauties]

Unbolt and pull out the glass. It is safer to remove the glass than to work around it in the door shell. I did many door replacements in my day of all makes and the GM cars were some of the easiest, especially the hard tops (with no window frame). There is no reason to struggle around the glass. There are holes in the top of the door that you line up with the bolts in the glass, unbolt them with a short extension, then just wiggle it out. It is very easy to break the glass inside the door when it is propped up or bouncing off the bottom of the door. The edges of the glass are the areas you need to be careful of not tapping them into something that will cause them to explode in a split second. I am guessing that the window is not to easy to find a replacement for these days. Play it safe. Sometimes what seems to be the longest way is the shortest way in the end.   Good luck,  David Symonds

[Steve S Heracleous]

Thanks for the replies! I managed to replace the window motor without removing the glass.

So first:
- Unbolt, one by one, the 4 regulator bolts and insert a 1/4" - 20 3" bolt with a nut on it. The nut will help you pull the regulator back towards the window frame when you are done. The reason we are doing this is to keep the regulator in the same general vicinity. What we need to do is to push the regulator away from the door frame about 1" - 2". Then, with a little bit of dexterity, you WILL be able to remove the three bolts mounting the window motor to the regulator.
- Once you are done, start threading the nuts to pull the regulator towards the door frame and one by one remove the long bolts and replace them with the regular regulator mount bolts. This is still not an easy task but definitely doable.

I was way too skiddish removing glass. This worked just fine.

Enjoy the pictures!

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

That is one different way of doing the task.

Congratulations.

Bruce.