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I've been troubleshooting an annoying driver side power window problem that's starting to point to the window motor itself. The problem is that at the extremes, all the way down and all the way up, the motor has a hard time moving. In between it runs excellent. I had the interior door card off a while back to repair the door handle and while I was in there I cleaned and lubricated the window tracks. I thought this was going to be the problem with the speed of the motor start up but it doesn't appear so as it's been operating the exact same way since then. Sometimes it sticks full down and I can't get the window up at all. I'll come back the next day and try again and it manages to struggle through that first part to get moving and then it's back to life for a while until it acts up again. I find myself keeping the window just a touch up or a touch down so that it always works for me.
A little backstory. This particular motor is actually a replacement window motor we bought from Fusick a few years back (I still have the old one). The drivers door on the car was damaged in a small accident and my Dad had the door replaced with a donor. While the repair shop put the door back together, he got a new replacement window motor as it seemed like the right time to put a new one in.
So what I've done so far is to verify the integrity of the wiring as far as the switch in the door and it checks out. I've loaded that circuit with high loads and the feed performs excellent with little to no voltage drop. I do have to verify the wiring right at the motor, however, but I'm pretty sure it's good. We will see when I dig deeper and pull the door card again. I have also bypassed the switch itself with a 10ga jumper wire to rule out a faulty switch and it didn't make a difference.
What I have noticed though is that, with the window at the extremes and unable to move itself, the resistance at the switch contacts through the motor to ground is in the kilo ohm range while all the other working motors show about 2 ohm. Once I get the motor to move the window, it goes back to about 2 ohms and is powerful in its operation once again. It's like there's dead, or weak, high resistance spots internal to the motor or something. I'll see if i can dig up some schematics on the motor internals.
I've yet to fully verify exactly what's going on but has anyone ever had a window motor act up like that?
Last edited by ourkid2000; Oct 5, 2025 at 07:56 AM.
The arrows point to the areas that I cleaned and lubricated as best I could without removing from the door. Did I miss anything that could be causing things to hang up at the beginning and end of travel? Right side of diagram shows the electrical install, LH is manual.
Much to volunteer. Your E-body glass and lack of ventipanes are different, but better than the B&C bodies of 65-67. The regulators and motors underneath are GM bog-standard. That means my posts on B & C body window stuff probably apply.
1st up - take pictures before you remove glass panels and regulator parts. Then you have a path back to what was. Hansel & Gretl breadcrumbs if you will.
2nd up - don’t f*ck with windows when the winding (down) springs are energized. Put the windows in at least the halfway up position so they don’t chop off your finger or break a bone in your hand. If I’m careful windows half way up give you lots of adjustment freedom within minimal appendage risk. Do Not mess with windows in the all the way down position. If the raising spring lets go, it will gleefuly damage your finger(s), or hand. Please, just work on windows halfway or all-the-way up for your safety.
3rd up - when windows are halfway up (or raised all the way), Use a 7/16” wrench to remove the nuts that hold the glass. If you pull the glass 1st, it doesn’t get scratched when you start messing with the regulators and other works.
Much to volunteer. Your E-body glass and lack of ventipanes are different, but better than the B&C bodies of 65-67. The regulators and motors underneath are GM bog-standard. That means my posts on B & C body window stuff probably apply.
1st up - take pictures before you remove glass panels and regulator parts. Then you have a path back to what was. Hansel & Gretl breadcrumbs if you will.
2nd up - don’t f*ck with windows when the winding (down) springs are energized. Put the windows in at least the halfway up position so they don’t chop off your finger or break a bone in your hand. If I’m careful windows half way up give you lots of adjustment freedom within minimal appendage risk. Do Not mess with windows in the all the way down position. If the raising spring lets go, it will gleefuly damage your finger(s), or hand. Please, just work on windows halfway or all-the-way up for your safety.
3rd up - when windows are halfway up (or raised all the way), Use a 7/16” wrench to remove the nuts that hold the glass. If you pull the glass 1st, it doesn’t get scratched when you start messing with the regulators and other works.
Sorry to cut it short, more soon
Cheers
Chris
Thank you Chris. That's good to know about the stored energy in that spring. I'm of the understanding that the spring energy only gets released if you pop the electric motor out with the window rolled down?
I'm thinking I have a dud window motor. Seeing as how I do have a spare on hand, I was thinking about throwing it in after testing the wiring but have been trying to visualize what I have to do. I'd rather not remove too many components so my idea is to put the window about 3/4 of the way up and unbolt the regulator from the door. Using a block of wood to help me rest the bottom of the window, I'd shimmy the whole regulator rearward a bit to allow me to pull the motor while still in the door. Seeing as the motor was replaced before, I bet there's a hole already drilled in the gear sector and regulator sheet metal that I could use to allow it to be locked in place.
O.k. if it's a dud or weak motor, it's a good idea to leave as many of the window adjustment parts (front and rear tracks especially in place as possible so you don't upset their positioning. It's a massive time suck to get them adjusted back to where they were.
I truly hope it's just a dud motor, but those symptoms could be mechanical too. Just in case, this may help.
Looking deeper on the donor door thing, are you happy with the fit of the door itself? Is the in/out position in line with the rear quarters? Are the door to body (and fender) gaps consistent and pretty close to 3/16"? With the window down, does the door open & close easily? Or at least as well as the passenger side one does? Most importantly can you perceive any door sag in the upper rear corner of the door relative to the rear quarter top edge? If so, your door may be out of alignment. Correct door alignment is the starting point for pretty much all window & door stuff. If it's wrong, you'll chase your tail for ever and not get progress you're happy with.
If the door was donated from another car, there's a chance someone put in no time at all or just enough adjusting the window tracks before calling it "good". I've burned days on this problem unpaid across my big cars. Adjusting windows is totally uneconomic work for a novice. I suspect the experts who did this for a living in the 60's are long gone. A smart mechanic would get it good enough and move on to a more profitable job. I'm not calling anyone dishonest, just noting what's practical in running a business.
O.k, so the panel and your tar paper water seal or it's plastic replacement are off & you're looking at the bare door insides. Before you unbolt anything, beyond the pictures I mention above, consider using a silver sharpie, or a white one to draw tight circle markings around the positioning of any bolts, nuts and screws you remove. Again trail of breadcrumbs to ease reassembly. I mark with the window down so flash doesn't ruin the photo.
Go get your master window switch from the door card, you will be putting the window up & down a lot, you'll want that to be easy. Or use a spare if you have one. Now put the window all the way up to release the spring tension for personal safety. There's an outside chance GM did something different with Toros. With the window up, have a look at the spring and convince your self it is untensioned.
The next thing to know is that if the window motor speed is acceptable in the middle of the up/down travel, the motor may not be bad. It could be that your window adjustments are not quite right. Maybe they are too tight at the extremes.
To diagnose this, have a good look at the front and rear channel bolts and the cam channel bolts in their slots. If one bolt or another is in an extreme position in its slot, that's a clue that moving the extreme-positioned part that might improve your up/down function. The big thing to to aware of is that each nut/bolt movement affects many others, so it takes time to understand what influences what and then come up with a way to get the windows to best seal wind, water and noise.
As an approach, your primary goal is to get the window to seal perfectly in the extreme up postion. Perfect seal means tight & consistent ( like consistent glass-to-rubber squish) as you can get against the whole length of the roof rail rubber seal and the rear quarter window front seal. Ideally the rear vertical edge of the window is parallel to the rubber on the quarter window _and_ tight against it. And this is where the fun comes in - getting the front window rear edge to be tight, but not so tight against the seal that the front window rolls up _inside_ the rear window seal. To complicate matters, after you think you have it perfect, you'll find that the door card fuzzy edge on the upper horizontal edge actually shoves the glass out just a bit. So you have to test with the door card on and off.
On my big cars, I think it's possible to slip out the regulator without pulling everything. Having said that I believe you have to remove the glass from the metal support underneath for that to work. This requires a gentle hand on reassembly (so you don't over torque the glass nuts and shatter rare glass - I did this!) and various 7/16's wrenches, nut drivers and sockets. The glass retention nuts on my cars are on the interior side of the glass. The corresponding exterior side has very wide top screws ( Phillips I think, don't quote me...) you have to get at with the window in the up position so you can reach in through the voids and hold 'em snug while unbolting the nuts. What you'll find is that you can fit your hand and tools inside the door with the glass about halfway up to remove the glass if that's the route you want to go.
If the toros are enough like mine, put the window halfway or more up, remove the glass, remove the motor wiring plug, then pull the regulator and replace the motor on the bench. Some of those motor to regulator bolts had covers which hid the 3 bolt. If yours has already been replaced, that cover may not be there. In that case you may be able to remove the motor without disturbing any of the related mechanical works by pulling the electrical connection, then remove the 3 bolts which secure the motor to the regulator gear.
What I can't remember is whether the motor bolts are on the exterior side of the regulator where you can get at 'em, or if they're on the interior-facing side where you can't get to them without removing the regulator.
O.k. if it's a dud or weak motor, it's a good idea to leave as many of the window adjustment parts (front and rear tracks especially in place as possible so you don't upset their positioning. It's a massive time suck to get them adjusted back to where they were.
I truly hope it's just a dud motor, but those symptoms could be mechanical too. Just in case, this may help.
Looking deeper on the donor door thing, are you happy with the fit of the door itself? Is the in/out position in line with the rear quarters? Are the door to body (and fender) gaps consistent and pretty close to 3/16"? With the window down, does the door open & close easily? Or at least as well as the passenger side one does? Most importantly can you perceive any door sag in the upper rear corner of the door relative to the rear quarter top edge? If so, your door may be out of alignment. Correct door alignment is the starting point for pretty much all window & door stuff. If it's wrong, you'll chase your tail for ever and not get progress you're happy with.
If the door was donated from another car, there's a chance someone put in no time at all or just enough adjusting the window tracks before calling it "good". I've burned days on this problem unpaid across my big cars. Adjusting windows is totally uneconomic work for a novice. I suspect the experts who did this for a living in the 60's are long gone. A smart mechanic would get it good enough and move on to a more profitable job. I'm not calling anyone dishonest, just noting what's practical in running a business.
O.k, so the panel and your tar paper water seal or it's plastic replacement are off & you're looking at the bare door insides. Before you unbolt anything, beyond the pictures I mention above, consider using a silver sharpie, or a white one to draw tight circle markings around the positioning of any bolts, nuts and screws you remove. Again trail of breadcrumbs to ease reassembly. I mark with the window down so flash doesn't ruin the photo.
Go get your master window switch from the door card, you will be putting the window up & down a lot, you'll want that to be easy. Or use a spare if you have one. Now put the window all the way up to release the spring tension for personal safety. There's an outside chance GM did something different with Toros. With the window up, have a look at the spring and convince your self it is untensioned.
The next thing to know is that if the window motor speed is acceptable in the middle of the up/down travel, the motor may not be bad. It could be that your window adjustments are not quite right. Maybe they are too tight at the extremes.
To diagnose this, have a good look at the front and rear channel bolts and the cam channel bolts in their slots. If one bolt or another is in an extreme position in its slot, that's a clue that moving the extreme-positioned part that might improve your up/down function. The big thing to to aware of is that each nut/bolt movement affects many others, so it takes time to understand what influences what and then come up with a way to get the windows to best seal wind, water and noise.
As an approach, your primary goal is to get the window to seal perfectly in the extreme up postion. Perfect seal means tight & consistent ( like consistent glass-to-rubber squish) as you can get against the whole length of the roof rail rubber seal and the rear quarter window front seal. Ideally the rear vertical edge of the window is parallel to the rubber on the quarter window _and_ tight against it. And this is where the fun comes in - getting the front window rear edge to be tight, but not so tight against the seal that the front window rolls up _inside_ the rear window seal. To complicate matters, after you think you have it perfect, you'll find that the door card fuzzy edge on the upper horizontal edge actually shoves the glass out just a bit. So you have to test with the door card on and off.
On my big cars, I think it's possible to slip out the regulator without pulling everything. Having said that I believe you have to remove the glass from the metal support underneath for that to work. This requires a gentle hand on reassembly (so you don't over torque the glass nuts and shatter rare glass - I did this!) and various 7/16's wrenches, nut drivers and sockets. The glass retention nuts on my cars are on the interior side of the glass. The corresponding exterior side has very wide top screws ( Phillips I think, don't quote me...) you have to get at with the window in the up position so you can reach in through the voids and hold 'em snug while unbolting the nuts. What you'll find is that you can fit your hand and tools inside the door with the glass about halfway up to remove the glass if that's the route you want to go.
If the toros are enough like mine, put the window halfway or more up, remove the glass, remove the motor wiring plug, then pull the regulator and replace the motor on the bench. Some of those motor to regulator bolts had covers which hid the 3 bolt. If yours has already been replaced, that cover may not be there. In that case you may be able to remove the motor without disturbing any of the related mechanical works by pulling the electrical connection, then remove the 3 bolts which secure the motor to the regulator gear.
What I can't remember is whether the motor bolts are on the exterior side of the regulator where you can get at 'em, or if they're on the interior-facing side where you can't get to them without removing the regulator.
Hope that helps.
Chris
Wonderful advice. Sounds like a lot of screwing around so I'll have to plan for some significant downtime. The last time I had the door card off, I took a few pictures. I do see that the rear bolt is just about at the extreme. The door gap against the body isn't perfect but it doesn't look too bad (other than the color mismatch). Thanks so much for this. I will spend a few days reading what you said, comparing to my photos and the Fisher manual to see if I can wrap my head around everything.
Last edited by ourkid2000; Oct 7, 2025 at 11:43 AM.
The pictures tell part of the tale. Many thanks. As always worth a thousand words.
That’s the cleanest door interior I’ve ever seen. And that rear door pull is telling me you have a Toro Deluxe. Very cool. I’ve toyed with adding those pulls to my 98, but probably won’t ever.
Couple things:
1) Those red iron pieces on the top of the door look like window in/out stops to me. If they have fuzzy mohair material to keep them from scratching glass while still guiding window movement, you have front and rear glass in/out adjustments I know nothing about. This is exactly the kind of thing you want to confirm is in a reasonable position, probably sorta near the middle. They are probably not the culprit of your slowness at extremes, but it might be worth a test after you’ve exhausted all the other adjustments.
2) If the door gaps are consistent and the door doesn’t sag when opened, decide if you can get your best window settings without messing with the door hinges. Door hinges are a whole nuther level of learning. And your paint job hangs in the balance. If you start moving body panels there’s a high probability two will chip against one another. Taping over the edges helps, as does skill, but I only have tape. So I chipped my panels here & there. Hello, touch up paint. I think I have a post here on C/O on replacing door hinges. It’s not for the faint of heart since you have to pull the whole front end off - bumper, hood, fenders and all that just to get at the bolts you need to access to adjust the door. If you do this start with rebuilt hinges. Especially for wildly long & heavy ‘66 Toronado doors.
3) If you get well into it, have a hard look at the condition (roundness and tightness) of your nylon rollers. There are kits to replacement if yours aren’t round or don’t roll smoothly, but it’s a project in itself. You have to drill out the old ones, the hammer in replacements. I have a post on that too. The short version is you get the replacement kits for an Impala (at least for my ‘66 big cars…), slice the mounting post to create an + or an x, install the roller on the correct side, then use a punch to hammer the + or x “ears” tight against your factory lifting arms on the regulator. I doubt Toro rollers are different, but I might order a pilot kit just to compare to the ones I have on the car.
4) Y’know those plastic bucket inserts your door card nails are supposed to fit into? They are remanufactured. If you still have nails in your door card, replacing these might make the card fit tighter. Or don’t mess with it. I used Impala parts and it may have made my door cars sit a little snugger.
5) While you’re in there, consider custom cutting 1/8” (or even 1/4” thick) closed cell foam, or heavy mil sheet plastic to replace the water barrier Olds made ~60 years ago from tarpaper. You just hang the sheet of material on the door pull it tight, blue tape it down and slice the outer edge with an Xacto. Since you have a roll of the stuff, you can also fill those door access voids with closed cell foam cut to fit into the voids and then glue the backs to your new custom water barrier. I think it helps with door noise a bit. Maybe not. But a fun craft project while you’re in there. One one of my cars it’s closed cell foam - the ‘66 Starfire. On the 98 convertible I used heavy mil plastic and glued the Volara foam for the voids to it. For it to work as a water barrier, you have to seal it against the interior door skin with goop. I use the 3M dum dum stuff make a bead, run it around the door perimeter and tuck the bottom into that horizontal slot along the door bottom. Weather or washing water runs down the window gap and gets routed to the door drains on the exterior side of your plastic or closed cell foam.
Hope that is not more about penguins than you ever wanted to know!
The pictures tell part of the tale. Many thanks. As always worth a thousand words.
That’s the cleanest door interior I’ve ever seen. And that rear door pull is telling me you have a Toro Deluxe. Very cool. I’ve toyed with adding those pulls to my 98, but probably won’t ever.
Couple things:
1) Those red iron pieces on the top of the door look like window in/out stops to me. If they have fuzzy mohair material to keep them from scratching glass while still guiding window movement, you have front and rear glass in/out adjustments I know nothing about. This is exactly the kind of thing you want to confirm is in a reasonable position, probably sorta near the middle. They are probably not the culprit of your slowness at extremes, but it might be worth a test after you’ve exhausted all the other adjustments.
2) If the door gaps are consistent and the door doesn’t sag when opened, decide if you can get your best window settings without messing with the door hinges. Door hinges are a whole nuther level of learning. And your paint job hangs in the balance. If you start moving body panels there’s a high probability two will chip against one another. Taping over the edges helps, as does skill, but I only have tape. So I chipped my panels here & there. Hello, touch up paint. I think I have a post here on C/O on replacing door hinges. It’s not for the faint of heart since you have to pull the whole front end off - bumper, hood, fenders and all that just to get at the bolts you need to access to adjust the door. If you do this start with rebuilt hinges. Especially for wildly long & heavy ‘66 Toronado doors.
3) If you get well into it, have a hard look at the condition (roundness and tightness) of your nylon rollers. There are kits to replacement if yours aren’t round or don’t roll smoothly, but it’s a project in itself. You have to drill out the old ones, the hammer in replacements. I have a post on that too. The short version is you get the replacement kits for an Impala (at least for my ‘66 big cars…), slice the mounting post to create an + or an x, install the roller on the correct side, then use a punch to hammer the + or x “ears” tight against your factory lifting arms on the regulator. I doubt Toro rollers are different, but I might order a pilot kit just to compare to the ones I have on the car.
4) Y’know those plastic bucket inserts your door card nails are supposed to fit into? They are remanufactured. If you still have nails in your door card, replacing these might make the card fit tighter. Or don’t mess with it. I used Impala parts and it may have made my door cars sit a little snugger.
5) While you’re in there, consider custom cutting 1/8” (or even 1/4” thick) closed cell foam, or heavy mil sheet plastic to replace the water barrier Olds made ~60 years ago from tarpaper. You just hang the sheet of material on the door pull it tight, blue tape it down and slice the outer edge with an Xacto. Since you have a roll of the stuff, you can also fill those door access voids with closed cell foam cut to fit into the voids and then glue the backs to your new custom water barrier. I think it helps with door noise a bit. Maybe not. But a fun craft project while you’re in there. One one of my cars it’s closed cell foam - the ‘66 Starfire. On the 98 convertible I used heavy mil plastic and glued the Volara foam for the voids to it. For it to work as a water barrier, you have to seal it against the interior door skin with goop. I use the 3M dum dum stuff make a bead, run it around the door perimeter and tuck the bottom into that horizontal slot along the door bottom. Weather or washing water runs down the window gap and gets routed to the door drains on the exterior side of your plastic or closed cell foam.
Hope that is not more about penguins than you ever wanted to know!
Cheers
Chris
So much information here to digest. Chris, your comprehension of the window mechanism is truly remarkable and thank you so much, once again, for your help.
I just finished up working on my driver's side window and it certainly appears to have been a bad window motor. I tested the wiring every way to Sunday and I could not fault it. I even loaded up the circuit with front headlamps and it performed flawlessly. I even made myself a voltage drop testing tool (I used the idea of the "Loadpro" tool you see advertised on the Youtubes as an inspiration) and the voltage drop was well within acceptable tolerances.
So I went ahead with my idea of lowering the window about 1/4 of the way, propping up the bottom of the window with a block of wood and then removing the 5 bolts that secured the window regulator. Then I could shimmy the whole mechanism rearwards enough that the bolts for the window motor became accessible. Then, using one of the holes in the regulator, I drilled a corresponding hole in the sector gear which allowed me to thread a nut and a bolt between them so that the whole thing wouldn't go "ga-bong" when I pulled the motor. I ended up sticking a big nut in between the sector gear and the regulator so that the two parts didn't want to bend together (not shown in my picture). Then I could safely pull the motor.
I refurbished the original window motor I had in my parts stash. It was actually very easy to open it up, clean the commutator, clean, grease, and touch up the brushes and points. Seems to runs strong so I threw it back in the car. Wasn't too difficult to get it bolted in but I had a few moments of head scratching when I first tried to operate the window. The window was going all askew and didn't go up evenly. Took quite a bit of inspecting with mirrors before I realized that one of the rollers on the regulator arms had popped out of the inner panel cam track (item #6 in the diagram I posted earlier from the Fisher manual). I guess when I was shimmying the regulator around, it popped out and I didn't notice it. I had to dismount the regulator again and fiddle around until I got the roller back in the cam track. I broke a pretty good sweat wrasslin' that thing around in there. She seems to run perfectly there now but I've had a long day at this so I figure I'll have a good look at it tomorrow to make sure everything is cool.
I found the source of the binding at the top as well. Turns out, when the previous shop replaced the door, they didn't secure the cables to the outside remote control mirror and the window was binding on the cables. Yikes. Turns out there is a clip all the way forward in the door that secures the cable to the front of the door and they missed it. I managed to get my arm all the way in there and slip the cable behind the tab. I added a loose zip tie as well to keep it in place.
Anyway, I'll report my results when I get looking at it closely tomorrow.
Dud Fusick motor. It uses METRIC bolts! Get that out of here. No metric on this car! Original '66 window motor all cleaned up. Sector gear bolted to regulator. I ended up putting a big nut in between to keep everything solid (not shown).
Mirror cable tucked behind tab and zip tied. Took that photo with my borescope. It's rotated 180 degrees but you get the idea.
Well done! Not all that many dig in at that level. Hoping you'll enjoy many trouble free years with the restored mechanism. If you're like me you'll remember the project & smile every time it goes up & down correctly.
And +++ on that use of the bolt. Excellent, excellent safety precaution against a very strong spring. That's exactly what I do when I have regulators out on the bench. Sorry I forgot that trick in my earlier post. It's been a while since I played around with these systems.
In a separate thread, when you have time, would you post detailed instructions on how to recondition these electric motors? I've never opened one up. They can't be that hard, but it'd be great to have something to follow along & repair, or at least clean & grease these things since they're getting more rare. Also since the replacements are uh, well, metric !?!?!? GM used these motors forever with the "T" shaped connector, but I've always just gone into my parts bin when one goes bad. I'd rather have a few spiffed up ready-to-go ones in my stash than boneyard stuff from the 80's and a prayer... Are replacement brushes and springs and commutator available? Mine look a little different from yours, I have the ones GM dipped in some water resistant coating, probably from the 70's, yours looks much more correct for 1966. Not than anyone will ever know except you.
Finally, great catch on that clip to hold the remote mirror cable out of the way. In my big cars, the front vent window frame holds that out of the way with no effort on my part whatsoever, so chalk that up to the differences between Toro's and big cars from that year. Ziptie engineering man. For stuff like that it's just great. You might want to leave a note inside the door to yourself about what you did this time so that 5 years from now when you're messing with it again, you can remember what you did today. As an example my vent window die cast chrome screw threads are stripped, which I solved with a simple nut & bolt, but I have a note on the inside of the door reminding me that it's not factory.
By any chance are you an electrical engineer? You're well versed in that stuff from your writings. My Dad was an EE so I know a little, but most people have forgotten the word commutator, much less build tools to measure voltage drops.
Well done! Not all that many dig in at that level. Hoping you'll enjoy many trouble free years with the restored mechanism. If you're like me you'll remember the project & smile every time it goes up & down correctly.
And +++ on that use of the bolt. Excellent, excellent safety precaution against a very strong spring. That's exactly what I do when I have regulators out on the bench. Sorry I forgot that trick in my earlier post. It's been a while since I played around with these systems.
In a separate thread, when you have time, would you post detailed instructions on how to recondition these electric motors? I've never opened one up. They can't be that hard, but it'd be great to have something to follow along & repair, or at least clean & grease these things since they're getting more rare. Also since the replacements are uh, well, metric !?!?!? GM used these motors forever with the "T" shaped connector, but I've always just gone into my parts bin when one goes bad. I'd rather have a few spiffed up ready-to-go ones in my stash than boneyard stuff from the 80's and a prayer... Are replacement brushes and springs and commutator available? Mine look a little different from yours, I have the ones GM dipped in some water resistant coating, probably from the 70's, yours looks much more correct for 1966. Not than anyone will ever know except you.
Finally, great catch on that clip to hold the remote mirror cable out of the way. In my big cars, the front vent window frame holds that out of the way with no effort on my part whatsoever, so chalk that up to the differences between Toro's and big cars from that year. Ziptie engineering man. For stuff like that it's just great. You might want to leave a note inside the door to yourself about what you did this time so that 5 years from now when you're messing with it again, you can remember what you did today. As an example my vent window die cast chrome screw threads are stripped, which I solved with a simple nut & bolt, but I have a note on the inside of the door reminding me that it's not factory.
By any chance are you an electrical engineer? You're well versed in that stuff from your writings. My Dad was an EE so I know a little, but most people have forgotten the word commutator, much less build tools to measure voltage drops.
Cheers & congratulations!
Chris
Hi Chris, yes I can post the article I used to recondition the window motor. I just did a quick Google search on it and I quickly found a post on a C2 Corvette forum where it showed just about everything you needed to know about repairing them. It's very simple to do. It's a good question about replacement brushes though. I think you'd likely have to salvage them from another motor, but I'm not sure on that. The positive brush would be easily replaced as it's soldered to the overcurrent points while the other brush is crimped to the case body. You'd likely have to cut and solder the copper connection to replace that one.
No, I'm not an electrical engineer but I am a licenced avionics technician who worked on airplanes for many years so I still like to dabble in electrical troubleshooting. I used this most recent opportunity to build a little voltage drop test tool out of some spare parts I had laying around from previous projects. I used a modified mouse trap case I found on clearance at my local hardware store, some spare banana jacks, and a big momentary button switch from a horn kit I had. I made it so that I can activate it with my foot, or my elbow, as your two hands will likely be taken up holding the leads. Basically, all it does is activate the circuit in question with a 25 ohm resistor as the load while measuring the voltage drop across that same resistor. Anything over .50V of drop would indicate a problem elsewhere in your wiring. It has its limitations, obviously, as it doesn't replace a heavy current load but it's definitely a good starting place for many problems. I've been toying with making this for years and I finally got around to doing it. Pretty happy with how it turned out.
System voltage without load 0.45V drop with load applied, indicating potential problem.
Last edited by ourkid2000; Oct 13, 2025 at 07:33 AM.
The window in the car is working very good, however it certainly does look like it wasn't adjusted quite correctly when they replaced the door. It doesn't go quite all the way up before it hits a stop. With the door open, I ran the window all the way up and then shut the door. It needs to go a smidge further in my opinion as there's about a fingers width of gap all the way around the top edge. The passenger side door window (original) isn't like that at all. The drivers door whistles like crazy at highway speeds like this.
I managed to locate a picture of the Toronado window guts where someone had cut the metal away and you can see the whole mechanism. This is very helpful, kudos to whoever did this! I'll have to study up on how to make this adjustment.
