Falkon

Any good ideas of how to best apply some lubricant to the window tracks, w/o removing the panels? I've looked into the doors w/ an endoscopic camera & that single tube is right there. I'd like to spray in silicon lube from a can w/ a tube on the nozzle like the WD40 ones have. For the rear I couldn't see much w/ the camera. As per the body manual it has standard tracks. I thought about taking out the air extractor & aiming some spray lube into there. Windows up of course. Any other better ideas. The windows all work, but the guides on the front ones were dry. Back looked dry too from what I can see.

Al

Vintage Chief

Electric or manual windows? I have electric. I use silicone spray - works good.

joe_padavano

There is no way to do this without removing the interior panels

Falkon

They're electric windows. They all work but are slow. The rear windows especially. It's 45 deg in the garage today. Thanks for confirming Silicon Spray is a good idea. From what I could see w/ the camera, it's pretty dry in there on the front tracks. I shot a photo of the rear, as much as can be seen from the air extractor. It's too bad that the shop replacing that whole interior didn't spend 10 minutes to lubricate the windows. I'll probably have to remove the rear side panels.

joe_padavano

If lube alone doesn't fix this, either the grease in the motor gearboxes is hard or the brushes in the motors are worn. In both cases, the interior panels need to come out.

Falkon

Agreed, I'll have to pull the panels to get at all the tracks. I've been looking at the Body Manual, & there are a few way in there. Windows all work but are just a little slow. Spraying some silicon in there helps, but still not perfect as they should be. Are these GM motors pretty sturdy? This car has about 100,000 miles on it & they sound strong. We had a '72 Impala & a '78 Firebird w/ power windows & they worked forever w/o problems. As opposed to a Mark VII that fried gearboxes every two years. It was junk. Thanks again.

Al

4R5

My experience with the GM power windows of this vintage is that while the tracks may need cleaning, the motor should be disassembled, cleaned, the armature ends lightly oiled, the commutator/brushes cleaned, the gearbox re-greased.
I'm not a proponent of lubing the tracks, the rollers are there to handle the load. Lubing the track just invites dirt buildup and more wear of the rollers.
In most cases you can remove the motor/regulator assy from the doors/quarters - not easy but doable. DO NOT remove the motor from the regulator with out clamping the regulator arm, Its under a huge spring force.
I pulled the regulator/motor assys from the 4 doors of my '71 VC and the tailgate window - they went from slow to zippy. Plus the current draw was lower. When the motor is struggling against old grease and crud it draws more current which causes the brushes to wear down faster.

OLE442

I'll do this after I paint and reassemble my car. Silicon is not good to spray around a car before paint goes on IMO!

OLE442