garys 68

When I redid my interior on my 72 442 I bought a set of new cranks from one of the Olds vendors. They ended up being the cheap generic ones.
The knurls inside the crank handle are barely deep enough to mesh with the splines on the mechanism in the door, so they have a habit of stripping out the interior knurls of the crank.
Are any of the vendors cranks better or have deeper knurls? From the pictures, they all look the same.

garys 68

Anyone? I may just buy billet aftermarket ones. At least I can see in the pics they're splined all the way thru.

Nilsson

Get them from TAMRAZ'S find them on e-bay. Expensive but quality.

Lady72nRob71

Geez - that's sure bum luck. Crappy repros that destroy your regulators...
Good used originals my be a good choice (like in most cases).

garys 68

The regulators are fine. It strips the cheap pot metal cranks internal splines because they are not splined far enough down.
These Tamraz cranks look like the ones I've got. I dont want to keep buying the same problem cranks from different vendors.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/68-81...item43a2c48235

Lady72nRob71

I see - I understood it as damaging the reg shaft - glad they did not!
WHY can't repro parts fit and work like original?? Usually they are so close to being great but they have to add one little fatal flaw in each.

garys 68

I was searching the net on this and found others have modified their crank handles. I'm guessing they used a dremmel to to cut the spring slots farther down inside the crank. I'm guessing this would work since if I remove the spring and push the crank on farther, it works fine.

Lady72nRob71

I am almost compelled to start a thread called "repro parts - what mods did it take to get them to work"...

brown7373

I had the exact same problem with cranks bought from Year One, and they were marked with the Licensed by GM, but the slines on the cranks were MUCH shorter than the splines on the mechanism and presto, they would just spin. I can't remember but I think I only replaced one, and I can't find who I ordered it fro, but I suspect it might have ben Fusick, but I'm not sure, but it definitely was not reordered from Year One. And to be fair, I didn't contact Year One, who might have offered me a refund or exchange, so I don't want to bad mouth Year One. I have bought other things from them with no problems. I didn't contact them because I didn't want an exchange, because all the handles are the same. So far, I have had only one fail and the single replacement did have the full length of splines. I'll recheck my file of reciepts and maybe I can figure who I got them from. Since I also own a 70 Bonneville and a 72 Chevy Cheyene Pickup, sometimes I order for one of those vehicles and add a single item for my Cutlass that is the same as a GTO or Chevelle or whatever and the reciept might be in another cars file.

garys 68

I'm tempted to just go with these. At least I can tell from the pic they're splined thru the entire body.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-460001/
If you look at the Tamraz ebay pic, farther down the page, you'll see those are not splined the complete depth.
The problem with most vendors, you cant tell how far the splines reach.

brown7373

Okay, I found the reciept where I bought a good window crank. Actually, I bought 2 and replaced both front ones from www.classicindustries.com and they had the same depth of splines as the mechanisms, which means more surface area to spread out the force when turning the cranks.

On a similar note I also on that same invoice ordered a LH door opening mechanism for the drivers door. The spring on mine was broken so it would work, but you had to push the handle down or the dorr would pop open. I had ordered one from Original Parts Group, but the splined shaft was too short. This part is NOT the same across the GM A body line. Oldsmobile uses the chrome plate behind the arm rest and requires that the mechanism shaft is longer. I don't think Chevelle has the chrome plate and am not sure about Tempest or Slylark. I sent pictures to OPGI and they made a quick refund and apology, no problems.

garys 68

Classic has the same $7 window crank listed for all GM vehicles.
It's also the same part number as listed with Summit:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/OER-K348200/
Probably the same ones I've got now......
Looks like kind of a crap shoot on getting ones that will work if they dont provide a pic of the splines.

ROCKET VAPOR

Gary, buy the black **** (service replacement) window cranks from GM for about $35.00 a crank. Then remove the black **** and replace with a clear **** from NAPA. This is a cheap way to get new GM window cranks with clear *****.

This is why a set of 4 GM NOS window cranks with clear ***** on eBay go for around $800.00

Lady72nRob71

I ran across this issue but long after I bought them. I ended up having to use a STIFF chunk of foam between the handle and arm rest to hold the handle on. It works and is invisible...

brown7373

Just looked at my invoices again. The junk window cranks ordered from Year One in late 2006 had part number WC69 on the invoice. The replacement window cranks I ordered from Classic Indusriies in early 2007 had part number K037597 on the invoice. Maybe the part and number has been changed. I have no idea if any other part numbers appeared on the packages when they arrived, but I do know when I checked the depth of the splines I was satisfied with the Classic replacements as bsing what appeared to be identical to factory originals. I have always found Year One to be fair, and if they were selling an inferior part, I think they would correct the situation. For me, this goes back 5 years so it is not unreasonable to expect a problem to be corrected.

garys 68

Guessing everyone is selling the cheap repops now with the new PN.
If I'm going to spend $30/handle, I'm just going with billet.

70Post

3 years ago or so we threw out a set of the Olds vendors type repro handles that came with a project/restoration and I went to a local auto part store and tried a brand they had in their "Help type" section of parts....BUT.....

THESE ARE NOT THE "HELP" brand....the line this place stocked is called
"NEEDA"..... a link is below and maybe you can find a place local to you that stocks theirs. They seemed to work well and had a deeper splined area inside them (we were having a similar problem...cranks wouldn't stay engaged on the splined regulator shafts). The price was the same or less as the junk sold by the vendors.

Call Needa and see if they sell direct or have a place near you.

http://www.needaparts.com/

garys 68

Iordered a pair of these. If they work, I'll probably get the matching door handles.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-460001/
My doors and dash already have a mildly restomodded look.
DSCN0330.jpg