Replacigng pwr windoe motor on a windstar

Does anyone know an easy way to put the power window motor back in the gearbox on a 98 windstar? Using this forum I found my window problem was probably the motor. I pulled the motor out and inside there is a bearing that is worn(at teh base of the motor. It causes the motor to wobble and bind.
I will be replacing the motor but for ha ha's I tried to put it back in and found it does not want to go in. I tried tapping the switch to see if it would seat in but no luck. Tried manually moving the window up and down while trying to seat thewindow but no good either. It came out fairly easy but going back in seems to be a problem
Any suggestions? It goes almost in but is a little over a 1/4" short of fitting totally back in place. Too far for the screws to reach or else I would have tried pulling it into place with them.

Does anyone know an easy way to put the power window motor back in the gearbox on a 98 windstar? Using this forum I found my window problem was probably the motor. I pulled the motor out and inside there is a bearing that is worn(at teh base of the motor. It causes the motor to wobble and bind.
I will be replacing the motor but for ha ha's I tried to put it back in and found it does not want to go in. I tried tapping the switch to see if it would seat in but no luck. Tried manually moving the window up and down while trying to seat thewindow but no good either. It came out fairly easy but going back in seems to be a problem
Any suggestions? It goes almost in but is a little over a 1/4" short of fitting totally back in place. Too far for the screws to reach or else I would have tried pulling it into place with them.


As far as I can remember (about 3 months back) I put the armature (spelling??) into the gear box with out the out side housing. I made sure that the gears were meshing and then made sure the shaft got into the bushing in the top/bottom of the gear box. I don't remember how the brushes came into play.......?????? (I worked on a wiper motor too and may be getting them confused) Would it be possible for you to post back and inlighten me on which side the brushes are on?

Try the above...... make sure things are meshed well and the coil helper spring is doing it's job. ie.... making the window lighter.

Dan

As far as I can remember (about 3 months back) I put the armature (spelling??) into the gear box with out the out side housing. I made sure that the gears were meshing and then made sure the shaft got into the bushing in the top/bottom of the gear box. I don't remember how the brushes came into play.......?????? (I worked on a wiper motor too and may be getting them confused) Would it be possible for you to post back and inlighten me on which side the brushes are on?

Try the above...... make sure things are meshed well and the coil helper spring is doing it's job. ie.... making the window lighter.

Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the help. There are no brushes that I am aware of. Basically the motor is shot. The bearing in the bottom of the housng wobbles so when the motor spins the shaft wobbles. When it is installed it just binds so the window does not move.
I removed just the motor (2 t25 screws) and the motor came out. I plan to buy a new motor. My problem is how to get the motor to go back into the housing containing the gears to move the window up and down.
when I try to put the old one in it only ges so far. Someone said they tapped the power button to move the motor and then it seated back in but I have had no luck. In fact it looks like it may actually damage the gears inside the housing if I continue. I guess I could take the entire assemble out but then I problably create other problems when reinstalling
it. Plus the assembly appears to be riveted to the door

I took out the window motor in my 99 Windstar a few months ago. I also had a lot of problems getting the motor back in. I tried a lot of things but nothing seemed to work. The last thing I did before the motor did go in was to make sure the window is pushed up fully and seated in the window channel.

I tried it with the Window all the way up, and 1/2 way down. I tried having someone assist by pushing the window up while I tried to seat the motor. Still no luck. I'm beginning to think it's a matter of having everything perfectly aligned which in this case may be just luck.
Ford probably has some quick trick but I doubt they would tell the world.

I tried it with the Window all the way up, and 1/2 way down. I tried having someone assist by pushing the window up while I tried to seat the motor. Still no luck. I'm beginning to think it's a matter of having everything perfectly aligned which in this case may be just luck.
Ford probably has some quick trick but I doubt they would tell the world.


I know I had to play with this thing for a while to get the armature worm gear to mesh with the plastic gear and to the the armature shaft into the bushing. I do remember that the brushes were also a factor. I believe that I put the armature into the gearbox without the motor housing. If one of you guys could post a pic of the motor housing with the armature in it, it might jog my memory.

Dan

I know I had to play with this thing for a while to get the armature worm gear to mesh with the plastic gear and to the the armature shaft into the bushing. I do remember that the brushes were also a factor. I believe that I put the armature into the gearbox without the motor housing. If one of you guys could post a pic of the motor housing with the armature in it, it might jog my memory.

Dan


Well I gave up. I went down and purchased a motor which comes with the gear box. Should have done this in the 1st place. Drilled 3 small holes to access the 3 bolts and the old gear box out and the new gear box with motor attached back in place and working in 30 mins.

Once I had the old gear box out I tried to seat the motor back in and it
still would not go back in to place. I returned it for the core charge and the auto parts dealer was pissed they were apart. I said hey they have to take it apart to fix it anyway. I took a picture of the gear box and motor when they are apart but it looks like the only way o get them back together is to pry the back panel of the gears apart and place the armature of the motor in the gears and then reseal the back

Thanks for your help.

Now on to the next problem, finding the vacuum leak that is causing the air conditioning problem. Suspect it is around the manifold bit getting back there and finding it is another story

Well I gave up. I went down and purchased a motor which comes with the gear box. Should have done this in the 1st place. Drilled 3 small holes to access the 3 bolts and the old gear box out and the new gear box with motor attached back in place and working in 30 mins.

Once I had the old gear box out I tried to seat the motor back in and it
still would not go back in to place. I returned it for the core charge and the auto parts dealer was pissed they were apart. I said hey they have to take it apart to fix it anyway. I took a picture of the gear box and motor when they are apart but it looks like the only way o get them back together is to pry the back panel of the gears apart and place the armature of the motor in the gears and then reseal the back

Thanks for your help.

Now on to the next problem, finding the vacuum leak that is causing the air conditioning problem. Suspect it is around the manifold bit getting back there and finding it is another story

Glad that you got your window working again!

About your vacuum leak. Look, listen, pull, check hoses off check for cracks, look under air ducting (I had a car that would die until it was warmed up. Then it would idle really fast after it was warm. I drove it this way trying to find what what wrong. It turned out to be a cracked air duct on the underside in between the mass air sensor and the engine.) Get the idea?

Dan

Glad that you got your window working again!

About your vacuum leak. Look, listen, pull, check hoses off check for cracks, look under air ducting (I had a car that would die until it was warmed up. Then it would idle really fast after it was warm. I drove it this way trying to find what what wrong. It turned out to be a cracked air duct on the underside in between the mass air sensor and the engine.) Get the idea?

Dan

Dan,

Thanks, Yes I started looking, I suspect the leak is somewhere back by the manifold. Seems like most of the vacuum lines are there. The problem is, this at the back of the engine compartment and there is not a real good way to look back there. I will have to take the whole section under the windsheild out and even that does not give good access. I did some quick checks this weekend but will have to get much deeper into it next time. Thanks for your help

Fellow Windstar owners ... our 1996 had a drivers side window stuck up. I read the relates posts in this Forum with interest would like to share this info.

Since the front passenger window was working fine , I had "hot wired" the passengser wiring afross to the troublesome drivers door motor. With an assistant controlling the passenser door window switch I was able to confirm no change and hear a slight clocking in the motor when the switch was activated. I then had to repeat the check a day later since my assistant only attempted to open the window and there was a 50% chance of a polarity swap in my "hot wire" method ....

I was in the middle of drilling out 4 rivets and / or drilling out 3 holes to access the bolts holding the motor / gearbox with a socket when I thought would try tapping the motor while activating the switch . To my surprise the window came down. I have been liberal with while spray on grease and spray on silicon lubricant for the slides. I know this is not a permanent fix since the problem is probably inside the motor.

One last thing. The in door window slide that takes the rear sid eof the window was broken off and lying at the bottom of the door. The spot weld had failed . I am not sure if this is related to the stuck motor.

Does anyone have information on what sticks in the motors .. is it the current limit switch ?

In my case I took the motor apart and at the base of the motor there is a bearing that was worn. The motor would spin fine when not installed but if you put any kind of pressure on the armature (like the gear box) the motor stopped working. I purchased the new motor and gear box to solve this. Also it is almost impossible to get the motor back into the gear box once removed. I tried with no luck. I noticed some people had success by taping the pwr window switch and it would seat back in.
Since my motor would stop working with any kind of load, that may have been the motor for the reason it would not go back in.
Needless to say it was much easier to drill the 3 holes and remove the whole assembly. It took a couple hours to get the T25 screws out to remove the motor while leaving the gear box in. 20 mins to just remove the assembly. Had I know it was that easy when I started I would have removed the whol unit from the start.

My experience mirrored yours regarding the passenger side front window, '98 windstar, being frozen. Electrically, it was fine, always getting voltage whenever the switch was pressed.

At first, I just removed the inner door panel to expose the window motor, tapped it with a small hammer, and it would work for a day or two. After doing this about 6 or 7 times, I bought a new motor/gearbox from S. Florida Window lifts (eBay) for about $68 shipped to my door.

After removing the inner door panel yet again, I notched 2 long paint stirring sticks and jammed them under the window glass to make sure the window was held in the all the way up position. As noted, the real key to the job was enlarging the 3 small holes in the inner door sheet metal that allowed me to use a small ratchet and easily remove the 3 machine screws holding the motor/gearbox assembly onto the door. ( I used a 1/2" bit.)

Good luck to any others trying this as well. Enlarging the 3 holes made it a pretty easy job.

BTW, after reading previous posts, I took apart the old motor/gearbox for kicks. I absolutely could not get it back together. I would NEVER take it apart inside the door and expect to get it back together. I couldn't get it back together on the bench!!