Window Drive fix..

[Rupunzell]

Driver side window drive (aka Crank) arrived busted. No drive connect when the window is in the lowest position. Took it apart to figure out why.

Window drive is done with essentially a coil spring with a long filler of felt to hold oil. Apparently the oil dried out LONG ago and the previous Gorilla decided it was best to apply a vise grip to the window crank to ... make it move... This is VERY typical moto folks dude stuff, not moving apply more force.. Well, more force stripped out the coiled spring drive. Lucky the pinion gear appears to be OK. Given how this drive mechanism is designed_made, flip the coiled spring around to use an area of the coiled spring that has never been used.

To get the coil spring out, straighten out the drive tube's folded over ends (it's typical soft body steel).

Set the window drive plate up in the BP mill & Kurt Vise, locate the center of the spot weld.

Center drill the spot weld:

Drill out the spot weld with a# 20 (0.161" dia) drill:

Once both spot welds are drilled out, lift up the retainer plate, remove the spring drive cable, flip it around, make sure the retainer plate lines up with the spring spirals before clamping the retainer plate down.

Retainer plate with the drive cable flipped, almost ready to check for alignment.
The# 20 drill was chosen to provide a close fit for# 8-32 screw. Once the retainer plate is down, use a shallow tapered pin or punch to line up the holes and use a CV joint ear clamp plier to pinch down at the base of the retainer plate. That area of the plate must fit easily inside the groove of the drive tube. If there is not enough clearance, the entire drive cable assembly will bind.

Put two 8-32 x 3/8" long stainless steel button socket head screws into the holes noting the alignment requirement and pinched area at the bottom of the retainer plate.

Apply two stainless steel 8-32 nylock nuts on the back with anti-seize DO NOT TIGHTEN yet, leave them loose enough to allow rotation of the window drive plate on the drive cable.

Push the drive cable back into the drive cable housing after the cable housing has been cleaned and felt core of the drive cable clean with new oil applied. As the drive cabe is installed into the cable housing experiment with drive cable -vs- cable housing position as the drive cable has a set and need to have a matching position with the cable housing to achieve the lowest friction as a unit. One this has been achieved, tighten the 8-32 screws-nuts. Test the function and friction of the assembled drive with the window crank making sure all is good. Once proper operation is ascertained, fold over the drive tube ends. This is the drive cable travel limiter.

Replace the cable drive end hose with a new oil tolerant 3/8" ID hose (Parker 821 or similar), clamp it down.
Check window drive assembly again before installing back into the door.

Bernice

 

[motoTrooper]

Nice comprehensive "How To" that I may need to refer to, thanks!

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Nice repair work. I like this style of winder over the cable drive on the X1/9.

If anyone has a broken X1/20 winder and needs parts, early VW's used a very similar system. If the needed replacement parts cannot be found for the X1/20 drive, possibly some of the VW components might(?) work to help refurbish one? No idea how close they are in dimensions, but just throwing out the thought. Here is what the VW unit looks like:

They are available new, perhaps parts could be cannibalized from them. Or are the X1/20 winders still offered?

 

[kmead]

Nice repair work. I like this style of winder over the cable drive on the X1/9.

If anyone has a broken X1/20 winder and needs parts, early VW's used a very similar system. If the needed replacement parts cannot be found for the X1/20 drive, possibly some of the VW components might(?) work to help refurbish one? No idea how close they are in dimensions, but just throwing out the thought. Here is what the VW unit looks like:

View attachment 33512

They are available new, perhaps parts could be cannibalized from them. Or are the X1/20 winders still offered?

Years and version of the cars it is used in? Part numbers per chance?

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Years and version of the cars it is used in? Part numbers per chance?

I know the Mk1 water cooled used this type of regulator. P/N: 171837402 - suffix depends on left or right (e.g. "B" = right). A quick look just now and they don't seem quite as plentiful as they used to be. But they are out there. Many VAG parts vendors don't use the factory part numbers for some reason, so searching by the description may open more doors.

Not sure but I seem to recall the Mk2's had a slightly different design.

The prior air-cooled Beetle was a little different. P/N: 111837501H (driver's side). Some parts might work as repair replacements, and these are easier to find (likely less expensive as well). Looks like this:

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Years and version of the cars it is used in? Part numbers per chance?

Just happened to come across the part number for a drivers side Mk1 VW Golf/Rabbit, manual winder: 171.837.401.B. So it looks like "401" is left and "402" is right, and the "B" is a later version. There might be superseded numbers after this, not sure.