Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Holiday Project #2 - Work on Little Blue's window regulator

Another project I took on over the holidays was replacing Little Blue's Driver's side window regulator. It was my luck to have the window stop working - unable to roll up - during the 30 degree weather that hit in late November. This made riding to work at 7:00am a cold experience. I did it once with the window down then, the next morning, applied a fair amount of packing tape to hold the window up. That made it warmer, but not presentable.

I ordered a new window regulator from Wolfsburg West and, of course, received it quickly (those guys are so fast!) but it sat in the garage waiting for a chance to replace it for about 3 weeks. I finally got the chance on Christmas Day.

I'll take you through this step by step, but it should be noted it was much easier than I thought. The whole swap took about 20 minutes and I only needed EP's help when I was setting the position of the handle when all was put back together.

The first thing you have to do is remove the handles. Both are removed by pushing back on the plastic covers at the base until you get access to a pin that holds the handles in. You can see both the pin, and the nail I used to push it out, in the picture below of the handle removed:


This is what the pin looks like when completely in.

The part number, just for reference.

Here is the plastic ring that goes around the handles (both the window crank and door handle).

The door panel is held on by these little metal tabs (on the panel) that snap into plastic tabs (on the door). They can be popped out by using a flat large screwdriver and a little pressure.


Underneath, you will find springs that put tension on the back of both the window crank and the door handle. Note this, dear mechanic! I almost forgot them when putting it back together.

At this point, you should check the bottom of your door for any interesting things (beyond rust) that may have fallen through the pocket on the door. In this case, Little Blue was hiding an undated insurance info card.

Someday, this growing rust will need attention.

Not awful, but not super clean.

Now, how to unhook the window:


The bottom of the window (above) is held up by the end of the window regulator (the other end is at the window crank). it is connected by a well-greased rotating widget, which you see in the picture below:


Disconnect them by sliding it out the side. It is possible you have to disconnect the crank end of the regulator (mine, being broken in between, came right off). To take off the crank end, undo the 4 bolts circled in the picture below:


Undo the bolts, but I am guessing the window can slam down at this point, so take care of it. I braced mine while I got the new regulator ready. The replacement regulator is engineered differently than the original. rather than rotating in the middle (where Little Blue's broke!) it rotated right at the crank. Seems to work fine, so take that VW engineers!

New on top, original on bottom.

Side by side of the crank end - new on left, old on right. Note the differences.

After that, you simple work in reverse. Put your new regulator in, connect your window before bolting everything down (this is where you may need another person to hold your window in place so you can put the bolts in without too much pressure on it). Make sure you set the resting position (either all the way up or all the way down) of the crank handle away from you so your knee doesn't hit it while driving.

Easy project.

One last picture below. This is where the old regulator would have rotated. I'm not sure if something fell off (it had to have), but you can really see where the torque on the bolt bend it. I guess a 45-year run isn't bad...

2 comments:

Ludwig's Drivers

Take it easy on the VW engineers; I'm sure that the difference in regulators is a result of VW engineering, and not the result of anyone outthinking them. (Speaking of, is one of your next projects going to be the replacement of LB's 009?)

I had to do this exact replacement on Gertie and must report that the Type III door is substantially more difficult to work within. You Beetle people have all the luck....

Alright,
whc03grady.

Big Blue's Driver

whc03grady-

I threw that comment in there just for you. You're probably right, but I was interested that I ordered it and nothing on the site said it would be different than the original when ordering. You'd think someone would want to take credit for the redesign. Ah, well. It seems to work fine so far...

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