billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

Power window motor died and I had to have it replaced. The shop must have goofed up the new rivets holding the motor to the inside door panel, as the rivets are able to shift around. Now the mounting holes molded into the door panel have enlarged, which allows the motor to slightly change positions as the window is raised or lowered. Which in turn means that the window will not raise into the corret position .... there is a slight gap where the front of the drivers side windown meets the "A pillar".

Has anyone else experienced this problem and how did you fix it? I can't imagine that there is an aftermarket part for this.

Thanks.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This is going to be a total PITA. First check your rivets with a magnet. If they are steel, take them back to your installer and tell them that they need to fix the problem for free. These doors require special rivets from GM that have a steel mandrel with an aluminum jacket. (Due to the composite door.)

Regardless, you are still in a jam. This thread has the best fix for this problem that I've seen. (Using a plate.) https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...-included.html

IWGF

iTrader: (6)

I'm probably going to have to do a metal plate fix on mine. I have the exact same problem.

Mong00z

take it back and get em to fix it right. I had a bad exp with the shop that replaced mine: they broke a piece off the door pannel, didn't install it properly and over charged me on top of all of that. when I returned and spoke with the mgr, they refunded the difference, repaired, and replaced everything properly and even offered to buy me a whole new door pannell!

If they don't fix it for you take your business somewhere else.

billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

Thanks guys. Once the weather gets a little nicer, I take the door apart and look at making a plate to fit in there. I'll check with a Chevy dealer about the specific rivets used to hold the motor in place.

biggb1783

been here aswell. Mine were destroyed when i bought my car. I enlarged the holes in the door panel as well as regulator and motor mount and used equal size rivets.

billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

sorry to come back to this old thread ...... but i'm working on this now. i've drilled the old rivets out and am working on getting the plate figured out.

i notice that it's almost impossible to get the motor and regulator to line back up with the correct holes. is there a magic trick to this? how do i keep the window all the way up while setting the motor in place? do i just "hang" the motor/regulator from the tab on the regulator while i shift everything around? several guys in other threads have mentioned that they have changed these window motors in just an hour or so ..... is there some trick that i'm missing?

thanks

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Yea, you are right on. The metal tab on the regulator is for hanging it on the door while you position it and put the rivets in. When I do mine, I hang the tab on the door, put a rivet in one of the top holes first, and then you can move things around to get one of the bottom rivets in and then the other holes line up.

Ignore the other threads. Those guys were doing replacements without removing the regulator. (There is a method where you have to drill additional holes in the door to get those rivets w/o removing the regulator. It makes the motor replacement easy - but you are in to something different.)

What kind of rivets are you using with your plate/regulator?

billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

i bought the correct rivets from the chevy dealer.

so, should the regulator move around freely behind the door?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Before the rivets are in? - its kind of tough. When I put mine back in, I first took the assembled regulator and motor outside of the door, hooked it up to power, and moved the motor down to the half-way position. Then, when you put the regulator back in and run the rollers through the glass channel, you can tug up and down on the window glass to help move the regulator around once you get that first rivet in. If the window motor/regulator is all the way "up," it will probably be impossible to get back in.

billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

well, it's done. not quite the quality of a job that i would have liked ....... but the window closes now. although i had the right rivets, i unfortunately did not have the right rivet gun .... nor could i find one anywhere. so i had to fall back to bolts. but i built a plate like the one on the referenced thread above and got it all bolted back together. the window closes correctly and does not leak.

this is a '99 z28 m6 with 182K miles on it. although it's in pretty nice shape ..... good paint, clean interior, solid running ..... it's really not worth very much $$$. i bought it in 2001 with 30K miles. it's probably a car that i'll just hang onto for the long run, even after i move onto the next car. so i want to do a decent job at keeping everything nice on it.

guys .... thanks for all of your help on this repair.

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

Had the door panel off today, and I noticed the 4 big rivets are moving when the window moves up or down. It looks like the last guy removed the old rivets with an air grinder.

I was thinking replace the rivets with the proper GM ones, but I can't see that helping the situation because the hole in the fiberglass has elongated:



Can I replace the rivets, one at a time, with bolts from inside the door, and large washers and locknuts on the outside?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Yea, you'll need to go the plate route. Washers won't help. The attachment points need to engage the inside of the holes in the fiberglass. In order to get the mechanism to bear properly on the fiberglass, you'd need to enlarge the rivet holes in the regulator - but that will just lead to other problems.

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

Not the answer I wanted, but thanks wssix99.

After I make up a plate, do I attach it with the GM rivets, or use vanilla nuts & bolts?

Also, what would be the ideal plate thickness?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

I wouldn't think that it would matter what you use with the plate since the plate will be taking the force of the movement instead of the fiberglass. (The fiberglass is the tricky material.) Likewise if you go with a plate thickness similar to that of the fiberglass, I think you would be fine. (Assuming the plate is stronger than the glass.)

eseibel67

iTrader: (10)

Although I'm going to need a repair plate, I don't have time to fab one up right now. As a temporary solution, here's what I did to tighten up my rivet holes:

Drilled out 3 out of 4 rivets one at a time (couldn't get the one closest to the speaker on the driver's side because it's too close to the window motor) and replaced them with nuts and bolts.

The problem with bolts is that they typically rip the holes bigger. I wanted to ensure the load was on the face of the door, not on the inside edge of the rivet holes. So I picked up some galvanized washers from the hardware store. They are very rough in texure, and I could hear them "bite" into the fiberglass when I tightened them down:



I put the bolts in from the inside of the door. Since I didn't want them to ever back off, I used all locking mechanisms I know of: Loctite, lock washer, nylock nut:



It's rock solid right now, we'll see how long it lasts.

Blackhawk777

I had the same problem. I re-fiberglassed all the mounting holes and bought gm rivets. haven't had a problem since.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Cool - Can you post a pic the next time you are able?

billscamaros

iTrader: (1)

as a follow up to this thread .........

i fixed the door last week and the window works fine now. it's nice to drive down the road without any wind sound!!

one lesson learned would be to set the metal plates in place, with epoxy placed thickly between the plate and fiberglass, and bolt it in place without the regulator attached. let the epoxy harden overnight, or at least for several hours, prior to bolting it all together with the regulator. there is still a slight misalignment to the window, but not enought to bother anything.

thanks for all of the advice.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Thanks for the follow up. You might be able to adjust out the remaining alignment problem.