Servicing the electric window motors

[pmansson]

I have the early, sardine type electric motors. I have heard about removing old, stale grease and smearing them up with fresh stuff. I have done this with the gearboxes, but never opened the electric motors.

There are 6 screws as well as 4 small flaps that seem to bend open with the aid of a knife or screwdriver.

What is the procedure here please?

I have an auto electrician nearby who has serviced the wiper motors. He cleaned the carbon heads, greased and oiled in the appropriate spots and rewired where and when necessary. Perhaps he should have a look at them?

Or do they work just fine, until something happens and they die? Or do they slow in operation speed with age? 2 of my cars have very fast operation, but I think this is due to me cleaning the window guides and adding lots of fresh grease to them.

 

[Bill Riblett]

All I have done with the motors is oil the bearings. If applying oil on the outer side of the bearings didn't loosen them, I've removed the outer part of the case to get at the inner ends of the bearings.

I've never found one I could not free. Sometimes I have had to use a good penetrating oil, like Kroil, to free the bearing and then work in some light oil.

These early motors have a separate 'gearbox' that has 35 year old grease that I've cleaned out and replaced with something like synthetic wheel bearing grease.

 

[pmansson]

Thanks Bill,
"removing the outer part of the case", is that by means of the screws or folding back the flaps of the lid?
Mine are not stuck by any means, but they deserve some TLC after all these years.

 

[Tundra]

I have the same type of motors. The best way to improve the performance of this mechanism is to take out the entire rear windows. It's the only way to get at the entire mechanism. You need to grease up every moving part ( front & back) which is why taking out the windows works best. You will see tracks/guides where an arm moves up and down, grease that, front and back. There are also several "hinges" to grease. Using oil or grease in the motors alone is not going to do it. It's a pain to get the back windows out but I did it a few weeks ago and the performance improved very significantly. It's worth it.

 

[pmansson]

Oiling the bearings

how do I access the bearings in the "sardine box" electric motors?
There are screws and folden flaps that I presume can be bent to open the box....

 

[Bill Riblett]

As you suspect, you have to remove the screws and unfold the flaps. I use a stiff-blade scraper to pry them up. You could also use something like an old chisel.

The cover metal is pretty soft and bends easily, but I try to avoid bending it any more than necessary.