GTV quarter window regulator repair

Started by festy, July 01, 2023, 06:40:06 PM

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festy

A year or two ago my drivers side quarter window regulator broke - turning the knob felt like the shaft was unscrewing while the window remained stationary, but the window could be opened just by pushing it.

And then the other day one of my daughters tried to open the passengers side quarter window and its regulator looks like its failed now too :-[

Luckily, it turns out they're not too hard to repair.
The body and internals are all cast zinc alloy, so are pretty soft and fragile. They're held together by 4 'rivets' that are part of the casting, and eventually one or more of the rivet heads will fail and the housing will open.
When that happens, the worm gear won't mesh properly and will force the housing open further and/or chew up the gear teeth  :-\

To repair:
First, remove the door card. With a 7mm spanner remove this little screw from the square shaft poking out the bottom of the regulator:


Remove the three 6mm bolts holding the regulator in, and wriggle it downwards off the square shaft.
It probably looks a bit like this:


Grind any remaining rivet heads off and open up the housing.
Take note of the orientation of the gear, there is a spring loaded plate on one end.


Clean up any bent or damaged teeth, e.g.



 
Clean all the old hard grease out, cut off the rivet shafts flush with the housing face,then drill and tap for M6.
One half of my housing was pretty bent, but with a couple of C clamps I managed to get the two halves to line up before drilling.

Reassemble with plenty of grease, and maybe a little locktite on the bolts.