Window mechanism cables
Discussion
Well my driver's side electric window ground to a halt the other day and dropped half way down. I'm told, and I also believe that one or both of the cables have snapped. I have just ordered the replacement cables from Autolink, but my question is..
How much of a b
d of a job is it? How much swearing should my neighbours be prepared for? Are my hands going to need a skin graft?
Any tips which will go towards neutralising the above are much appreciated!
It's held up with duck tape at the moment
How much of a b
d of a job is it? How much swearing should my neighbours be prepared for? Are my hands going to need a skin graft?Any tips which will go towards neutralising the above are much appreciated!
It's held up with duck tape at the moment
I've no personal experience but I've heard cable replacement is a pig of a job.
Many people go for an upgrade and get rid of the old system and replace it with this or similar:
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/product_info.php/product...
Many people go for an upgrade and get rid of the old system and replace it with this or similar:
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/product_info.php/product...
Howard
Changed the cables on my passenger side this year. Was a PITA - but it is worth removing the glass as it makes it so much easier. I think some guides said it could be done without removing the glass. The big mistake I made is that I haven't quite got the bolts etc lined up correctly so the movement of the window is now very slow.
Come springtime I will loosen it all again and then get the window running smoothly. Try marking the position of all the bolts b4 you remove them so it runs smoothly when it is put back together again.
Have fun.....
Changed the cables on my passenger side this year. Was a PITA - but it is worth removing the glass as it makes it so much easier. I think some guides said it could be done without removing the glass. The big mistake I made is that I haven't quite got the bolts etc lined up correctly so the movement of the window is now very slow.
Come springtime I will loosen it all again and then get the window running smoothly. Try marking the position of all the bolts b4 you remove them so it runs smoothly when it is put back together again.
Have fun.....
I know it will only be part of the problem, and that old window mechanisms do always need some TLC, but I had my drivers side window switch fail. Replacing these (with another s/h set) and my windows made a significant improvement. You could probably clean up the contacts if you can be botehred to dismantle the switch. My old ones were very black...
Miata.net/Garage/Interior - bottom of the first section.
There also some very good advice on lubrication & fixing slow windows in there.
There also some very good advice on lubrication & fixing slow windows in there.
The Shin Etsu grease mentioned is, I belive, only a silicon grease. Silicon grease is avilable at Maplins. (Something like £5.99 per tube.)
The other thing you can try to lubricate the channel is spray silicon grease available from Halfrauds, 3 in 1 etc.
The spray grease is also good to lubricate the rubber window seals to stop them freezing stuck, also help to protect and preserve the rubber hood seals.
h
The other thing you can try to lubricate the channel is spray silicon grease available from Halfrauds, 3 in 1 etc.
The spray grease is also good to lubricate the rubber window seals to stop them freezing stuck, also help to protect and preserve the rubber hood seals.
h
In case anyone is bored, I posted this on another forum and figured someone here might be interested too!
~~
I may have mentioned that just before Christmas my driver's side electric window stopped working - didn't go up or down, and the glass would drop to about half way down. I pretty much knew straight away that it would be one or both of the two cables inside, part of the regulator, that have snapped.
So I bought two new cables (about £40) and they arrived just after Christmas.
It's now April and this morning I finally built up the required amount of "arsed" to fix it
So I thought I'd shove it in this thread in case anyone cares, or needs to do the same job themselves!
First things first, the door must come apart
So speaker grille, door handle and door opener surround removed
Door card removed
Now you have to remove the dust/water guard plastic sheet, which is held on with nasty horrible black mastic that sticks to anything, and will come off nothing
With that lot removed, you have to remove the glass - no pictures of this step because I was too busy getting annoyed at the process, hehe, but you need to remove the trim on the top, outer part of the door, which is held on with some stubborn clips which must NOT be broken. Ask me if you want any more info on this
Nice dirty pane of glass
Now the motor and regulator were removed, which was a case of marking up the position of a couple of nuts (their positions were adjustable) with Tippex, and undoing all of the nuts that hold these two items to the door. Out comes the mechanism, and...
Yep. There's your problem.
Cables had gotten all mangled up in the motor capstan
And an overview of the mechanism when removed, showing the bit that snapped, causing the grief...
...which is shown here - the tip of that wire should have a little stub which hooks in to a plastic holder on the window runner...
...which is circled here (you can see where/how the intact cable is held in, and the little broken tip is still stuck in on the other side):
It also caused the wire to jump off of one of the pulleys, further adding to the mess and tangle
So with the old cables removed and discarded, I set about attaching the new ones, which is a bit fiddly..
You need to grease up the capstan, then wind the upper cable around the bottom hook in it (underside of it, not visible) approx. 2.5 turns, then wind the lower cable on to the top of it (visible below) approx 2.5 turns, grease up the cables thoroughly, then re-seat it on the motor's axle and make the sure the cables are sitting in the threaded runners on the capstan so as not to tangle it again
Now you can thread the cable onto the greased-up pulleys and into the plastic lug on the runner that holds the cable - not as easy as it first looks, there's not enough slack at first without fully tightening the two plastic "seats" shown in the photo above and compressing the spring and white plastic lug, to reveal as much of the cable from the sleeve as possible
Once you've done this, it should wind round nicely. Now pop the metal cover back on to cover up the capstan, and this completes the re-assembly of the motor and regulator mechanism, which should now look like this:
Now to get the bugger back into the door. Which wasn't too tricky tbh.
Shoving it all back in:
Regulator bolted up
Motor bolted up
And.. All done! Motor tightened up, regulator aligned and tightened up, window stoppers replaced, glass cleaned (Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover for the win) and replaced, and it goes up and down! wooo
Door re-assembled
So there you have it. I was initially viewing this job with great trepidation, but after some initial snags, it wasn't too tricky! I feel I could re-do it in half the time. Which is handly, because my neighbour's MX-5 has got exactly the same problem, and guess who's going to be helping fix it!
~~
I may have mentioned that just before Christmas my driver's side electric window stopped working - didn't go up or down, and the glass would drop to about half way down. I pretty much knew straight away that it would be one or both of the two cables inside, part of the regulator, that have snapped.
So I bought two new cables (about £40) and they arrived just after Christmas.
It's now April and this morning I finally built up the required amount of "arsed" to fix it
So I thought I'd shove it in this thread in case anyone cares, or needs to do the same job themselves!First things first, the door must come apart
So speaker grille, door handle and door opener surround removed
Door card removed
Now you have to remove the dust/water guard plastic sheet, which is held on with nasty horrible black mastic that sticks to anything, and will come off nothing
With that lot removed, you have to remove the glass - no pictures of this step because I was too busy getting annoyed at the process, hehe, but you need to remove the trim on the top, outer part of the door, which is held on with some stubborn clips which must NOT be broken. Ask me if you want any more info on this
Nice dirty pane of glass
Now the motor and regulator were removed, which was a case of marking up the position of a couple of nuts (their positions were adjustable) with Tippex, and undoing all of the nuts that hold these two items to the door. Out comes the mechanism, and...
Yep. There's your problem.
Cables had gotten all mangled up in the motor capstan
And an overview of the mechanism when removed, showing the bit that snapped, causing the grief...
...which is shown here - the tip of that wire should have a little stub which hooks in to a plastic holder on the window runner...
...which is circled here (you can see where/how the intact cable is held in, and the little broken tip is still stuck in on the other side):
It also caused the wire to jump off of one of the pulleys, further adding to the mess and tangle
So with the old cables removed and discarded, I set about attaching the new ones, which is a bit fiddly..
You need to grease up the capstan, then wind the upper cable around the bottom hook in it (underside of it, not visible) approx. 2.5 turns, then wind the lower cable on to the top of it (visible below) approx 2.5 turns, grease up the cables thoroughly, then re-seat it on the motor's axle and make the sure the cables are sitting in the threaded runners on the capstan so as not to tangle it again
Now you can thread the cable onto the greased-up pulleys and into the plastic lug on the runner that holds the cable - not as easy as it first looks, there's not enough slack at first without fully tightening the two plastic "seats" shown in the photo above and compressing the spring and white plastic lug, to reveal as much of the cable from the sleeve as possible
Once you've done this, it should wind round nicely. Now pop the metal cover back on to cover up the capstan, and this completes the re-assembly of the motor and regulator mechanism, which should now look like this:
Now to get the bugger back into the door. Which wasn't too tricky tbh.
Shoving it all back in:
Regulator bolted up
Motor bolted up
And.. All done! Motor tightened up, regulator aligned and tightened up, window stoppers replaced, glass cleaned (Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover for the win) and replaced, and it goes up and down! wooo
Door re-assembled
So there you have it. I was initially viewing this job with great trepidation, but after some initial snags, it wasn't too tricky! I feel I could re-do it in half the time. Which is handly, because my neighbour's MX-5 has got exactly the same problem, and guess who's going to be helping fix it!
I also did this a couple of weeks ago.. as said above, its fiddly, but once youve done it once its not really that tough!.. If you can, take note of how the cables attach and route, i just cut the old cables as they were snapped anyway and pulled the motor out of the speaker hole.
also note that the capstan in the motor housing is handed(no mention of it in rod grangers manual)
also note that the capstan in the motor housing is handed(no mention of it in rod grangers manual)
There is a fairly common problem where the window will only go so far down and them jams . Once you know what's happening its very easy to fix .
One of the cable runs for the window mechanism is only held with a push clip that cannot stand the tension pressures of the moving cable and pops out it then gets trapped blow a bobbin on the window and limits the travel . Using a cable tie with a large enough head though the original hole does the trick and keeps it clear .
I found this link that shows it pretty well :
https://youtu.be/R4dFkPh3qRw
One of the cable runs for the window mechanism is only held with a push clip that cannot stand the tension pressures of the moving cable and pops out it then gets trapped blow a bobbin on the window and limits the travel . Using a cable tie with a large enough head though the original hole does the trick and keeps it clear .
I found this link that shows it pretty well :
https://youtu.be/R4dFkPh3qRw
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