antijam
CCCUK Member
The passenger side window on my '71 convertible has never worked since I bought the car over a year ago. Operating the winder produces a graunching noise but no movement. Current enhanced leisure time seemed a good opportunity to sort it out. With the door panel off....
.... removing the regulator showed the gear teeth to be in pretty good condition and engaging well with the drive pinion, so I decided to just replace the three rollers (although they too seemed to be working freely)....
.... and clean everything up. After chipping away nearly 50 years of mummified grease, relubricating everything with lithium grease, reassembling and adjusting the guide rails...Hooray - it worked!
Although the drivers side window worked fine, I took the opportunity to clean and regrease that side too.
Having the door panels off it seemed a good time to replace the crumbling weatherstripping and my rather pitted exterior door handles. I don't know if any of you have tried replacing the handles but researching the procedure on the many 'Vette forums suggested it was one of the most bastorial jobs on the car. The problem is that the handle is secured with two nuts on studs inside the door. Limited access means that the rearmost of these nuts is practically impossible to reach. You may just be able to make out this nut arrowed in red....
You can just about get an open ended 7/16" A/F spanner on this nut and undo it half a flat at a time, but refitting it seems impossible with normal hands.
After staring at this problem for an inordinately long time it occurred to me that access could be greatly improved by just unscrewing the latch mechanism and dropping it down inside the door. Disconnecting the locking link and undoing the three securing screws allowed the latch to drop and suddenly there was much more access to the nut......
It was the work of a moment to remove both nuts, lift the handle clear of the door, and manipulate it to disengage the 'S bend' in the operating linkage.....
Fitting the new handle was straightforward after reattaching the link.....
.....but even so it required the more delicate hand of my wife to start the nut on the rear stud - my bunch of fives still couldn't hold the nut and turn it at the same time......
After tightening everything up it was time to stand back and admire my shiny new handle.
Next job must be to sort out that bloody handbrake!
.... removing the regulator showed the gear teeth to be in pretty good condition and engaging well with the drive pinion, so I decided to just replace the three rollers (although they too seemed to be working freely)....
.... and clean everything up. After chipping away nearly 50 years of mummified grease, relubricating everything with lithium grease, reassembling and adjusting the guide rails...Hooray - it worked!
Although the drivers side window worked fine, I took the opportunity to clean and regrease that side too.
Having the door panels off it seemed a good time to replace the crumbling weatherstripping and my rather pitted exterior door handles. I don't know if any of you have tried replacing the handles but researching the procedure on the many 'Vette forums suggested it was one of the most bastorial jobs on the car. The problem is that the handle is secured with two nuts on studs inside the door. Limited access means that the rearmost of these nuts is practically impossible to reach. You may just be able to make out this nut arrowed in red....
You can just about get an open ended 7/16" A/F spanner on this nut and undo it half a flat at a time, but refitting it seems impossible with normal hands.
After staring at this problem for an inordinately long time it occurred to me that access could be greatly improved by just unscrewing the latch mechanism and dropping it down inside the door. Disconnecting the locking link and undoing the three securing screws allowed the latch to drop and suddenly there was much more access to the nut......
It was the work of a moment to remove both nuts, lift the handle clear of the door, and manipulate it to disengage the 'S bend' in the operating linkage.....
Fitting the new handle was straightforward after reattaching the link.....
.....but even so it required the more delicate hand of my wife to start the nut on the rear stud - my bunch of fives still couldn't hold the nut and turn it at the same time......
After tightening everything up it was time to stand back and admire my shiny new handle.
Next job must be to sort out that bloody handbrake!
