Window up, but not down - 97 Sport (and an intro!)

Hey all. First time here. I searched around for window threads but most all seemed to have the opposite problem I'm having (windows will go down but not up). In my case, the driver's window went up just fine - it just won't go back down. Since it's the driver's own window, some usual approaches to diagnosing (such as trying the switches on the driver door vs. switches on affected door) aren't an option.

This is a '97 XJ Sport. When I got in to it this morning, I had the window already about 1/4 of the way down. I pressed the switch to open it all the way, and did notice the speed at which it went down was irregular - it moved slowly, then normal speed, then slowed down again and crawled its way fully down. Figuring that meant something was wrong, I pushed up on the switch to close it (I'd rather have the window stuck closed if it's gonna die on me than have it stuck open). It went up and closed just fine - normal speed. Once I got it fully closed, though, flippin' the switch doesn't move it down at all - so that funky movement when I first got in this morning was the last it'd give me to open it.

Any insight or suggestions, when it went up completely fine but was having issues opening (and ultimately won't open at all)?

Also, quick intro - I live in Vegas. Not entirely sure what chapter Vegas fits in to (Sierra? SoCal?). I had this 1997 Sport (115k miles) back in the late 90s/early 00s and it even spent many years down in South America. It roamed through the Andes, the altiplano, and the Amazon; traveled between continents on freighters; trekked up and down the coast of Chile seeking out the best surf spots; had quite the life in South America. Brought it back to CA (Long Beach) around 2002, then eventually it was passed on to other family (brother, then father). I just got it back 2 weeks ago and am getting reacquainted with it. It hasn't been driven a ton over the last 5-7 years, so it was inevitable certain bugs like this window thing would pop up now that I am back to driving it regularly.

If you take apart the window switch, there are contacts that touch when the switch is pressed up and down, and those contacts can get dirty and corroded. That's where I would start.

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Had that happen once, turned out to be the wire where it exited the tiny junction box on the window motor.

Best guess is the wire vibrated until it finally broke. It was broken under the insulation. I got lucky and could feel the break, through the insulation, with my finger tip. More luck than skill finding that one.

I had to pull the window motor to repair it.

Thanks for the insight and info!

Seems a wiring/contact issue is definitely at fault. Turns out, if I apply some inward pressure (which is to say, I push the entire button inward), then toggle the switch down, the window opens fine. So that inward pressure puts the contact/wiring in place enough to open it. Without that pressure, no movement. Now to fix it!

Thanks again!

There are also solder joints on the circuit board that are known to crack and pressing on the switch could be jointing them. You can take the switch apart and resolder then. I had this problem and it caused my power mirror to not work among other things.

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