Power Window issue

My back power windows were moving very slowly and not going down as far as they used to. I have taken off my door panels of my rear power windows (88 XJ). The part that is anchored to the window and that the motor uses to operate the window has several rust parts and seems to have lost its sleeve (it looks like a huge white pipe cleaner with a metal coil around it). No amount of brake cleaner or wd40 seem to make a dent in its condition. Has anyone ever swaped this part alone or is a replacement motor in my near future?

I have taken one apart before. You can drill out the rivets etc and disassemble clean, check the brushes and intrenals etc. On dissasembly the pipe cleaner/track can be cleaned and lubed. Then replace the missing tube cover w. an appropriate size piece of rubber tube and a hose clamp to hold it on the motor end. Test the motor on the bench w. 12 vlts from battery for speed before and after the process to see 1. if a need to take apart and 2. to see if the dissasembly and lube helped. If ok on the bench w/o need for repair look to your window mechanism for lube and adjustment. You can also speed up all your motors when they get old by running cutting the pwr wire from master switch on drivers door going to breaker on fuse panel and instead running a 10 guauge wire w. 30 amp inline fuse straight to your battery. Helped me and now the windows operate w/o key in ignition. Greg

Which wire is the power wire?

The violet 14 gauge wire going from the 30 amp breaker on fuse panel to the kick panel on driver side and from there into door and then to the master switch. I cut the wire in the kick panel taped off the end going to the breaker and hooked the other end to a 10 guage wire w. inline 30 amp fuse going to the battery lug on the starter relay next to the battery. Good Luck. Greg

Greg Smith said:

I have taken one apart before. You can drill out the rivets etc and disassemble clean, check the brushes and intrenals etc.

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Could you give more detail on how to take the motor apart? I have my right rear window motor assembly out and have pushed on the small "rivets" - more like nails - (at the end of the black part next to the gear section) and didn't think they would get me any where. There are also the large rivets in the silver metal part of the assembly, but those seem to be more of a gearing mechanism and not the motor, itself. I did peel up the ears at the end of the black section near where the wires enter, but that wasn't working out, either. Thanks for any help.

I got a little speed improvement by taking apart the driver's door switch and cleaning the contacts. Also my driver's door window quit working because the connector contacts were corroded in the wiring connector that is nearest the motor.

Chain lub (bicycle or motor cycle) works well on the cable (chain), silicon works on the window rails. Grease on the cable gets a bit thick in winter, gums things up, oil doesn´t last a full year.
If you don´t keep things lubed up and the cable gets rusty, the cable will slip (ratchet) round the gears and notch the cable. Some of my windows don´t go all the way down, because I´ve used a hose clamp to stop them before they get to the notch in the cable.
Right where the cable (pigtail) goes into the little junction block on the motor. The copper part of the wire, inside of the insulation, fatigues and splits, cuts down on the available current, will eventually cause the window to only function in one direction.
The little junction block (on the motor), has a small cover on the back, pop the cover off and you´ll see some (French) reverse spade type connectors, for the in wires.
I´ve seen three different early XJ´s with the wire fatigued, most of the way through, within 1/2" of the little junction block on the motor. You can twist/bend the wire a little and feel it moves way to easy. Worth a look as long as you have the motor out anyway.