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Window Regulator Replacement Guide

82K views 71 replies 41 participants last post by  MarcL 
#1 ·
Hello! First off, I want to thank everyone for giving me the confidence to perform this task. I had initially thought the window regulator would be too hard to replace. After reading several posts, most stated that it was very easy to do. I decided to follow the various descriptions and instruction to successfully install the new regulator. Several posts had requested pictures and a guide for the job. I decided to document the process and make a PDF for it. Hopefully others will find this guide useful and give them the confidence to save some money and gain a greater appreciation for the inner workings of their car. Any feedback and comments are welcome. Thanks again!

PDF Download
 
#63 ·
Not hard to fix them at all, I simply download a pic of the whole assembly as a guide to what locates how. Just did a right rear yesterday, got a driver side front waiting for time to do it over. I'm even cutting the motor brackets off bad pulleyed rails to put them on manual rails to get good pulleys again when the wire has knotted up to scar the originals. One of the front manual window clips will work but the other is different from the power one. Manual clips are much more likely to be good in the junkyard because they are not slammed up hard like the power motor does to break them.
 
#67 ·
Most of the time the cable only is messed up. A lot of the extra damage is done by those insisting on working the window again and again in misplaced hope it will then start working again. The test is lifting up on the glass, if loose from broken clips it will move up/down and it is then broken, move it more and you tear up more parts. Catch it fast enough and no damage to anything at all other than the clips and the end stops. I rebuild the end stops to make them much stronger. Broken green plastic ferrules I replace with a 1/8" NPT X 1/8" hose nipple and slit up the side with a dremel and cutting wheel, the slit lets cable go in it.

The cables can be recouped by heating them red hot while pulling them out straight while end locked in vise, the kinks magically disappear. I haven't needed one cable yet, they all get reused.
 
#69 · (Edited)
FYI.................I do not have a clue if it is a permanent problem or not but the prices have dropped on the clips.........................BUT.................apparently the quality may have as well. The last ones I got are clearly of a quality level to come from another country with quality standards so far below ours as to make them almost worthless.

The plastic itself is of another color now and is cooked too much to now be way less flexible and now when you snap the parts onto the rail they can shatter pieces off doing it. BTDT. Maybe a different formula of plastic there too, to wit, the color. As well, the injection molding process has been sped way up to have the partially still molten parts ejected to then warp way out of shape before they completely solidify. It warped the grooves and parallelism of the posts on mine to be almost useless. I had to rework the grooves with a file to get the cable in, not normal at all. The actual molds seem to have been very roughly copied from others that were likely more spot-on as far as accuracy. The ejector pin marks now are deep enough in a couple of places to make the part break easier that way too. The pressure used in the actual molding process may have been dropped back as the molten plastic is no longer squishing in on itself to fill all the voids and make the part essentially one piece, there are no voids but the next thing, the part has mold fissures all over it and by such premade to crack up in pieces under a load. The parts by virtue of being nylon to cut friction are interference fit to work smoothly, the mismolding of points-in-space tears that quality up and I had to shim in various ways to get the clips to slide with the proper drag to stop rattles yet light enough to not drag the motor down, before you simply snapped them on and done.

All the evidence of parts coming from extreme 3rd world countries maybe, the last ones I got were in no way as good as the ones I had gotten before, those were sweet.

The good ones were gray in color, the crap ones are white.

Buyer beware.........................I sure hope that's not the way of the future there, I use those parts quite often.
 
#70 ·
I snapped the hand crank connecting rod off my drivers window regulator and decided to go with a new Dorman 740-128 Manual Window Regulator.
US $42.28 shipped.

FRONT LEFT DRIVER MANUAL WINDOW REGULATOR ONLY FITS 2001-2007 FORD FOCUS | eBay

Simple 30 minute job.
Because the window was in the up position, I used a wrench [wrenchin] on the window clamps which is accessible with a ratchet if the window is down.

Do not over tighten these window clamps. the window will crack.
 
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