Removing window motor

[Salty Dog]

Any tips on removing the 91 window motor? Sorry if this has been covered. The search is not working great for me. I need to do the front two doors. I just got the driver door panel off but I'm not seeing how to get this thing out.

[Salty Dog]

Oh and one more thing before I go back down to garage. I picked up some 6.5s for for the front doors. The old speakers set against an angled piece of plastic. Does that need to come off the mount the new speakers or to the new ones mount over that. If so I assuming you have to grind down the 3 plastic nubs that stick out so it will sit flush?

[VicCrownVic]

For the window motors, drill three holes so you can get a socket on the three bolts that hold the window motor in place. I believe the Ford service manual suggests doing this job by drilling holes.
There three are dimples that are supposed to line up with the three bolts but I've had more than one of those dimples on my cars that did not line up exactly right. I don't recall the drill bit size, but it needs to be big enough for a 5/16" or 8mm socket to fit.

Not sure on the speakers, I still have the factory speakers on both of my '91s.

[86VickyLX]

There are 3 dimples in the door skin at the bottom in a trianglular shape (unless the holes are already drilled). Drill the holes big enough so you can fit a 1/4" drive 8mm socket in it. There are bolts behind each dimple. You will need an extension in order to reach the bolts. Remove your door speaker so you can remove the motor. Be wary that the window might fall down on it's own after the motor is out so some masking tape wrapped around the glass beforehand should do the trick (Masking tape doesn't leave residue if it hasn't been on for very long). Use some plastic or paper to hold the bolts in place when putting the motor back in. They suck sometimes to reinstall.

As for the speakers, the 90+ had those angled things to compensate for a loss of sound when they got rid of the dash speakers. If you can make the aftermarket speakers fit in the stock plastic thing, go for it. If not, it's only a few more phillips head screws holding that on.

[Salty Dog]

are these the dimples where I drill?

the red arrows are where i thing the dimples are... the green arrows are rivots

[gadget73]

Those are the ones. Do not drill the rivets. A 1/2" hole is big enough to stick the 5/16" socket on an extension in. You can go smaller, but you'll have to stab the extension in and then fish around inside to put the socket on it from inside the door, and do the same with the screws.

[Salty Dog]

The bottom dimple is below the door panel so i cant drill a hole there. I put my hand through the speaker hole so I could get a feel for the placement, and the lower screw is just as low as the dimple and about an inch to the right. I was able to get the other two out. Not sure what Im going to do about this third one.

[sly]

a 5/8 hole would be better just for some wiggle room. Also, you can drill a hole there... you just have to be careful and keep things flush so you can put a body hole plug there to fill the hole if you want. Or you can use a 5/16 ratcheting box-end wrench to help make shorter work of that one.

[Salty Dog]

I like the body plug idea. I have to keep this thing clean or Ill be in big trouble with the wifey. Going to brake on it for the night. Thanks for the help yall.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

If your wifey randomly pokes around the car looking for half-exposed holes near the bottom of the doors, you may wanna reassign her to keeping your car detailed - that thing will always look better than the day it rolled off the assembly line! Talk about a major case of OCD, lol.

The reason the dimples do not line up with the bolt heads exactly is because the regulators use a different style of window motors than the '88 and older cars. The regulators are slotted and will readily accept both motors, however the newer type has the mounting bolts closer together, while the dimples are placed based on a template made for the older motors with the bolts spread slightly further apart (which also means that if one, for whatever reason, gets the urge to replace the new-style motors with the old-style, then the bolts will line up with the dimples darn near perfect). So basically just drill a small hole at first and look thru it, if the bolt head is right there go for the gusto in 1/2" or larger size, but if the bolt head is off to one side put the drill down and reach for the die-grinder instead and start enlarging the pilot hole in the direction of the bolt head.

[GM_Guy]

Have you successfully done a swap? I have tried, and the new pancake motors are NOT a direct replacement for the old Round body motors (round body motors include early 1989 model year, which I had). Look at the drive end of the two motors, the gear on the pancake one has a protrusion at its base and will bind in an old style regulator as there is no clearance for that protrusion. You can feel it when you put the motor in place, so if you have a round body motor don't bother trying to swap unless its a late 1989 build that might have the newer regulator in it that has clearance for a motor.

Alex.

[Tiggie]

Thread hijack: will the old round motors replace a newer pancake?

[VicCrownVic]

My '89 also has the old style window motors. The holes always line up on that car and all the older boxes that I've had.
Now that I think about it, it was only on my '91s that the holes did not quite line up. They weren't terribly off but I did have to enlarge the hole toward the bolt like HRG mentioned.
I never really made the connection that it was only on my '91s that the holes didn't line up quite right, but it makes sense now based on what HRG said.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Thread hijack: will the old round motors replace a newer pancake?

Yes! Round-body motors fit in '90-'91 regulators just fine. Just did that last week actually.

Pancake motors in '89-down regulators, haven't tried that. Since GM_Guy has, however, I'd take his word for it that such a swap is a no-go.

[87gtVIC]

I have this kit installed in my 87 Crown Victoria. Been this way for years with auto up/down one touch modules in line and no issues whatsoever (aside from ones insides rusting out).

https://lmr.com/item/LRS-23394K/79-93-Mustang-Power-Window-Motor-Kit-For-Coupe-Hatchback

Is this the pancake motor you speak of?

I know I originally removed the big round body ones and replaced them with these.