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One of the most annoying things that can happen to a
68-82 Corvette owner is to start to roll up your window and find it is going up
at a severe angle and will not close.
You may also start to roll it up only to have it drop down into the door
with a resounding thud or worse, to the sound of breaking glass. These problems can all be attributed to
broken window and regulator roller assemblies.
There are five nylon rollers that attach to the glass and window
regulator and roll in the door and glass run channels. They are what allows the window to roll up
and down freely. When they break, the
glass has a tendency to roll up at angles or not at all, depending on how many
rollers are broken. The repair is not
very hard and all of the parts are readily available from Zip Products, Inc.,
8067 Fast Lane, Mechanicsville, VA 23111, (800) 962-9632. Our project 73’s passenger
door glass decided to drop down into the door so a call to Zip Products for the
needed parts and a few hours was all that we needed to repair the problem. Follow along as we get our door glass back on
the right track.
Lead Shot: Is
this how you get your door glass into place?
The hands on pull up.
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01: These are the parts that are needed to repair the
roller assemblies. The front and rear
glass run rollers, regulator rollers, glass bushings and washers and two
anti-rattlers. You will also need some
hand tools, a helper and a shop manual for your year Corvette. Zip can also supply one of these if you do
not have one. |
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02: Start by lowering the door glass and removing the door
panel. You will need a door handle
spring clip removal tool similar to this one to remove the door lock knob. These are available from Zip or some of your
local parts houses.
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03: Remove the door glass anti-rattlers. There is one in the front and the rear of the
door. |
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04: Now remove the outer weatherstrip seal and moulding. The weatherstrip is held in by small screws at
either end and is clipped to the door in the middle. The moulding is held in place by small screws
at both ends.
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05: The front and rear glass run channel stops are removed
now. There are access holes in the door
so that they can be removed.
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06: The window regulator access cover should now be
removed. This will allow you to remove
the lower glass channel and regulator.
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07: Position the window all the way up to line up the
horizontal lower glass channel retaining screws and the access holes in the
door. Have your helper hold the glass
while you reach up inside of the door and hold the nuts on the back of the
horizontal lower glass channel. |
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08: Adjust the front and rear glass run channel outboard
as far as possible. This will allow more
room for the glass to be removed.
Carefully pull the window upward and out making certain to clear the
roller assemblies through the glass opening in the door. |
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09: Slide the horizontal lower glass channel off of the
regulator arm rollers and up and out the rear glass run channel. You may have to move the regulator arms to
remove this channel but this is done by moving the regulator up or down
whichever is needed. When moving the
window regulator be very careful not to have your hands inside of the door
anywhere near the regulator arms. If the
regulator arms accidently close on your fingers, you will make a very fast and
painful trip to the hospital. |
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10: Now mark the position (Here we drew a circle around
each one.) of the regulator channel retaining bolts, then remove them.
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11: Position the regulator arms down so that you can
remove the regulator out of the access hole.
If you have power windows, disconnect the regulator wiring. Remove the regulator retaining bolts and
remove the regulator. |
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12: The glass mounting pads can be removed or installed by
using a spanner socket. We used a
Snap-On #S-8703. If you cannot obtain
one, a pair of needle nose pliers or a pair of large retaining ring pliers will
also work. |
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13. When removing or installing the front glass run
channel roller assembly, use a screwdriver to hold the shaft into place while
tightening the retaining nut.
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14: The regulator roller assemblies are removed by
drilling out the peened over area on each roller with a 3/16 drill bit. |
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15: Have your helper hold the regulator in place. Clamp a 1/4” drift into a vise and place the
indented center stud of the roller directly onto the drift shaft. Place the regulator arm over the shouldered
shaft of the roller and into the regulator arm hole. Use a punch and hammer to expand the hollow
end of the roller stud.
NOTE: If the
hole in the regulator arm has wallowed out, we suggest using a #10 flat washer
over the roller shaft then expanding the roller stud. If you look closely, you can see we had to do
that with this regulator.
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16: Use a small ball peen hammer and tap the roller stud
to fully expand it on the regulator arm. |
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17: Thoroughly clean the lower glass horizontal channel
and the regulator channel. Then coat
each one with white lithium grease.
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18: Remove the rear glass run channel roller assembly on
the lower glass horizontal channel and install the new roller assembly. |
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19: Here is the way the regulator and roller channel will
look when they are assembled. |
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20: Start the reassembly by installing the regulator
first. Note that we have also installed
the regulator channel on the regulator arm.
This makes re-assembly easier.
Bolt the regulator into place and re-connect any wiring. Move the regulator and channel into place and
re-install it aligning the bolts and marks that you made during disassembly. |
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21: The lower glass horizontal channel is now
re-installed. Align it onto the
regulator arm rollers and slide the rear glass run channel roller into the rear
glass run channel. Again, you may have
to move the regulator arms to align each roller assembly. With your helper, re-install the glass. Place the front glass run channel roller
assembly into the glass run channel and lower the glass down into place. Re-align the lower glass horizontal channel
and re-attach it to the glass. Now lower
the glass all the way down into the door.
Replace the glass run channel stops.
Position them in their old alignment marks and snug them into
place. Now snug the front and rear glass
run channel bolts but do not tighten them. |
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22: You can now re-install the outer weatherstrip seal and
moulding. |
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23: The window anti-rattles are installed now. They have to be fished through the access
holes and put into place. They should
rest against the glass with slight pressure.
Snug them into place. Do not
tighten. |
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24: Now carefully close the door and roll up the
window. It should be parallel with the
windshield pillar, resting on the rear pillar weatherstrip and just set into
the roofrail weatherstrip. If it does,
then roll the window up and down a few times to check it. If it is OK, then tighten all of your
bolts. If it does not, then you will
have to refer to the shop manual and adjust the window fore and aft, outboard
and inboard, until it does. All of your
adjustments are made through the regulator roller channel, front and rear glass
run channels, glass run roller stops and the anti-rattlers. The trick is to find out what adjustments
that you need and to do them one at a time, a little at a time. |
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25: After all your adjustments are made and everything is
re-aligned, re-install the watershield, door panel and trim and be glad that
your Corvette’s door glass is back on the right track. |
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GET BACK ON TRACK:
68-82 CORVETTE WINDOW REGULATOR ROLLER ASSEMBLY REPLACEMENT
SOURCE:
Zip Products, Inc.
8067 Fast Lane
Mechanicsville, VA 23111
(800) 962-9632
PARTS LIST:
The Author would like to thank
Richard Gaudio of Greg Donahue Collector Car Restorations, Inc. for his
assistance with this article.
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