Regulator troubles (power window), 94 Civic EX

This morning the confounded driver's power window popped out of the
window channel on my 94 Civic EX, in driving rain, of course. (Luckily
we weren't going far!) I got the door apart, silicone-sprayed the window
channel for a bit of lubrication and managed to pop the window back in,
only to have the window hitch crooked on the way up and pop back out.
The left side goes up a little faster than the right.

I looked a little closer and found that the window rocks side to side,
traced it a little further to the pivot point on the regulator where the
two arms cross each other. It appears to be spot welded, and it *looks*
like a couple of the spot welds have given way so that the two crossing
arms aren't solidly connected any longer, allowing the rocking and
thence the popping out of the channel.

Before I shell out $75 for a new regulator, just thought I'd check in
here for comments in case my diagnosis is off-target. I first throught I
might be able to simply screw a couple of sheet-metal screws in it in
place of the spot welds, but since I can't see around the backside of
the pivot point I'm not sure I'll be able to attach the screws without
freezing the pivot, which obviously won't do. Anyone tackle this before?
Any tricks or gotchas?

Also, the front passenger window gets very sluggish about halfway down.
Works fine sometimes. Haven't yet disassembled that one, but I'm
guessing it probably needs some grease at the various regulator joints.
Anything else I should look for?

TIA,

Abe

I went ahead and ordered a new regulator. Too much trouble to muck
around with.

Followup: replacing the regulator was dead easy, and my window behyaves
once again. A couple of notes on the Service Manual instructions for
reference:

I did not have to remove either the glass run channel or the center
channel (steps 3-4, p. 20-11). Tilting the window as shown in the
diagram at Step 2 allows glass reinsertion.

At Step 5, be careful to mark the position of the left roller guide bolt
on the door panel, and be careful not to jostle the sector gear position
when removing the regulator assembly through the hole in the door panel.

At Step 7, I marked the sector gear position on the old assembly, then
removed the motor. I positioned the new sector gear precisely by
counting exposed teeth on the old assembly and matching the new one's
position that way, then attached the motor. This saved me the challenge
of tweaking it with a 12V battery hookup.

I squirted some silicon spray in the glass channels on both sides to
ease sliding.

Abe

abeness wrote:
> This morning the confounded driver's power window popped out of the
> window channel on my 94 Civic EX, in driving rain, of course. (Luckily
> we weren't going far!) I got the door apart, silicone-sprayed the window
> channel for a bit of lubrication and managed to pop the window back in,
> only to have the window hitch crooked on the way up and pop back out.
> The left side goes up a little faster than the right.
>
> I looked a little closer and found that the window rocks side to side,
> traced it a little further to the pivot point on the regulator where the
> two arms cross each other. It appears to be spot welded, and it *looks*
> like a couple of the spot welds have given way so that the two crossing
> arms aren't solidly connected any longer, allowing the rocking and
> thence the popping out of the channel.
>
> Before I shell out $75 for a new regulator, just thought I'd check in
> here for comments in case my diagnosis is off-target. I first throught I
> might be able to simply screw a couple of sheet-metal screws in it in
> place of the spot welds, but since I can't see around the backside of
> the pivot point I'm not sure I'll be able to attach the screws without
> freezing the pivot, which obviously won't do. Anyone tackle this before?
> Any tricks or gotchas?
>
> Also, the front passenger window gets very sluggish about halfway down.
> Works fine sometimes. Haven't yet disassembled that one, but I'm
> guessing it probably needs some grease at the various regulator joints.
> Anything else I should look for?
>
> TIA,
>
> Abe