Testing continuity

Good stuff!

 

I know exactly what you are talking about.  I have (well... had) two of them.  Yep; I burned one of them a while ago (actually, only the fuse, but I have yet to find one).

 

Tonight I rolled my sleeves and remove almost the entire middle console and finally looked straight in the eyes of the Power Window Relay.  After a long stare and a fair fight; his retaining screw was no match for my wrench.

 

As far as I know (and I went to 4 part stores today), only Zip products have them for sale.  I will be ordering a new one tomorrow. I opened it to see how "bad" it was inside.  The coil (if I can call it that) was in very good condition, but the contact point was very ... used.  I could have sanded the points and give it a shot, but I just don't want to do it again.  It's the second time in les than 2 months that I take the whole middle appart.

 

Using the multimeter, I tested the switches, the circuit breaker and the power window motors.  They all came out good.  So I'll take my change and do a straight replacement of the relay.  Until I get better at diagnostics; it was the most logical decision following the elimination process.

 

Thanks for all the help, I will let you know how this new relay works out for me.

Well, I ordered one from Ecklers this morning..

 

What's the black box next to the power window relay ?  It is a relay for the horn ? Or for the heater ? For the AC ?

Tony,

 

the relay (at least on a 74) is aligned with the left radio button, under the shift console where it meet with the middle cluster.

 

I was able to reach it without removing the middle cluster.  I first removed the break console, then the shift plate (I left the A/C controls there, but you have to twist things a little to do that).

 

Heres the tricky part: for some reason,  I realized that the "casing" of the middle console is pullable (might not be in yours, but mine was), so I lifted the hand brake as far up as I could, raised the middle console and pulled it out.

 

Bingo!  It was right there. Only has one screw (which double as a ground) and the relay was actually glued to the metal bar is sits on.  Not too hard to pull, but made me wonder for a second if it was permanently attached to it.

 

You'll see the power wire (red) for one prong and the power window wires for the other 2 prongs (I forgot the colors, but pink & brown I think).

 

Funny, because I also replaced my radio recently and had ton's of problems with the cluster bulbs putting it back and now this.  I don't think I created a short though.  I looked inside the switch, and it was kind of what my clock contact used to look like.  After 30 years+, those contacts starts to look tired.  I didn't know how to test the relay by itself, so I just went ahead and ordered one from Ecklers.  If it's not it, at least I won't have (knock on wood) to touch that relay for another 30 years...

 

I'll take a picture tonight and send it to you.  A picture is worth 7 paragraphs..

 

 

Here you go! Took a picture.  As you can see, it's under the radio stuck in a corner where only removing the cluster wouldn't help you much; I think you really have to remove the middle console.

 

On the picture it's detached from the wires and bold, but thats were it goes (just not tilted that much...).

 

Done!

 

It was the power window relay.  Received it last night from Ecklers (41$ shipped).  5 minutes later my windows were back up!

 

btw : also got myself a book about electicity and electronics.  Reading the first few chapters made me feel like I should have listened when I took those classes back in college.  I just didn't care at that time...

 

Thanks everyone!

All the way up; Yes.  Fast; No!

 

It's still an old motor and my mechanisms are a little rusty and could need re-greasing as well as fixing the angle on the driver side.

 

Since I took the door panels out trying to hot wire the motors, I left them out for now and plan on cleaning the whole inside; which should make them a little faster.