Help question, please and thanks:
Oh wise ones,
1987 & 1988 Lincoln town cars (but this could apply to almost any vehicle).
I have been burning out or tearing up the gears in the window motors. What I have realized is that the U-shaped seals in the window frames are hard as a rock. I don’t use these cars often, and I’ve realized that that seal pinches the window, and holds it like a clamp. Repeated applications of silicone (never petroleum) no longer keeps them working.
It’s quite involved to take the door apart, and then take the window out to replace the seals. I was wondering:
1-if anybody had some wisdom on a method of scraping out or grinding out a little tiny bit of the channel in the seal to give the window more freedom. I don’t think I would have to do it up and down every inch of the travel. I think if I could get 60 or 70% of it widened up, the windows would work fine.
2-if anybody had any wisdom on how to scrape out and pull out those seals without taking the door completely apart. On a couple other old hardened seals, this has happened, but when I got the old seal out, I was able to snake a new seal in by simply running the window up and down and pinching the seal at the right places to work it in. When I did that, I put a little bit of silicone seal behind it in a couple spots, so once it’s set, the seal stayed in place.
These are pristine cars, and fairly rare cars due to the dealer engine upgrades, but they’re not worth a ton of money on the collectible market. I can take the whole thing apart, but that crawling on the ground and working on your knees doesn’t work too well for me anymore, and my repair shop said it’s probably $1000 a door. They’re just not worth that.
HELP!!
if I can’t figure it out, I may have to drive a Ranger all the time. Who would ever want to do that?