Power window repairs do's and NEVER DO's !! Very painful lesson!

[Camshaft]

Well I got my new old roller brackets from Detmatt (thanks again!) and went to do my 1/4 window installation today with the help of my lovely wife. Ran the regulator all the way to the top so that I could insert the glide track into the door with a little more room, and then install the glide track through the two brackets and bolt it back up before I had a rip at the spring nuts and the regulator arm rollers. While I had my left hand in the door cavity to make an adjustment, I managed to put my right elbow onto the window switch, and guess what? I DID NOT DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY AFTER I POSITIONED THE REGULATOR IN THE UP POSITION !
Now, given that the switch was face down on the floor behind the drives seat, there are only two things that can happen. #1- the arms go up until they hit the stops, no harm no foul, or #2, the arms go straight down and crunches the hand of the idiot who DID NOT DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY!
Replacing the 1/4 window power motors and all the other stuff they have stuffed into that tiny space is the worst job ever! No question! Mopar must have used ambidextrous chimpanzees to install them at the factory and given how much of a PITA this process has been and given that the number of hours spent on this, you would think the Mopar Gods would have said, "Give the guy a break, he is a ******* IDIOT yes we know that for sure, but lets give him a break" and have his errant right elbow hit the switch in the up position. Oh no, not the idiot from British Columbia!
Needless to say, when I yanked my hand out, with significant loss of flesh and blood, my wife, (who thankfully is a retired Registered Nurse) calmly pointed out "didn't you DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY?"
I am going out to the back yard to rake some leaves, it is quite a bit safer. I will clean up the blood in the garage later. C Shaft

 

[SIPLOWGUY]

YIKES! Hope you are OK

 

[SPF Required]

So sorry to hear this @Camshaft. Glad hear you still got your sense of humor intact.

Speedy recovery!

 

[MONC440]

I have learned most of my lessons the hard way also. I don’t think you are an idiot, now if you do it again….well then I would reassess that. Lol

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Ouch.

At least you didn't get your finger cut off by the madly releasing spring loaded arm from a door regulator after you took the motor off and didn't put a screwdriver in to stop the regulator from unloading...

 

[Camshaft]

Nah! I had already re and re'd the motors on each side, but I took the window and the lower frame assembly out on the drivers side as the glass was loose in the frame. Had a glass shop redo it, and while I was waiting for it to come back, I braced the regulator and arms, took out the motor, which was trashed, took one of my rebuilt ones and put it back in. When I first started to do this stuff, my good friend, Larry Levinsky, who ran Auto Sports Performance shop here in Langley, always said to me " if your gonna put your hand in somewhere where there is a motor, or gears or anything that spins around, you disconnect the f'in battery, period" Good advice, I just forgot it this morning but probably won't forget the next time!

 

[detmatt]

You raked leaves in B.C. In February???

 

[Camshaft]

Of course! I have a couple of big oak trees in my yard, they do not lose the majority of their leaves until spring. When the snow melts, which it has long ago, it reveals another big dump of leaves that have to be picked up! (very therapeutic too!)

 

[1970FuryConv]

Of course! I have a couple of big oak trees in my yard, they do not lose the majority of their leaves until spring. When the snow melts, which it has long ago, it reveals another big dump of leaves that have to be picked up! (very therapeutic too!)

If you have pics and description of the steps involved, I'd like to see them. I eventually need to do the same on my 1971 Fury quarter windows.
Sorry about your hand. My wife is good with the band aids too.

 

[Ripinator]

Well I got my new old roller brackets from Detmatt (thanks again!) and went to do my 1/4 window installation today with the help of my lovely wife. Ran the regulator all the way to the top so that I could insert the glide track into the door with a little more room, and then install the glide track through the two brackets and bolt it back up before I had a rip at the spring nuts and the regulator arm rollers. While I had my left hand in the door cavity to make an adjustment, I managed to put my right elbow onto the window switch, and guess what? I DID NOT DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY AFTER I POSITIONED THE REGULATOR IN THE UP POSITION !
Now, given that the switch was face down on the floor behind the drives seat, there are only two things that can happen. #1- the arms go up until they hit the stops, no harm no foul, or #2, the arms go straight down and crunches the hand of the idiot who DID NOT DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY!
Replacing the 1/4 window power motors and all the other stuff they have stuffed into that tiny space is the worst job ever! No question! Mopar must have used ambidextrous chimpanzees to install them at the factory and given how much of a PITA this process has been and given that the number of hours spent on this, you would think the Mopar Gods would have said, "Give the guy a break, he is a ******* IDIOT yes we know that for sure, but lets give him a break" and have his errant right elbow hit the switch in the up position. Oh no, not the idiot from British Columbia!
Needless to say, when I yanked my hand out, with significant loss of flesh and blood, my wife, (who thankfully is a retired Registered Nurse) calmly pointed out "didn't you DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY?"
I am going out to the back yard to rake some leaves, it is quite a bit safer. I will clean up the blood in the garage later. C Shaft

View attachment 581601

Geeze! Very sorry to hear this. Hope you heal fast.

 

[3175375]

Glad that you are ok. Lesson learnt and advice shared to others!

 

[SGT FURY]

Years ago somebody gave me a 68 Lincoln that was semi stripped. Window motors and regulators were laying unbolted in doors. I reached in to remove and discovered motors had been unbolted from regulators.!!!!
Almost lost my thumb!!
Every time now I see a door regulator I cringe!!

 

[fury fan]

Yes, @Camshaft - good luck for good/fast healing.

Sorry about your hand. My wife is good with the band aids too.

I've gotta be the one with the band-aids, I'm usually the closest person to the event (which doesn't happen often thankfully because I try to mentally recite 'and the accident report will read '...').

Some years ago I 'nipped' 2 knuckles in a chopsaw.
My brain actually thought '****, hit the undo button' and then when I realized it was real - I just reflexively put them in my mouth like a little kid for a few secs.
When I looked at them, it was down to the white meat, nothing to stitch, but no major damage that I could see - and it was 'clean'.
I determined I'd need to stop the bleeding before I could visit a speedy-clinic - and those folks would just make it bleed again, put some antiseptic on, and bandage it up.
And for 100s of $$$ (I had only major-medical insurance at that time, so things like this came out of my wallet).
Hell, I could do all that at the house myself for about $5 - using stuff I had just for incidents like this.

So: peroxide, neosporin, 2 kneecap bandaids, some taped-in popsickle sticks + a paper-towel / masking-tape wrap had me back in action (on the couch that is, my enthusiasm was sapped for awhile).

My future inlaw-family saw it at the upcoming holiday get-together. OMG, what happened???
I told them teh story, and my future FIL asked 'what did the doctor say about it?'.
My pregnant pause was followed quickly by his 'you didn't go to a doctor, did you?'
When I told them a doctor likely couldn't have done any better with it, they let it go.

So , as Bill Cosby once said, 'I told you all of that just so I could tell you this':
Years later, when my wife sliced 1/4" deep into teh side of her thumb using a mandolin - my cool-headed triage-medic skills came in handy fixing her up.
And she didn't want to go to a clinic either.

As the saying goes - the 'ole man ain't so dumb.

 

[SGT FURY]

Pic

 

[patrick66]

^^^Oh, $hit!

I had a cousin who flew on B17s as a gunner in WWII. As a result from his lifelong PTSD afterwards, his relaxation technique was making beautiful gun cabinets, picture frames and dressers from reclaimed barnwood. In the course of his hobby, he had amputated two fingers on one hand, and his thumb and pinky on the other hand. He could still build phenomenal cabinets with just six fingers. I'm sure he would've got a kick out of your shirt!

 

[Big_John]

I have a friend that lost all four of his fingers in a tow truck winch accident. They sewed two back on, but they weren't in the original position. One was OK, but the other didn't really work and it hurt all the time. He would have to wear a glove on that hand anytime it got below 50 degrees because the cold hurt it so much. They took that one off and left him with one finger. That one lasted 10-15 years before it started giving him so many problems he decided to have them take that one off too.

He developed all sorts of work arounds for doing things with one... and then no fingers. He had to start riding an automatic trans motorcycle though... No fingers for the clutch.

I've told this story before.... But it's been a while.

I was building a room for one of my sons. I had bought a used air nailer to do the framing. It's a nice Porter Cable and one of the things that was included was a letter saying I could get a safety trigger for free. All I had to do was send in this postcard. The way it was set up was you could pull the trigger and it would fire a nail as soon as you pressed the nose into the wood. The safety trigger makes you press into the wood and then pull the trigger before it would shoot a nail.

I just never got around to sending in the card.

So... It's a little late in the evening, I'm tired and I'm nailing up the last piece of framing. I was done once that was in. You know what's coming next... I slipped and the nailer came down and hit my thumb, firing a nail into the first joint on my thumb. No blood, but it hurt. I debated on pulling it out, but it was right into the joint in such a way that I couldn't bend the tip of my thumb. I showed my wife, who happened to be on the phone with her ******* ex husband (perfect timing) and we decided an emergency room trip was in order.

Waited a while there, as usual, and the doc wanted an x-ray before he pulled it out. So we walked over to the x-ray department and started waiting... and waiting ... and waiting. I still have this nail sticking out of my thumb.

So... all these people are walking by us and I've decided I've probably been forgotten. I inquired and was told to wait, someone would be along... No one came along... Me being me, I'm tired and I start screwing around. I'm putting my hand on top of my wife's head by now and it looks like I've nailed my hand to her head. I'd do that and just nod my head to anyone that walked by. That must have gotten someone's attention and the next thing I know, they are rushing around to get me x-rayed.

All was good, just a tiny chip and the doc just yanked it out and gave me a bandaid and sent me home.

I sent the card in for the safety trigger the next day.

 

[MetalManiacAZ]

Here's one for ya. My wife's friend was unloading her horse a few weeks ago. The horse was backing out of the trailer and somehow my wife's friend's fingers got caught in the lead rope in a weird position. The rope, which is about 5/8" thick, severed 5 fingers between both of her hands. They were only able to reattach 2 fingers. The first hospital said the hand surgeon wouldn't be in until the next day. She drove another 30 miles to the next hospital with her fingers in a cloth.

 

[fury fan]

I showed my wife, who happened to be on the phone with her ******* ex husband (perfect timing) and we decided an emergency room trip was in order.

Should've told your wife that not many guys would shoot themselves with a nailgun just to get their wife out of such a phonecall.

... and started waiting... and waiting ... and waiting. I still have this nail sticking out of my thumb.


So... I'm putting my hand on top of my wife's head by now and it looks like I've nailed my hand to her head. I'd do that and just nod my head to anyone that walked by. ...and the next thing I know, they are rushing around to get me x-rayed.

That reminds me of the comedian Gallagher talking about being in the waiting room for an IRS audit, and felt he was waiting too long for something he didn't want to do anyway.
So he started saying loudly:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident - and federally taxable.
That all men are created equal - just in different brackets."
His name was called right away.

 

[jmustian]

Well I got my new old roller brackets from Detmatt (thanks again!) and went to do my 1/4 window installation today with the help of my lovely wife. Ran the regulator all the way to the top so that I could insert the glide track into the door with a little more room, and then install the glide track through the two brackets and bolt it back up before I had a rip at the spring nuts and the regulator arm rollers. While I had my left hand in the door cavity to make an adjustment, I managed to put my right elbow onto the window switch, and guess what? I DID NOT DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY AFTER I POSITIONED THE REGULATOR IN THE UP POSITION !
Now, given that the switch was face down on the floor behind the drives seat, there are only two things that can happen. #1- the arms go up until they hit the stops, no harm no foul, or #2, the arms go straight down and crunches the hand of the idiot who DID NOT DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY!
Replacing the 1/4 window power motors and all the other stuff they have stuffed into that tiny space is the worst job ever! No question! Mopar must have used ambidextrous chimpanzees to install them at the factory and given how much of a PITA this process has been and given that the number of hours spent on this, you would think the Mopar Gods would have said, "Give the guy a break, he is a ******* IDIOT yes we know that for sure, but lets give him a break" and have his errant right elbow hit the switch in the up position. Oh no, not the idiot from British Columbia!
Needless to say, when I yanked my hand out, with significant loss of flesh and blood, my wife, (who thankfully is a retired Registered Nurse) calmly pointed out "didn't you DISCONNECT THE ******* BATTERY?"
I am going out to the back yard to rake some leaves, it is quite a bit safer. I will clean up the blood in the garage later. C Shaft

View attachment 581601

Been there, done that.

 

[commando1]

I wonder how many assy line workers got their digits cut off.