Hello all. I am very new to all of this, so please bear with me. Our 70 XR7 unfortunately does not a have a single power window that works. I've ordered some wiring diagrams, that should arrive next week to help me get started. I suspect, however, that since all 4 are inoperative that it is a problem with the main switch on the driver side door. If this switch is bad/bad contacts does it render the individual switches on each door inoperable? Thanks for any help you might offer.
Power Window Help
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Make up some long jumper wires (hot and ground), pull the door panel off, find the window motor, be careful to keep your hands out of the way, disconect the factory wires and use the jumper wires to the motor itself. You should be able to determine if the motor is bad or not. Try this on all the motors, then you'll know what it isn't and can go from there. Check out www.autokrafters.com for replacement parts. They offer great service and have never let me down in the past. For $5 you can get a catalog for your Cougar, and never have to search for parts again. I give them 5 stars. Hope that helps.
The contacts in the switches get dirty after time. What I did was removed all of the switches from the car and released the rocker buttons from each switch so I could get at the contacts. I then cut skinny strips of paper and pressed them between the contacts and burnished them until they were cleaned up. It's a pain in the butt, but it worked. Since none of your windows work, there is a possibility that you have a problem with the relay mounted under the hood on top of the right wheelwell.
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I'm in the process of getting my PW's working in my 69. Actually it's been in process for ~1yr. I also had none of the motors operating. The likelyhood that all 4 motors are bad is very slim.
Just as CR stated, you can make a jumper wire to determine which windows work. Each motor has a yellow & red two prong connector. If you put 12v to one wire and ground the other (I had to run it all the way back to the battery's negative), the window motor should operate (or try to operate) in one direction. If you reverse the connection the motor will operate (or attempt to operate) in the opposite direction.
Before you do that, if the panels aren't removed yet, I'd check the main power into the circuit which James C referenced. There's a circuit breaker leading to a relay attached to one side of the solenoid. The relay has black, red, and blue wire wires running to it. If I recall correctly, the red wire operates the relay coil when the ignition switch is on. The black and blue wires provide power to the window motors themselves when the relay is engaged. You can easily test the circuit breaker & relay by removing the blue wire from the relay and connecting it directly to the positive side of the battery. If you now have power to the windows, then the problem is the circuit breaker or relay and you don't have to go messing w/switches & internal wiring.
Even after you get things settled there's more to this system. It turns out that if you've never cleaned out the tracks they're probably gunked up w/petrified grease. I had to use brake cleaner on them, but if you're not going to remove them from the car, you'll want to use a less harsh degreaser and then regrease.
Finally, the rear motors are special units called "pancake" motors since they're big, flat, and shaped like an 8 (you thought I'd say pancake :-D). They are also flat like a pancake. These units probably need to be reconditioned if they work at all. Check w/Don Rush.
BTW, there are TONS of threads on power windows in this bulletin board. YHou might want to do a search and check them out.
Just as CR stated, you can make a jumper wire to determine which windows work. Each motor has a yellow & red two prong connector. If you put 12v to one wire and ground the other (I had to run it all the way back to the battery's negative), the window motor should operate (or try to operate) in one direction. If you reverse the connection the motor will operate (or attempt to operate) in the opposite direction.
Before you do that, if the panels aren't removed yet, I'd check the main power into the circuit which James C referenced. There's a circuit breaker leading to a relay attached to one side of the solenoid. The relay has black, red, and blue wire wires running to it. If I recall correctly, the red wire operates the relay coil when the ignition switch is on. The black and blue wires provide power to the window motors themselves when the relay is engaged. You can easily test the circuit breaker & relay by removing the blue wire from the relay and connecting it directly to the positive side of the battery. If you now have power to the windows, then the problem is the circuit breaker or relay and you don't have to go messing w/switches & internal wiring.
Even after you get things settled there's more to this system. It turns out that if you've never cleaned out the tracks they're probably gunked up w/petrified grease. I had to use brake cleaner on them, but if you're not going to remove them from the car, you'll want to use a less harsh degreaser and then regrease.
Finally, the rear motors are special units called "pancake" motors since they're big, flat, and shaped like an 8 (you thought I'd say pancake :-D). They are also flat like a pancake. These units probably need to be reconditioned if they work at all. Check w/Don Rush.
BTW, there are TONS of threads on power windows in this bulletin board. YHou might want to do a search and check them out.
Jeff is correct about the old grease gunking up, especially on the rear quarter window tracks. I reconditioned my entire power window system, which was a time consuming task, and that old grease was tough to break down. After I was finished the entire system worked great up until the car got wrecked over a year later, so it's worth the headache of going through and reconditioning everything so the system will be as reliable as possible. I took the motors apart and replaced the gears and repacked them with grease. I reconditioned the door glass regulators and rollers, I took apart the relay and burnished the contacts, as well as cleaning the contacts on all of the power window switches. I had both a 1961 and a 1962 Lincoln Continental years ago, and those were the most miserable power window systems I ever dealt with, and I'd rather deal with a Cougar any day. On the 69 XR7 I just bought, the driver side power window is not working, so I get to go through the process all over again!
JAMES
JAMES
You guys are amazing. Just connected the blue wire to the battery and whoila...the system has power. One windows works already, the rest just need some tweaking I'm sure. The blue wire wasn't even hooked up, now to figure out where to connect it.
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Good call James. The ground is made through the relay mount to the shock tower. If either (relay or tower) gets painted or rusts, it can cause the relay to not operate.
BTW, it just hit me that you want to make sure that the fuse is good. The red wire (I think) feeds into the fuse panel under the dash. There is a threaded stud that sticks out onto which there is a black wire w/yellow connector. I believe that the red wire feeds into that. There is a 20a fuse in the panel that protects this. Check it and make sure it's good. BTW, sometimes the fuse panel contacts get corroded. You can have a good fuse and power still doesn't go through. Check the voltage across the fuse by connecting the voltmeter 1st between one side & ground and then the other side and ground. You should have 12v at both readings. BTW I've had good fuses and still not made contact. Place the probe on the fuse holder itself and not directly on the metal part of the fuse.
My next step would be to bypass the circuit breaker at the solenoid w/jumper wire and see if the power goes through (w/key in ON position). You can also just make a voltage measurement between the black wire and ground to see if there's 12v. You don't need to have the key ON to see the voltage, but the key needs to be in the ON position to operate the relay (it's why the windows only work if when the key is on). If the jumper across the circuit breaker provides power (when the key is in the ON position) then the breaker is bad, if not, then time to check the relay.
At that point I would remove the red wire from the relay and run an ohm meter between the now bare connector on the relay and ground. You should get a reading of ~1k ohms or something like that. It should definitely not be in the 10k or 100k ohm range and it shouldn't be zero. Remember the red wire operates the coil in the relay that causes the contacts to close. The black wire feeds the power in and the blue wire takes the power to the windows across the contacts.
BTW, it just hit me that you want to make sure that the fuse is good. The red wire (I think) feeds into the fuse panel under the dash. There is a threaded stud that sticks out onto which there is a black wire w/yellow connector. I believe that the red wire feeds into that. There is a 20a fuse in the panel that protects this. Check it and make sure it's good. BTW, sometimes the fuse panel contacts get corroded. You can have a good fuse and power still doesn't go through. Check the voltage across the fuse by connecting the voltmeter 1st between one side & ground and then the other side and ground. You should have 12v at both readings. BTW I've had good fuses and still not made contact. Place the probe on the fuse holder itself and not directly on the metal part of the fuse.
My next step would be to bypass the circuit breaker at the solenoid w/jumper wire and see if the power goes through (w/key in ON position). You can also just make a voltage measurement between the black wire and ground to see if there's 12v. You don't need to have the key ON to see the voltage, but the key needs to be in the ON position to operate the relay (it's why the windows only work if when the key is on). If the jumper across the circuit breaker provides power (when the key is in the ON position) then the breaker is bad, if not, then time to check the relay.
At that point I would remove the red wire from the relay and run an ohm meter between the now bare connector on the relay and ground. You should get a reading of ~1k ohms or something like that. It should definitely not be in the 10k or 100k ohm range and it shouldn't be zero. Remember the red wire operates the coil in the relay that causes the contacts to close. The black wire feeds the power in and the blue wire takes the power to the windows across the contacts.
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