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Never removed a 92-99 door panel before, but because of my passenger window having an issue sealing up, I need to take it apart and see if I can adjust the window in the regulator to try and get it to go up further.

Anyways...the previous owners attacked this car's interior with reckless abandon...nearly everything has at least one broken tab no longer holding something securely. I'm going to steal the majority of an interior out of another tan/camel 92-99 when I find one (might go to 92-95 door panels, I like the fuzzyness and design of them more)

I know of the one screw behind the handle accent on the top, but as to the rest of it, I really don't want to start yanking blindly...and I don't think it's as easy as the truck's was.

Screw behind the cover where the mirror adjuster is on the driver's side
Pop off the little cover behind the interior door handle, remove the screw behind that
Take out the light in the door, there is 1 or 2 (depending on the year) bolts behind it
Then I usually pop off the window/lock panel and unplug it to make it easier
I think thats everything, then theres the push pin things around the bottom and sides that you just pull out, once you get all those out push the door panel up and the black trim piece will pop out of where it slides into, the black trim Im talking about is the trim at the bottom of the window on the door panel; and it stays attached to the door panel. Then disconnect all the remaining wiring. Make sure when putting it back together that you line the black trim at the top up first and snap that in then worry about the push pin things

John... Stick with the 96-99 Door Panels... They are far more rigid and less prone to breaks and quirks..

Sounds like there are some things you need to fix in there huh..

Be careful with that black trim at the top of the door panel where it meets the window. Nearly every '92-'99 door panel that I've pulled that part has snapped. Half of the time they break and part of it stays on the door itself...sometimes the break won't be noticeable once the door panel is back on. Only once have I pulled a door panel off and it did not break. They should have been metal like the '00+ are.

Good Luck.

Jrs3800 wrote:John... Stick with the 96-99 Door Panels... They are far more rigid and less prone to breaks and quirks..

Sounds like there are some things you need to fix in there huh..

I'll keep that in mind Don.

Yeah..the car surprisingly has little or no squeaks/rattles for all the broken crap. Both of the inside door handle facias being broken are two of the most notable annoyances...but there's obviously more stuff broken...including that the front passenger door's speaker has a loose connection which crackles and comes on and off...

I'm sure hoping I can get that window to seal correctly.

I printed off some Alldata instructions for the door panel removal, seems very straightforward..but just wanted to verify that.

Might try to throw in some extra sound deadening while I've got the panel off...it seems like the panels lack a serious amount of it.

WhiteArrow3800 wrote:Be careful with that black trim at the top of the door panel where it meets the window. Nearly every '92-'99 door panel that I've pulled that part has snapped. Half of the time they break and part of it stays on the door itself...sometimes the break won't be noticeable once the door panel is back on. Only once have I pulled a door panel off and it did not break. They should have been metal like the '00+ are.

Good Luck.

Yea, that piece takes a miracle worker to get it off without breaking.

Yup... just plan on it breaking. It sucks

Might want one of these so you can save clips/fasteners.
I have one and it has made the job of removing panels, trim, trunk liners, etc a WHOLE LOT EASIER.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/New-Door ... _897wt_939

Yep, definitely don't have one...i'll take a gander around at some local parts places for one since I plan to do this tomorrow.

Alright, so door panel is off..that was actually rather easy...just the two lag screws and 8 plastic rivets...and its off to the races.

Anyways...so my attempt at aligning the window is not going very easily. Several things are just NOT going my way here.

According to the FSM on "Window Adjustment"
1. Ensure window is in the full up position.
2. Remove trim panel.
3. Remove water deflector (I don't seem to have one oddly enough)
4. Tighten the front run channel bolt in the center of the slot (still don't know WTF they're talking about here)
5. Loosen the fasteners that retain the window to the module sash.
6. Power the glass down 3 inches.
7. Slide the glass rearward in the sash fasteners.
8. Power the glass up.
9. Pry the glass up with a large flat screwdriver.
10. Tighten the fasteners that retain the window to the module sash.
11. Cycle the window up and down to inspect operation.
12. Install water deflector.
13. Install trim panel.

I got to 7, did that, but no matter what, the glass WILL NOT go all the way up into its correct sealed position at the top of the window unless I PRY it up to that position. The second issue is that the front top edge of the window wants to naturally pop to the outside of the window seal, causing a REAL issue. This is only remedied when I hold the window back in alignment, and simultaneously move it up.

When I attempt to move the window all the way back into the rear slot, to override its desire to waver outward, it ends up binding up about half way up, requiring to be adjusted forward again.

I'm definitely at a loss here. Either there's something significantly wrong with the shape of the seals (which I don't see why that would cause the window to pop forward), or both the regulator sash and the seals are all misaligned.

I will add on here the tidbit that this passenger door is otherwise missing the black plastic applique piece that sits in the front part of the stationary window on the inside, AND the door is misaligned, it sits about 1-2 mm too low when closed, causing minor contact with the rear door and front door window frames, and messing with the body lines, however, no evidence of tool marks are found on the hinges.



Would it be in my best interest to find another door seal from the junkyard, along with regulator sash, and just attempt to replace all that, or is it just suspect that this requires professional help, to where I should just drop over to safelite and see if they can align it properly.

Just a video illustration of what I'm saying.

wjcollier07 wrote:Might try to throw in some extra sound deadening while I've got the panel off...it seems like the panels lack a serious amount of it.

Hypocrisy. Still, you'll end up with a worse fitting panel if you do that. Are you sure this car hasn't been wrecked? I still think you should take the visors off before looking at the issue.

matt

Well obviously since no one has any additional insight on this, I'm guessing that this is a pretty isolated incident...so what I ended up doing because I was so aggrivated with it is I got it up into its fully sealed position, bit by bit as far up as possible, and got the motor right up tightly behind it, and unplugged it. I put the panel back on, hot glued a bunch of interior parts that the previous owners had broken, and so now my interior went up about 10 aesthetic notches...but down about 5 functionality notches, with the lack of a front passenger working window.

One day, if I get ahold of a complete good parts car, I might just strip out the window frame seals, and the regulator unit, and just figure it out then, since the problem MUST lie in one of those things. I also need to align the passenger door,as seen in the video. I noticed the door side hinge bolts were NOT tight, so that was interesting, and I wasn't able to align the door (raise it up a hair) because I didn't quite have the right specialty tool (a run of the mill 15mm wrench), but its still functional as is for the moment.

Next problem is to figure out my bad ground on the 3rd brake light (works intermittently, every other time i press the pedal, the lamp monitor tells me its burned out)

I had the same problem with the third brake light, as well as a couple other bulbs.
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7072&hilit=+brake+light