installing manual wondow cranks

[worb4me]

There has to be 1 other person out there who has had this thought.

 

1998 Grand Prix GT.

 

Electric windows are great but suck when battery is dead.

 

Would this be a big job? I may have had a door panel off once in my life, probably not rocket science regardless. Shouldn't hurt to ask.

 

Also, I'm informally working on the means to keep a car's interior cool during blazing summer months.

[digitaloutsider]

Uhh... why?  How often do you have a dead battery that it's an easier solution to install crank windows vs. fixing whatever is causing you to have frequent flat batteries in the first place?

 

If you really wanted to do this for some bizarre reason I can't comprehend, all you really need to do is remove the motor from the regulator and work out someway of turning it by hand. IIRC, the motors in the second gen sit on the "side" of the regulator (meaning they don't face toward the door panel), so I don't know how you'd sort that out.

[worb4me]

Why not? With some of these older cars it takes (some of us) time to figure out why the battery gets drained. My mother was sitting somewhere in her Honda sipping coffee or whatever, didn't know the lights were on (no warning unless you open the door, how ridiculous), car wouldn't start, some or all windows down ... And then it started to rain ... I was nearby and gave her a jump start. But what if it started to pour and I wasn't so near???

[digitaloutsider]

Buy mom a jump pack?  Windows will usually still roll up and down long after it doesn't have enough juice to crank.

[GabsOlds]

Yup! Jump pack in her trunk is the way to go! She wouldn't even have to wait for nobody! 

[Heartbeat1991]

Don't even need to be in her trunk.  They are so small now you can put it in the glove box.  I think some can even be plugged into the 12v outlet.  

 

Either way, swapping to manual windows would be a huge undertaking for such a remote possibility of needing them.

[Imp558]

Either way, swapping to manual windows would be a huge undertaking for such a remote possibility of needing them.

Nearly word for word what I thought when I read this.

[Psych0matt]

Install a battery cut off?

[Imp558]

Four easier approaches to this:

 

1) Don't leave the lights on.

 

2) Have the build team from The Federation For Law and Government turn it into a car like K.I.T.T so he can turn his own lights off. (or talk to Saar about simply having him do the same thing with an Arduino, two empty cans, a defated soccer ball and some old plastic gears from a broken blender)

 

3) Convert the windows to very early corvette windows that you whack with your elbow to pop out. (extra fun at drive through windows)

 

4) Hire a family of illegal aliens to live in the trunk with a multimeter and start the car if the battery gets low for some reason

Edited May 13, 2016 by Imp558

[cutlassdude96]

Four easier approaches to this:

 

1) Don't leave the lights on.

 

2) Have the build team from The Federation For Law and Government turn it into a car like K.I.T.T so he can turn his own lights off. (or talk to Saar about simply having him do the same thing with an Arduino, two empty cans, a defated soccer ball and some old plastic gears from a broken blender)

 

3) Convert the windows to very early corvette windows that you whack with your elbow to pop out. (extra fun at drive through windows)

 

4) Hire a family of illegal aliens to live in the trunk with a multimeter and start the car if the battery gets low for some reason

 

Foundation for Law and Government   

[worb4me]

And by the time you all are done with this thread, I could have done the job! And I never said swapping electric for manual, just adding manual capability. Would have thought it would be easy as drilling a hole and installing a crowned wheel or pulley to engage a belt. Something like that. Maybe electric windows don't have the belts, but there has to be artifacts of manual mechanisms in many cars being they have manual to the present day. My 2001 Venture does anyway.

[Psych0matt]

And by the time you all are done with this thread, I could have done the job! And I never said swapping electric for manual, just adding manual capability. Would have thought it would be easy as drilling a hole and installing a crowned wheel or pulley to engage a belt. Something like that. Maybe electric windows don't have the belts, but there has to be artifacts of manual mechanisms in many cars being they have manual to the present day. My 2001 Venture does anyway.

By saying you wanted to install manual crank for the windows implies that you wanted to get rid of the electrical. I still don't think it's doable or even worth the time and effort, you would be more wise to find out what's draining the battery, or finding another way to keep it from becoming drained

[worb4me]

Clearly if you have the skill and experience. But it takes time. It just seems it would be nice to have the convenience of being able to roll it down w/o power. It always seemed ridiculous, and before there ever was a problem, that manual controls aren't available with electric windows. I like both. And in an instance where there's some kind of pressing need to get a window down, and power is out, you have the ability.

[Psych0matt]

I get it, I just don't see it as something that's going to happen so much that it needs to be an option, and if it's happening that much there's a bigger issue to be dealt with. I feel like this is along the same lines of sticking a penny in the fuse box because you keep blowing fuse, obviously there's a bigger issue

[Imp558]

Okay, seriously now, to accomplish this the only way I can see it would be to remove the window motor and cut the back endbell to expose the end of the shaft. Then weld something like a Chinese socket to the end of the shaft and re-install it. Then find a point on the door it lines up with and knock a hole in the door that lines up with it so you could reach in with a really long extension and ratchet to turn it. (Rubber body plug when not in use)

The problem with that fantasy is I can't remember which way the motor is oriented so that access hole may be on the bottom, top, or hinge end of the door.

Ideally it would be on the back of the door where it's easy to get to and still hidden.

 

 

Foundation for Law and Government 

 

HAHA! I didn't catch that, should have just said F.L.A.G!

[worb4me]

Those cigarette lighter jump starter may provide enough juice to get Windows up or down. From what I'm told they're worthless when trying to start a car.

 

I do have one of those computer maintainers that take a 9v battery and plugs into the lighter. Maybe that's enough to get a window up. Not likely.

[Imp558]

It would take a dozen 9V batteries to move a power window motor, lol. There's really no such thing as a cigarette lighter jump starter, those are to charge the battery, not jump it. A cigarette lighter charger thing would probably get the windows up.

My A/C battery charger is only a 6A, it would never jump a car but it'll roll up a window and charge a battery enough to start a car in about 45 minutes.