on my 88 MGM, I just finished installing new speakers. they sound great btw. the next day I noticed my clock, windows, deck lid release, ... weren''t working. You would think fuse blown. but my gas gauge wasn''t working either. of course, the manual doesn''t have instrument gauges listed anywhere, but my initial thought was that I pulled a wire harness apart somewhere while I was pushing wires around to make room for the speakers and bass blockers I built. no such luck... all the harnesses were fine. so I broke down and checked the fuses (which I should have done to begin with, but all the fiddling with stuff just made me not do it first) and go figure... 20A fuse 6 for that list above was blown. replaced the fuse and everything works fine.

so just so you (anyone) know, fuse 6 in a 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis also supplies power for the instrument gauges (fuel gauge in this case - I wish this car has a coolant temp gauge... I may install one yet).

 

and then the driver window stopped working altogether. pulled the motor out and sure enough, the nylon plugs had turned to gravel and jammed up the gears. cleaned it out and put 7/16 ball bearings in place of the nylon plugs and viola... works like a charm and I won''t have to fix that one ever again.

 

Would you mind telling me how to do the ball bearings specifically ?
My last mechanic "fixed" the front passenger window from not going down to working only half-way. Rear windows also have problems closing and the rear power door locks require a double click, hard to lock.
Kind of dissapointing when a mechanic you thought expert hands you car to some cheap *** paid employee creep and does a half-assed job. I paid for it and I have to fix it.

Painted my black hardtop 1991 MGM to white, looks great.

Edited by: Cyberats

 

first you need to acquire some 7/16" ball bearings. Half inch will not fit and any thing smaller leaves a LOT of slop or won''t work at all. in the old roundy box (88-91) you gotta drill the doors. if the door has already been "fixed" once with the "proper" part (the nylon plugs) then it has already been drilled. you''ll need a half inch drill bit that can handle hard steel. there are 3 dimples in the door at the bottom of the door (after removing the panel) and you''ll need to drill those out. I think the socket driver needed to get the motor off the regulator is a 5/16, but have a set handy in case I''m wrong. disconnect the power wires going to the motor. (wire harness that just clips together... should be able to just pull it apart while wiggling it back and forth. it will take some effort.) remove the motor. there is a single phillips screw holding the cap on the motor. remove that screw and then pry the cap off. take the center gear out and the bearings will go in the 3 corners of the rounded triangle in the main gear. take some time and clear out the broken pieces of the old plugs so they don''t jam up the works down the line. once you manage to balance the bearings into place and the center gear is seated back in, you''ll want to grease the works up. This helps prevent rust on the bearings and keeps things lubricated. any good axle grease will work. put the lid back on and screw it back down. the motor is now fixed. (if the center of the plastic main gear is cracked (like one of mine was) just trash the broken part and keep the gear in there. as long as the broken part doesn''t completely remove the good snug fit to that center axle, it will work fine. if the snug fit is gone, you''ll need a new gear too. put everything back together and you should be set for life (or until the motor burns out - hopefully that never happens - and if it does, just swap the bearings into the new motor when you install it and forget about it).

 

Thanks, that''s a bit of work, had it done with the help of a glass expert, didn''t cost too much considering the new longevity of the work done. ($100 for two doors) Front window was the speaker wires getting in the way, simple check. I had my car broken into, so I had to replace the driver window anyways. Stay away from Glendale area in Phoenix AZ.

And thanks again. [img]smileys/smiley2.gif[/img]

 

yeah, it was a fair bit of work. but the longevity of the new parts is worth it.