tspangle

My 85.5 has had a rattling drivers side window since I bought it 3 years ago. It only rattles when it's all the way down. Went through a few trials and tribulations, installed the Rennbay bushing repair kit, and no dice. Turns out it's missing the lower part the rear window track. It's just not there, and no sign that it ever was. So I pulled my passengers side door card off, and sure enough, that side has one. Which, honestly, is really weird. Why would someone remove that? And how did they do it so that there's sign of it ever being there?

Anyhow, I did some Googling and ended up ordering part 944.531.103.00 from DC Auto. This is what I got:


But it doesn't fit. I can cram it into the door, but it doesn't line up with the upper part of the rail, and furthermore, it seems to be curved the wrong way, like it's for a passengers side window. But it also seems to be a different part from what's in my passengers side door:


It's hard to see it inside the door, but it's considerably narrower.

Just to further clarify, the part I'm talking about is #5 on this diagram:


So, it seems I have the wrong part. One thing I noticed about the one I got from DC is that they wrote "Power Lock" on it, and my car doesn't have power locks. Are there two different rails for cars with and without them? Is this one of those weird 85.5 things where some parts match the earlier cars and some match the later ones? And why the heck didn't my car have one to start with?

Any and all help is appreciated. I'm stuck.

tspangle

Anyone?

slinger569

I would think that the part would be interchangeable from year to year. However the part number you've giving only shows up for 1986 and upward. Also I am trying to compare the photo you attached to the other online suppliers, but it's very hard to tell if you have the correct side or not going by your picture.

https://sierramadrecollection.com/Wi...95-p55087.html

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_In...531-103-00-OEM

MAGK944

According to PET part #944.531.103.00 is for 1986 and on, and the earlier cars didn’t have that part as the track was part of the door in those models. If you have that track on the passenger side door then either it’s a later door or you are looking at an earlier track and it’s been removed from the drivers door.

Iirc on the earlier cars that track is held in place by a couple of spot welds, maybe it has become detached and is sitting at the bottom of the door panel or maybe it was just dangling there and the po took it off.

tspangle

Here's another shot of it:


As best I can tell, that little tab on the top of the part in that picture is what's supposed to attach to the door with a spot weld near the bottom. You can feel a little bump there on both of my doors, but the passengers side is the only one where there's something attached. But also, if you picture the shape of the left door, if that tab goes on the bottom (and it would interfere with the window if it was on the top), the curvature of the track is the wrong way.

There's nothing in the door, so maybe the latter is what happened.

So, there's no part listing for a window track for the earlier cars?

MAGK944

Afaik earlier cars had that part already welded to the door rather than being available as a separate part. The early PET (below) confirms this. Can you make that part fit an earlier car? Sorry I cannot help you there, but if I were you I would look at sourcing the part from an earlier car. There must be someone with an early scrapped drivers door who would cut/grind than off for you to use.

tspangle

OK, thanks. Crap, I was hoping to be able to find one online. Looks like I may have to do some junkyard searching.