Re: Wile Family's Second Packard
Posted by Tim Wile On 2012/3/9 15:59:01
OK, folks, this may sound a bit crazy, but I swear it happened. I started working on resolving my power window problems yesterday. The temperature hit 70 degrees with little or no wind so working outside was rather pleasant. The Patrician and its assorted parts and tools take up the garage so the 400 work must be done outside.
I located an NOS Delco-Remy relay that I was planning to use as a replacement and after disconnecting the positive ground from the battery, I tried the screws holding the old relay in place. Naturally, they were stuck tight, even the ones holding the wires for the power windows and seats. Well, I thought I'd hit the connections with some PB Blaster and wait a while for it to work before I tried again. I didn't want to strip or bung up the screw heads.
While waiting for the PB Blaster to work its magic, I busied myself with other chores. As I was getting ready to try again to remove the old relay and replace it with the NOS one, a thought hit me. One of the claims that PB Blaster makes is that it cleans up rusty electrical connections. Thinking it was worth a try, I re-connected the positive ground to the battery, turned the ignition key to the "acc' position and tried all four of the power window switches on the driver's door - nothing. Then I reached over and tried the switch on the passenger's door. To my amazement, the window went down, rather quickly. Cautiously, I tried the switch again and the window went up. Testing the two rear quarter windows, I could hear the motors running but there was some resistance preventing the windows from working. Still, the power problem appeared solved.
Removing the trim panels from the driver's door quickly revealed the problem with the switch on that door - it wasn't connected. Connecting the wire block to the back of the switch remedied that problem and all four switches on the master appeared to work. However, with the sole exception of the passenger's door window, none of the other windows were operative, although I could hear the motors trying to move them.
An inspection of the inside of the driver's door revealed a number of pieces of wood of various sizes, one of which was screwed into the door and propped up the driver's door window in the up position. Removing that piece of wood freed the window, which now operated with the switch, but would only rise about 1/3 of the way to its top position. I then discovered that the window was out of its rear track, so that has to be remedied.
Unfortunately, I ran out of time at this point and had to call it a day as other duties called. From what I can see in the service manual, it doesn't appear to be a difficult chore to remove the window from the door of a hardtop and then re-set it. Since I'm planning on eventually replacing all of the side glass in the 400 anyway, I'm figuring that this will be a good skill to learn.
I'm hoping that Saturday will be nice enough to work outside and I can get some more progress on the power windows under my belt. With a bit of luck, some additional photos to post, also.
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