Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

What problems if any are members having with 55-58 power windows? Are people having motors burning out. While painting one I had all door panels removed and stumbled on the thermal breakers mounted inside the doors and saw the corrosion caused by water bypassing the degraded felt window seals. I found new breakers online at a reasonable price. I replaced them all and took the time to clean the ring terminals and eliminate all voltage drops. I have had no problems since. Is it poss. that a number of high resistant connections in series with the motor could cause the motor to see low voltage causing issues with their performance?

55-6 original motors were Delco and had internal "thermal protection". Those motors had a habit of the worm at the end of the armature breaking off as well as general non specific failures due to working pretty much at the maximum. In addition to the broken worms, I know more than one in our collection had overheated and burned. IMO, the geometry of the regulator puts a lot of stress on the motors, particularly the HT rear quarter windows. As they get older, lack of lubrication, the felt in the window channels bunching up or binding all add to the stress.

The switches are another failure item because they have to take the full motor current even in the stall condition and the actual contact area inside the switch is very small. You will frequently find upon opening the switch one of the contact buttons burned to the point it cannot make contact any longer.

The motors you refer to with the external breakers are the Leece-Neville replacements Studebaker came up with when the originals were starting to get hard to come by. They issued a template and kit with instructions for mounting the motor and added breakers in the Packard. No idea if they were something Stude had been using or if sourced directly as a replacement.

Here is an example of the worm breaking off.

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I know that Bob Aller used to bush the housing, to add support and keep the shaft from breaking.

HH points other items to watch for.

Years ago there was an old time junk yard in west Dallas. This was the kind of yard that stacked cars 3 or 4 high. Sad thing was he stacked 4 door bathtub Packards on V8 hardtops! I was telling the owner, a very interesting man, about how slow my windows went up and down, he said he could fix that, so I brought my motors to him. He would not tell me what he did, but when I put the motors back in the car, the windows went up and down fast. I think he cleaned out the old grease, and new grease in.

Yes, there are multiple problems with the Power Window motors. Everything from shaft breakage, sun gear teeth breaking off, open circuit in the windings, etc.

As I posted here, I finally gave up on the original motors after the sixth repair and converted my front driver door to a modern conversion:

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14321&forum=12

I also had a problem with the 4-switch as Howard pointed out:

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14396&forum=3

I'll replace the passenger side front as soon as it cools down some (today's high is 110F) because a couple of the sun gear teeth are broken off causing the window to stop with the motor whiring away.

Craig

Wonder if there is any hope for quarter windows using a modern kit. All I see for universal applications looks to be flat glass straight up/down kits. Maybe one could be adapted to pivot and push the window directly but don't see any rear ready made specifically saying so.

I disassembled all my motors after one snapped the armature shaft. I cleaned out the old grease and relubed them. Bob Aller made an extra brass bushing where the worm shaft enters the gear compartment. He claimed the casting was made to hold a bushing there but they cheated on assembly. I don't have a lathe to do that but I see what he was talking about. There is a recess to hold a bushing which would relieve the strain on the shaft that causes them to break. This would make for a sturdier unit.

As I write this, three quarters of my electric motors are functioning after fifty-eight years. The right rear of my hardtop is manually operated (Clampett-style, by gripping the frame with fingers and pulling up and down, usually before letting others see me do it). The motor and gear was removed by the previous owner and I have not seen fit to do much more investigating because of the chore of removing seats and side upholstery panels. My weatherstriping does cause some binding and wear, and I will presume that's the root cause of the failure at some time.

I still have the old motor and gear in a box in the barn, so I don't know if it was a Delco or the L-N variety. If it's a Delco, then my GM experiences with many of their regulator motors will make me think of open circuits caused by a tripped thermal protection. For several decades, when the usual first try of a good slapping of the motor with a well-placed rubber mallet blow didn''t work, my electrical guy would take out the Delco motor and work around the thermal fuse, warning me not to allow the motor to stall when used. Lubrication of the mechanism would be done before the unit was reinstalled. This fix has lasted twenty years or longer in some of my older GM cars. If you think Packard parts are scarce, look no further than what bankruptcy did to GM parts distribution. For Corvettes older than 1997, sometimes a part is available only from recyclers and even the dealers are bemoaning that.

I'll take another look at my removed window motor, take a deep breath, and determine if I really want to tackle it. After all, six months of pulling and pushing one window is a whole lot easier than the alternative repair. The car's A/C effectiveness tilts the scale even more into doing nothing soon. The embarrasment of my lazy approach might shame me into having a more fully functioning Packard, but not until I am caught.

wow. OK thanks for the info. I had no idea there were 2 types of motors or this 55 could have had some stude retrofit at some time or I would have looked more closely to the motor I has out. I would say these are quite acceptable for service. Of course all felt was replaced and all regulators and runs lubed and the 1 motor I disasenbled back then and cleaned the worm gr and round gear and adj the little screw on that one for tooth mesh and all windows FLY up and down. No switch problems either.

I pulled the motor and gear assembly from down in the barn and gave it a good look and cleaning. It is now much prettier, and the grease has been replaced in the little worm gear box. The sector looks to be intact and the shaft turns things freely. I am surprised at the amount of spring tension exerted by the coiled spring...it must be15-20 pounds. With everything loosened and lubed, that's quite a push for a little electric motor, no matter the gearing ratio.

I do appear to have some sort of thermal limiter inside the motor housing. I plan on taking it to my auto electric guy for a little diagnosis and to reset the brush assembly. There's no marking that I can find to indicate whether it's a Delco or a Leece-Neville motor. The black painted steel cap doesn't look a lot like the later Delco units I have seen from GM cars ten years newer. I will ask the guy for his opinion on the maker and whether this unit is suitable to put back in the car. The only part number I could find was 13723 LH. I am presuming that the "LH" stands for Left Hand, although the car needs it at the right hand rear hardtop window position.

The Delco I have has the zinc cast bottom instead of the black and is very faintly stamped with Delco Appliance, Rochester on the side opposite the wiring. If the black is painted on or there is much dirt and grease it could be covering up the stamping.

The spring is to couterbalance the glass so in actual use it is supposed to even out the work the motor has to do. It probably worked reasonably well when new but after years of dirt etc am sure it is probably not doing as much as might be needed.