MAIDEN

i have a 1986 4runner and the rear window wont roll down. is there a wire i can plug into an alternate power source to see if i can roll it down that way?
(maybe a wire is loose and it isn't connected to its normal battery source)

is there i can do to roll it down manually?

also one side of the tailgate doesn't close, so every time i wanted to roll down the window (when it worked) i had to push the tailgate close and use the key to roll it down. any ideas

btw i know this is typed crappy but im late to work!!!! later and thanks

4runnerx3

There is a door lock detection switch, which actually signals that the door is closed.

MAIDEN

thanks, any one else?

WTAllstar

My rear window did the same thing and I ended up just running a wire straight from the battery to the window motor. I'm not sure if it's necessarily a good idea but it seems to work fine and it bypasses all of the various sensors and wires that could be the cause of your problem. There are a bunch of ways to do it depending on how nice or how redneck you want the fix to be. The easiest (and the most redneck) way being just have the wires in the back (connected to the window motor) and when you want to roll down/up just pull them out and touch them to the battery terminals (up and down is just controlled by switching the + - terminals) After that you can get as fancy as you want to and make it pretty nice with a switch installed in the cab and the wires hiddin. Hope that helps.

MAIDEN

so i hook up the two wires,that can unhook from each other, to a battery? (sorry if that makes absolutely no sense)

stupid_mud_gremlins

I personally endorse the ultra-redneck way described above (I used to carry a spare battery in the back just for that purpose), but if you want to stick with the factory set up, there's 5 things that can go Wonky:

1) The Relay (not sure where it is though, maybe someone else does?)
2) the switch (in your center console)
3) The lock switch (also, center console)
4) The fibreglass top connector (on the first gen) OR
5) The lock switch (on my 1st gen, it's int the driver's side tailgate latch)

Mine was the lock switch, which I used a jumper wire on for the time being. There's also all the usual connectors that could be corroded. If you have someone hold the switch down, and test with a voltmeter at the motor connector with the motor unplugged, you should see +12 V at one of the pins. If you do, ohm out the motor and see what you get there (does anyone know the correct resistance on the motor?) It is possible the motor may be shot.

WTAllstar

There should be two wires connected to the window motor (I think they were red and green on mine) just unhook the two currently connected to the motor and splice on two pieces that are long enough to reach the battery. Hold one to the - terminal and one to the + if that doesn't roll it down, then switch them.

dirtoyboy

I have switches, relays or motors for sale if you need one..

Just let me know

-Collier

Hodag

On my '84 it was the switch in the center console. If I pull the switch out of the housing and jumpered the terminals with a paperclip it went up and down fine. I would just keep a paperclip in the console and not push the switch all the way into the housing so when I wanted to roll it down it was easy. I got so good at it, I could do it with one hand while driving.

Hodag

boxxerace

My problem was with the rear wiper. If the wiper does not sit all the way up on it's mount, the rear window will not operate (it has a magnetic sensor).

I moved the wiper up and walla, my window worked.

MAIDEN

hmm..... ill have to try a few of these ideas

MAIDEN

lots of sparks, but no movement!

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...arWindow.shtml

misterzee

There are cables in your rear door that pull each side latch from the center handle when you open, if they are stiff, needing lube, they might not let the latch on one side or the other operate and lock the tailgate up. I had this trouble when it had rained and then froze, the cables got iced. After disassembling and spraying them with WD-40 it loosened up and works great.
Window operation: Its best to troubleshoot the problem logically than to further hack your wiring and screw the car up. There is a 'defect' in my opinion, where the harness to the back door leaves the interior thru a grommet on the left rear quarter, inside where the jack and rear washer bottle are. Then the wire bundle is "outdoors" in the fender well, and is exposed to the HEAT of the tailpipe before it comes back up and enters the door on the bottom left. What I did, was unplug the harness inside the left compartment, and fish the whole thing out and set it up on the tailgate. I had to cut/splice/solder/heatshrink almost ALL of the wires to repair them. They all had gotten crispy, corroded and created open circuits. I suspect this problem could be yours as well.

Godzilla

I didnt see it mentioned above, but your rear window is also stopped if your rear defog switch is on. Also, check your window lock out switch.

stupid_mud_gremlins

personally if there's no movement of the window and you've tried the wires/direct connect to the battery both ways (reversing the power and ground) I'd blame the window motor.

MAIDEN

argh... what to do? what to do? just bring it to somebody? thanks for all the help so far

JonnyBoy

You've gotten this far, it ain't hard to remove the motor. If it's like mine, the motor has plenty of corrosion on/in it and it's the culprit. If direct power won't do anything, it's the motor. They're inexpensive at rockauto.com, or I got quoted something like $240 at the dealership. Personally, I'm going to try the rockauto route, it's worth it if I only get a few years out of it instead of the 18 years the original got.

Keener

i'm assuming that all of the bolts for the roof are in place? on the driver side, one of the bolts(around the rear seat back/rollbar area) has to be in place in order to ground the system. if you pop off the interior panels you can see it fairly easy, check to see the wires are all connected and in good shape, and make sure the bolt is all the way in, doing its job grounding the system.

the relay is behind the interior panels on the driver side behind the drivers seat, give that a check.

and as redneck as this sounds, i used to have to body-check the driver side of my tailgate to get the latch to ground, then the window worked. once the window was all the way down, i used to have to slam the tailgate closed to get it to ground so it would go back up.

good luck

boxxerace

Note that the rear window motor is the same as the front window motors. I have swapped them before from a junker... worked well!