Any tricks for getting the door panels off of an 88 regular cab, manual everything obviously. The windows are tough to roll up and down, I'm guessing some lube on the mechanisim should get everything moving nicely.

Any tips guys?

 

If you figure it out, let me know. My windows are hard as heck to roll up and down...

 

remove the screws holding the arm rest, inside door latch and any other component on. locate the 'snap-in' fasteners around the perimeter of the panel and using the proper tool (looks similar to a pickle fork but the tangs are thin and close together so the fasterner is less likely to damage the panel or break off), gently pry the fasteners out of the door hopefully not breaking the fastener. lift the interior window trim up along with the door panel and it should come off.

 

Door panel comes off fairly easy as ade stated but its worth the few bucks to have the proper tool to remove the window crank. I think NAPA has them for $4. May want to grab and extra retaining clip while your there as well. They are cheap...a few cents...and they tend to shoot off sometimes and wind up where you will never find them.

If someone cut the doors and placed speakers in there, I find that they usually bind the front window channel causing its to roll up and down harder than normal. If not, as you stated, a little grase may help.

Please update though......I'd be curious what you find out.

 

God I'm glad it's not just me. When it's cold outside the windows don't go down at all. Once the cab is really warm or if I park in the sun they work just fine. Is there a better grease or some sort of synthetic to put on the rollers (window gears?) that will help with this??

 

I'll be trying this this weekend myself......

 

Another thing that helps is to lubricate the felt like guides along the sides of the window with a very light grease. I've got some heavy duty spray on silicone lubricant that helped my windows a bit, although they aren't manual. Definitely lube the interior tracks though. White lithium works great.

 

Thanks guys, just the help I was looking for. I'm going to dig into her on Thursday night, I'll keep you posted, fortunately it's a little chilly to be driving around with the windows down right now.....

 

I tore my manual windows apart and lubed averything a while back. I completely removed the regulator and everything, cleaned it all spotless, smeared wheel bearing grease all over anything that moves or any place that metal would meet metal. I put the regulators back in and reatached the windows, then ran more grease all the way up and down both window tracks on each side. They worked absolutely awsome for about a month, and now they're almost back to being as hard as they were to begin with to roll down...

and it's only down they roll up pretty easily; you'd think it would be the other way around, working against gravity... but oh well, I dunno...

 

^^^ i did the exact same thing and after a couple of weeks mine have returned to how they were before, almost impossible to roll down when cold but go up just fine

 

crazy aint it...

I'm think'n about make'n some Nascar style nets for the summer, then I wont have to worry about it

 

Abe has the right info and method for this one...

But on another note...

Done go mudding and roll down your windows...
Thats how this whole situation gets started..
Ask me how I know.

 

just hit the window run channels with some silicone spray or WD40 every few weeks, that keeps mine happy and only takes a few seconds / side

 

there is a more permanant fix...
my drivers side was torn, and the window was rattling, so i bought a new window seal from the dealer (70bucks) and it worked perfect/ like a new truck would. (bought one for my passenger side too)

after doing that, i realize..its the pliability of the rubber.
after time, it gets hard, and i think expands, so, it was binding the glass and not soft and squishy as it should be.

if you want to save money, i would suggest to sand the rubber down, and make the gap bigger..(but not too wide the window will rattle...maybe leave the top edge untouched).

hope that helps, and at least saves ya some money.

 

Dude, that is a great observation, I guess it does make sense that over time the rubber will harden and make rolling your windows down much harder as pliability goes away......

70 smacks for each side? How hard are they to install?

 

If you're going to lubricate, use Silglyde (silicone grease) because it won't attack the rubber like regular greases will.

The best fix is to replace the window runs, but that costs money.