5K Window Regulator Rebuild Thoughts

[Steve Sherman]

First many thanks to Rob Andrews, whose instructions on rebuilding a
5K's regulator are in the archives.  Having just attempted this, I
thought I would add my few thoughts to Rob's  instructions...

As far as parts, go:

1. It is 1/16" cable, not 1/8"

2. The swivel pin Rob mentions is now a VW part only.  It is also called
a barrel clamp, and they can be had many places other than VW.
Basically it is about a 3/16 to 1/4" cylinder about 1/2" long, with a
screw threaded into one end, on the axis.  It has a hole drilled
perpendicular to the screw.  The wires fit thru this hole and the
screw/bolt tightens down on the wires/cables.   For you old VW
mechanics, it the part that holds the heater cable to the heater box
level on the old air cooled VW engines, and also served as the
accelerator cable clamp. Getting the exact part is not too important as
you will probably need to cut or grind some off anyhow.

Tensioning things:

I would add that the design of this whole thing depends upon the spring
loaded cable tubes being able to take up slack.  When the motion travels
to lock in either direction, one spring will compress to the max.  The
other needs to expand to take up the extra cable, otherwise the slack
can allow the cable to come off the pulley.  This is fairly critical.

You can use this to your advantage.  Move the mechanism full travel one
way to compress one spring fully.  Then you need only pull on one cable
to set the tension.
Be sure to check that you will have tension enough to keep the cable on
the pully.

Also, you can move the unit up and down in the house easily with a
battery charger and a few wires.  One way of connecting the wires is up,
reverse for down.  No need to go out the the car for this step.


[BTW - I should note that I ended up needing a new/used regulator
anyhow, as one of my plastic pushing that the spring pushes against had
failed.  If anyone has a dead regulator with a good spring and plastic
bushing that goes next to the spring to spare, please let me know...]


Good luck to all.