Window Winders - the Care and Feeding of

All Carryall parts are getting difficult to get. None more so than those side window winder mechanisms. The front door mechanisms are the same as any other hard cab Dodge of this type without vent windows (like, say the WC 54 Ambulance) but the rear mechanisms are specific to the Carryall and the most difficult to get hold of. When you do find them they are usually broken or the wrong hand for the application you need.

Three possible problems then, broken, seized, or the wrong hand. Fortunately the method of attack for all these situations is pretty much the same. For the purposes of this exercise I'll assume you have just bought a Carryall and the four back windows are stuck shut - I'll cover changing the handing later in the text.

First ;

If the mechanism is stuck, don't force it. When I get to a Carryall for the first time I don't put more than a couple of pounds of force on the winder handle, and if it doesn't turn freely I leave it alone. The breakable point is the small input gear and when that's stripped you're stuck and the only option you have is to swap it out for another one. You can save yourself several hundred Dollar / Pounds / Yen or whatever by not breaking the four input gears in the first five minutes you have the truck - I wish somebody had told me this some years back ...... The mechanism illustrated below had the input gear stripped by over-torquing and will need a new input assembly - the reaction spring was removed just to make the photos clearer.

Next ;

Removal

Remove the four rear window cover panels by undoing all the surround panel screws and just pulling the cover panels down and off with the winders attached. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can force the operating levers together or apart to get them disengaged - If you succeed you will only strip that input gear again. You may have to pull the windows down in their tracks - don't be afraid to bend the guide channelling at the sides to allow the whole assembly to come out, the winder mechanism is the only part you need to be careful with.

Then ;

You have four panels with the winder mechanisms attached. You can remove the handles fairly easily by just displacing the escutcheons and pushing out the pin. New handles are still available so buy a set if you need them. If the handle is stuck in place use a blowtorch and just melt it off - the panel will protect the mechanism. Once the handles are off you can undo the four screws holding the mechanism to the cover panel and collect the screws and mounting spacers. Removing the panel first allows you to heat these screws from the back if you have to, as they are a non-standard size (10 or 12 gauge) and head form so you need to save them.

Anatomy of a winder mechanism.

The basic structure of the mechanism is one pressed plate. A small riveted attachment carries the input shaft and gear. The 'front' of the mechanism has two gear quadrants on shafts, each attached to an operating arm by a crimped / staked clip. For the purposes of this article the gear quadrant that drives from the input gear will be the 'primary' gear quadrant, and the quadrant that is furthest from the input gear will be the 'secondary' one. A large flat headed pin serves both to retain the gear quadrants and act as an end stop. The 'back' of the mechanism has a large reaction spring which slots into both the quadrant pivot pins. I've seen a bit of variation in manufacture with later units having screwed pins instead of the flathead - just work around any variations.

I've mentioned this before, but I'll do it again - don't try to force the mechanism round, even if you're helping it by leaning on the operating arms too. Remove the spring from the back face, just lever it out. Using the appropriate safety equipment grind off the riveted clip (4 on photo below) that is holding the primary quadrant and operating arm onto it's shaft, cover the quadrant and pivot in a penetrant of some sort. Go to the back face and grind off the staking that is retaining the big flat headed pin, (6 below) then just punch it out. Lever the primary quadrant off it's pivot.

Now you are ready to cover the secondary quadrant and the input gear mechanism with some more penetrant, THEN you can force the input gear shaft round and round all day if you want to, because the quadrant that would cause it to strip was the one you removed. Free up the input gear and secondary quadrant, then re-fit the primary quadrant on its lubricated shaft (easiest way to get the alignment right is to have both the operating levers vertical and parallel to each other) Tap the flat headed retainer pin back into place, and finish the job by putting a spot of weld on the back of the pin shaft where you ground it out, and another spot of weld on the primary gear quadrant where you ground off the retaining clip. Grease and check the assembly, re-fit the spring on the back, and it's ready to go.

Changing the handing of the mechanism

Not much more complex than freeing it off really. Remove the primary quadrant as above, and the secondary quadrant (by grinding at 2 above) Grind off the rivet heads securing the operating levers to the quadrant gears, (1 and 5 above) then stare hard at it for a bit till you figure out how to reassemble exactly the same components the other way up. Basically the quadrant gears and operating arms need to be turned over, and the flat headed pin put in the other hole (7 in the photo - you wondered what that was for, didn't you ?) directly above / below the one it came out of. Slightly more welding on the re-assembly here, as you have to tack both operating arms to their respective quadrants, then the quadrants to their shafts, then the flat headed pin back in place. Re-fit the spring and grease as above.