Cleaning the window switch

Mine is either broke or the contacts for the driver's side window are gunked up. Or the motors burned out . . . While I've got the door panel off I want to clean the switch contacts - but I can't figure out how to get the switch box apart. I've got the bottom cover off but the next layer, which looks like a circuit board, isn't coming out. Tips, tricks, suggestions welcome!

I wish I took some pictures when I did mine... but I was racing against inbound rain! If you took the screws off the bottom already, the upper part just lifted out somehow. Sorry I can't be more specific, I just did it... then I cleaned up all the copper contacts with a little sandpaper, and turned the switches around so the worn pins switched sides.

I put it back together last night without getting the switch apart. I'll get it back apart later. My bottom came out easily enough, but the circuit board piece is tough! I don't like being forceful with things made of plastic, better to be patient and get as much knowledge as possible.

This may be half-assed, but I pulled the switch out and also couldn't get the board lose. Not wanting to break it, I had some contact cleaner spray, "electrosolve" that I use on old video game. Anyway, sprayed it in and soaked it all, let it sit, reinstalled, works perfect

Not a bad idea. I'll call it plan B if plan A doesn't work out.

Here's how you do it. Pay attention to the first part and don't break stuff like I did

I don't know if I can fix this, maybe, but I can at least clean the contacts and see it the problem is in the motor or the switch. Man I hope it's not the motor after I broke the switch!

Is there anything at O'Reilly's that cleans contacts? Maybe brake cleaner would work?

Electrosolve can be picked up at any electronic store. I got it Fry's but I'm sure even radio shack has something or Best Buy

Jack the R wrote:

Is there anything at O'Reilly's that cleans contacts? Maybe brake cleaner would work?

Don't use Brake Cleaner. You can get electrical contact cleaner at various auto parts stores.
Or use a pencil eraser to clean them if there is enough room.

O.K. no brake cleaner

There's not much room in there to work with.

One side of each contact is supposed to have a black dot under it, right? Don't want to remove anything that's supposed to be there.

Are you sure the black dot's aren't corrosion from electrical contact / arcing?
If they are, clean them off with emery paper or eraser if you can get to them.

If it's not meant to be there, it's a wonder the switches worked at all -

I cleaned all the black stuff off with a little sandpaper and compressed air, then had to turn the rockers themselves around because the little nub switches were all worn down on the sides that made the contact.

By the rockers, you mean the little metal strips to the left?

I'll have to look at them closer. I'm sure there's wear.

I mean the pins on the bottom of the clear plastic pieces, the part of the switch that is under the black cover that you actually push fore and aft to make the window go up and down. The little pins that push the contacts together were all worn down.

Ah, those look o.k. They've got wear but they still work.

Thanks for this great write-up, Jack! I gave you a couple a pluses for it.

I got a whole switch-console from a wrecking yard for $50, just to have spare window/door-lock and mirror/memory/heater switch modules, and decided to go into the former and do all of the restoration now, so it's ready to swap in, in the future. There was plenty of black soot around the 2 pairs of contacts in each switch that are actually used, and a little lube from the center mechanical sections had gotten into the electrical sections, but there was no wear on the spring loaded white pins.

My 2 cents worth, based on my experience, is the following:

- The black levers (the things we actually push on) are almost impossible to pry off of the square, clear inner shafts without cracking a corner of the outer black shafts. I would check them as soon as they are pried off, so that you can give them some crazy glue and a chance to dry properly before putting them back on. Probably not crucial, and it may not even help, but hey we're all pretty anal-retentive on here, right?

EDIT: Turns out that getting the black handles back ON without re-breaking them, and seated straight & all the way down, is also difficult... As they are really overkill anyway, I now recommend filing down the little hooks on the sides of the clear shafts most of the way, so they don't screw with you when you get to the last step of pushing the black parts back on...

- I don't think the use of any chemical cleaners are necessary. Once you get the assy out of the housing, it's very easy to take apart the switches and clean the inner contacts with Q-Tips, and of course the rocker-contacts come right out. A small spritz of electrical-component cleaner in the Q-tip might get the last of the old lube out, but the new lube for the push-pins will probably find its way back out to the contacts again, anyway... I just used paper towels, Q-Tips and a toothbrush to get everything clean, and then I re-lubed the spring-actions of the white pins and the center section of the bases where they rub with vaseline.

- More importantly, only one side of each of the 4 rocker-contacts is actually used, so even though my own contacts weren't hardly burned, I just re-assembled the switches with the formerly unused rocker-tips over the inner/lower contacts. Also, for some weird reason, one end of each rocker is actually a little narrower than the other, and 3 of the 4 had been oriented so that the narrower one was over the lower contact. Thus, I now have unused and wider upper contacts now in position over 3 of the 4 lower ones...

- Finally, the driver's window obviously gets used more than the passenger's, so if anything is worn worse on the driver's side switch you can swap it to the passenger side...

Thanks, I'm glad to see it benefited someone. It's rare that I get to be useful like you and Rick and AA.

Thanks for the compliment.

I just remembered a PS: Because I couldn't feel anything on the 'unused' rocker-contacts where the black dots you mentioned are, as I said, I turned them all around. I feel certain that those dots are just the mechanical imprint of the unused, pointed, lower contacts from each time the switch is pressed... They sure made these things over-complicated and under-engineered, didn't they?