Alright story first lol. I baught (well ok it was free lol) my 87 GXL NA and the windows worked intermittenly. Then the drivers side, drivers switch stopped working. I fixed it numerous times until it entireally stopped. Now the new-ish switch I have did the same BUT the passenger is dead now too.
Enough of the story.


Now what I am wondering is if anyone has wired in momentary toggles (small ones not gigantic toggles lol) or even small push buttons. If so how did you go about it and how did it look? I have the next two days off and I was planning on doing one of two things.
1~ Push button (this is what I think will look nice and want). A brand-ie new fiberglass encasement to fit the switch place. Then I was going to place 4 buttons: Dark Blue - Driver's up, Light Blue - Passenger's up, Dark Red - Driver's down, and Light Red - Passenger's down.
2~ Momentary toggles (I dont know if I will like these). Basically the work on the same principle of the regular window switch.

If no one has any idea's / pictures I will post what I am doing and how I did it. Though for now It will be on the stock switch box because I don't have any fiberglass lol

 

I did it as a temporary fix.
Wiring standard DPDT center off toggles will work the dirver's window, but you loose the ground for the passenger side.
Check the wiring diagram in the body electrical section of the manuals & you'll see what I mean.

The stock switch can be disassembled & cleaned if you're careful.

 

Yeah I have gone over the stock switch about 100 times now. I really don't get whats wrong with it.

I cleaned the contacts and made sure the metal plates had a good bend to them (two had flattened a bit out). Now for some reason (driver's side, drivers switch) will have pressure to it and will go up but it's as if it just disconnects itself for down. I get nothing, just smoothpush..... I am going to pull it again before work. Though for some reason I am thinking I may like the look of a push button setup lol

 

I had the inside plastic on the switch lever crack and keep the little white plunger from rocking the contact levers.
Super glue held for a while, then I had to replace the switch.

The S5 switch will work, but it's deeper so you have to carv out some door pocket insulation to make room.

Hmm - 4 pushbuttons on the driver's side & 2 for the passenger - cool.
-Bill

 

Alright since now I have it in my head I want push button I have to find momentary push buttons....... Of course I start working at an Autozone and I am at the one without a good variety of switches..... basterds....


Anyone in quincy area of mass need a 20% discount? lol

 

Ok so this is what I came up with (see image, I apologize for it not being all that great and large). The numbered Arrows show which directions the + current is passing though the motor and designated a different button (In my key at the bottom but my keys tend to get confusing). The / and = are just my way of showing myself where the passenger window switch off/on is, the / is numbered to show how the switch is to be wired in the key.

Anything I did wrong? It has been a long time since I drew out an electrical diagram (since high school... lol )

 

lol i just stuck a little metal rod in between the up and down plastic things inside the switch, works fine but i'll get it fixed some time later

 

That diagram looks good.

You can probably find some nice DPST pushbutton switches at Radio Shack.

Maybe add a self resetting circuit breaker in case you hit both the up & down buttons at once.

 

this is the wiring diagram for the factory switches:

 

Icemark, I was wondering how many amps move through the window switch? I baught some Momentary buttons at Radio shack but they heat up so I assume I need a higher amp switch. Would a 3-6 amp button work? (I have to order them and well I don't want to order em and have em not work)

Thanks in advance.


P.S. I have wired in two buttons so far and they work but thier slow and heat up. I am using .5A at 125VAC/ .3A at 50VDC and yeah owie lol

 

The peak load is about 15 amps when they first start to move, but average motor pull is only 7 to 10 amps (depending on window track condition).

 

well then looks like I need to find a new use for these buttons lol. Does anyone know a good scource for momentary button/switches.... I dont know where to even start I keep getting push on push off's

 

Isn't there a mod somewhere for the window switches that adds a relay so that only a small amount of current is used at the switches thereby eliminating the burnt contact issue?

Icemark, you ever heard of this?

 

The only problem I see with using a smaller amount of current is the lower it is the slower the window will move.....

 

I was fiddling with the idea of using a set of 30A SPDT relays to isolate the load. You place a relay on each motor wire so that it connects the motor wire to ground until the relay is energized. Then it provides power. You energize the relay from any kind of switch you like, including the factory switch. If you energize both relays at once, nothing happens, since current won't flow + to +. Switches should last forever, since they will see very little load. Meanwhile, the motors should run stronger, due to better contact through the relay.

 

Suiicidalpenguine, I think that there's a drop across a bad switch and that by using the relay method you DON'T get less current because you bypass the switches and actually get more at the motors from the hot side of the relay. I will find this mod and do it since I've rebuilt my switches only to have them foul again and opening them up (again) I can see the carbon on the contacts. I would assume that a decent relay would have better contacts and wouldn't have the same issues as these cheap window switches.

 

Once you hook up relays, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

If you hit both buttons at once, you will have a short, so a CB is still a good thing to have.

 

Yes, I actually recommend that myself, and have done that on window switches where the owners refuse to fix the window tracks and motors.