Glass at the bottom of the door - SORTED, thanks!

[tigerdog]

I normally park Smaug inside with the windows down and only drive on sunny days. Imagine my surprise - when I went to raise the passenger window to park the car in a car park, it wouldn't go up! The mechanism is clearly going up and down easily (and fast), audibly reaching both stops. The window glass, however, stays put at the bottom. Do I have the dreaded "broken butterfly syndrome"? I feel a door teardown in my future.

Pointers and advise greatly appreciated.

[Tyger]

Yep, sounds like the "butterfly" has popped out of the glass, at least. I see a door teardown in your future, sorry.

[steve matthews]

Butterfly effect heard around the world.
Steve

[tigerdog]

Sunday began with the 7-month-old English Springer Spaniel puppy eating my wife's mobile phone. She then chewed the mains plug off her computer charger. I later went to the garage to fire up the compressor and air up the Elan's tyres before a drive - the reed valve is pranged and the compressor blows out the inlet. (The puppy didn't do that ) I air up the tyres with a bicycle pump and have a great drive in the Elan. As I was driving, I made the mistake of thinking to myself, "well, what else could go wrong?" Smaug was only too pleased to oblige with an answer.

I peered down into the door through the window slot and definitely saw the butterfly clamp undone, if not outright broken. Email request already sent to Dave Bean. Let's hope the bits are still available. I do intend to take Algirdas' advise in one of the other threads and save my broken butterfly so that if they ever go the way of the dodo, I'll at least be able to try the E-clip trick.
I'm truly not looking forward to this.

[dapinky]

I do intend to take Algirdas' advise in one of the other threads and save my broken butterfly so that if they ever go the way of the dodo, I'll at least be able to try the E-clip trick.

I can confirm that this method works on a temporary basis........

.........Unfortunately I cant comment on how long it will/may continue to work for, as the butterfly on the passenger door of the red car was thus fixed when i got the car........

......when i swapped the doors last year, i replaced the mechanism and made a much more proper repair (changed the 'E' clip for a slightly different size, and also added a fibre washer to the mix )......

.....it's still going strong.....


....must get round to getting a butterfly or 2 some time

(at least with this method, it can be a 20 minute job with no major strip-down (only really the door pannel to come off and then youre in there!)

[tigerdog]

I just removed my orange clip without breaking it! My dear wife donated a tool previously used for pedicures. A thin, strong curved tapered thing, it reached around the clip so I could move it out a bit, then wedge it with a jeweller's screwdriver while I used the tool to prise from above. Oh boy, here we go...

[tigerdog]

Yip Yip, broken clip. Thanks to the sages who've blazed this trail and photographed elsewhere. One oddness: the black access panel appears to have been glued on along with scrivets. Is this normal or has someone been in here before me?

[Specky]

Normal....

TTFN

[tigerdog]

Also, it seems the glass is practically rubbing the reinforcing beam. I expected it to take a bit of outward pressure to allow the slide block/butterfly to clear the glass. Instead, the glass is so close to the steel beam that it really doesn't want to go over the spindle at all. What's up with this?

[MPx]

Maybe been adjusted to the max to bring the glass into good contact with the A pillar seals when up?

[Specky]

Also, it seems the glass is practically rubbing the reinforcing beam. I expected it to take a bit of outward pressure to allow the slide block/butterfly to clear the glass. Instead, the glass is so close to the steel beam that it really doesn't want to go over the spindle at all. What's up with this?

They are very close....

I found it easier to drive the motor up just above the beam, this normall allows enough play.

It's then a combination of getting the window to align over the butterfly

Then Put in the clip, carefully lowering the window for access if required.

Hope that helps

TTFN

[tigerdog]

Ultimately I had to move the bottom of the rails inward a bit to fit the clip, then readjusted so I actually have a better fit than before. New butterfly installed, slide rails cleaned a bit through reaching around then relubed (silicone grease instead of petroleum jelly) and the only thing left is to re-glue the carpet. Thanks to everyone for the wiki documents and the moral support in this thread, Smaug is sorted and happy.


Unfortunately, the drivers windows seems painfully slow in comparison now... more fun ahead!