Thread: Now that was pretty much a wasted couple of hours!

This afternoon I tackled a job I have been dreading. For a month or more, the window winder action on the driver's door has become uncertain. (1986 110, therefore the older door, Landrover's first attempt at wind up windows, replaced in 1987 by a much more robust pressed frame door - that is a lot more durable, but also thicker, reducing elbow room and mandating a smaller steering wheel and moving outer seats inward)

I've been there before. About 25 years ago I had to completely disassemble the winder mechanism and reweld the winder shaft to the pinion that operates a large toothed semicircle to raise/lower the window. It was a major job.

The door cards are held by innumerable selftappers, mostly into the steel frame, but some into nylon plugs (one of which, of course turned in the door with the screw when trying to remove the screw), the door handle, the window winder, and tthe frame round the door release, and four small push in buttons. And the knob on the inside door lock has to be unscrewed and removed.

Having got everything off, I refitted the window winder to check the feel of the problem without the friction of the handle turning against the card pushing out on it. Operation, perfect, no problems. Scratching my head I removed the handle, which is very thin to save losing knee room, and is held on by a 4mm bolt recessed into the head, and drives via a thin hexagonal steel plate, about 25mm across, which fits int a shallow hexagonal recess in the handle. Looking closely at the handle it was clear that lst time it had been off, the bolt had been tightened with the plate not in the socket. so it was driving only by friction - and eventually worked its way until it dropped into the recess again and worked, as long as not too much pressure was applied. That it was loose was not apparent, because the door card is pressing hard against the handle to prevent the possibility of rattling.

Then had to put everything back together again, fitting the winder handle last - and carefully to make sure it was done right!

Between two and three hours!

I once spent ages testing for a blown fuse, blown bulb, loose connection, etc, for the glovebox light in my D2, only to discover the key needs to be turned on for it to work, as if people only want to look in there while the car is running!