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Glass channel roller springs


DonaldSmith

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I sent my cracked front door glass to a glass shop several months ago, and they re-installed the glass channel and divider to the glass. This is a post-war DeSoto, where the vent window is attached to the garnish molding, and the divider between the vent and the window glass goes up and down with the glass.

The glass channel at the bottom of the glass has two rollers, each with a pair of flanged wheels on an axle. The flanges ride between the sides of the guide channels. Strong springs at the rollers keep the glass in proper front-back location.

The front roller wanted to come out. I held it against the spring with some thin wire. I installed the glass, but had problems getting the garnish molding and vent window on. I left it alone during the recent cold weather.

Today, with the temps in the 40's, I had at it again. After numberous attempts, I could not adjust the glass to clear the back of the vent window.

I noticed that the rear roller was pushing the glass forward, but the front roller was not pushing back. I took out the glass and noticed the spring for the front roller is gone.

Does anyone have any parts that would help? Got an extra front door glass channel with the rollers and springs? Know anyone who might have one?

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Shown is how these window rollers look /work. One style of spring is shown- one is damaged. It takes a bit of good guidance and alignment and window tilting to get the glass in the channels properly. Also I have seen the window guide channels become broken from the spot welds inside of the door. On the Chryslers there are no adjustments once the glass and rollers are installed. As long as all the guide channels and 1/4 glass is installed correctly the side glass works/fits 100%.

Bob

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Thanks for the photos. The first two photos show the back roller. The third photo shows the front roller free from the channel, like mine.

The fourth photo shows good and bad springs for the front roller. Which is which?

I found my front roller spring, and it is broken in two. Also the axle of the roller is worn almost in half, from the spring.

Is there anything to hold the front roller in place? Or do you put in the roller when you install the glass in the door? I removed and replaced all four windows when I weatherstripped the doors, but I don't remember loose rollers.

Aside from the spring, I may have an issue where the back of the glass is supposed to ride in the weatherstripped channel. I remember for other doors putting weatherstrip only in the top part of the guide channel below the beltline, but I have weatherstrip in the full length of this channel. Hmmm.

So, I'm looking for another spring, and roller.

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The rollers are held in the correct position by the already coiled special springs. I have only worked on chrysler convertibles and 3 passenger coupe door glass rollers. These additional pictures are of my stash of parts for my cars. A heavy spring .120" dia. is used on both rollers on my 3 pass coupe but some models also use a smaller dia. .060 wire spring at the rear or front rollers depending front door/rear door-not sure. The roller wheel edges cannot touch the U-channel glass weatherstrip in the roller channel. Weatherstrip glass channel is only about 3/8" deep. Metal roller guide channel I think is about 3/4" deep. Glass channel weatherstrip needs to be only in place where the glass edge would run down in it -no more.

Bob

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  • 7 months later...

Hi

I am doing exactly the same work on my S-11 4 door.

I have been stalled for quite a while on this.

I ordered replacement glass run channel the same size as what I removed, which fills the steel channels entirely. This left no room for the rollers to ride inside the steel channels, which was very perplexing, and caused quite a delay for head-scratching. The car has been disassembled for several years for rebuilding, and I did not think to fully document the rollers before removing all the windows. So the situation just made no sense.

I have to assume the incorrect channels were installed at some point in the past; this car had a partial resto, I think, about 25 years ago.

The inner roller wheel flanges appear to have been installed inboard of the steel channel, within the door, and only the outboard roller flange running down the center of the glass run channel, with the glass thus cocked slightly in at the bottom.

Does this mean I need to get different channel run for the vertical sections where the rollers run?

Can anyone give me a source or part number?

One final question-

Does the front channel for the front door window get the fuzzy channel?

Neither of my front doors had any. These are the steel channels with the upper extensions.

Also be aware that re-rivetting the spring steel clips to the top sections of the rear door upper channel is fraught with peril. I left a bit too much of the rivet tail exposed on one, and when I rolled up the new glass, it cracked, so perhaps RTV or black weatherstrip adhesive would be better in that location. I am even thinking a long strip of velcro inside the top of the door and on the glass channel, deleting the clip.

Good luck to all, and THANK YOU for the excellent photos.

Ward NY

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I've been running the roller flanges on the inside of the steel channel legs, but between the steel channel legs and the weatherstrip channel legs. It worked.

But in later work, I omitted the weatherstrip channel from most of the steel channel within the door. The rollers keep the bottom of the glass in place. I kept enough weatherstrip channel near the top of the door body to hold the upper part of the glass in place when the window is down. I just fed the w.s. channel down in the steel channel from the window opening.

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Worked on similar issue.

The weatherstrip for the glass (the U shape) I have seems higher then the original.

So if I put the U profile in there the rollers would not fit.

So probably I will keep it this way , perhaps a rattle when the windows are rolled down will be the result.

Used 3M weatherstrip adhesive (part 08011) for the weatherstrips, seems to work fine.

Also used it for the cowlvent rubber, bad decision as the rubber needs a bit of strechting and the adhesive can't hold it.

Just took it off but now I need to remove the adhesive and this is really sticky stuff that doesn't come off easily

John

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