Electric windows

-

moparmarks

zippindippintie
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
3,622
Reaction score
2,376
Location
Western Colorado
To the best of my brain power electric windows were never available in an A-body. Would like to put some in my 71 Dart. Is there any aftermarket kits that anyone has used in their A-body? Anyone modify B or C-body regulators to fit an A?
Many thanks
 
I have some original motors. I think some 67 to 9 convertibles had it
 
I think '66 dart vert used salvaged power regulators from a dodge truck in his dart vert. Try a search to find how it was done.
 
Most newish cars use an X-spider cable assembly, which looks flexible in mounting. See ebay. It looks like maybe 4 sizes would fit all cars out there. Not terribly reliable (I changed both sides in my 2002 T&C), but cheap and simple. If you could find 4 mounting points in the door, it might retrofit easy. Keep your existing window tracks and just use it to lift the glass. One issue is that the glass in our cars is much thicker and heavier, so might not last as long.
 
They show a b body regulator. I am curious on what the a body one looks like. The 67-72 a body cars all use the same regulator so if it fits the barracuda it will work on darts and valiants too.
 
A bodies with power windows? I have never seen it.
I thought about trying in my 69 Convert but.....street rods can have'em why not us?
:)
 
I saw power windows in a 76 Dart Custom once. Don't know if they were factory.
That car also had a 60 40 split bench that I've never seen another of. The drivers section and center arm rest moved separately from the passengers section.
Ugly brown slant 6 4 door with all sorts of oddities. Go figure.
Anyway.. The ABSOLUTE ONLY WAY I would consider power windows in my a-body is if the OEM winder handle was retained and used to operate their up/down electrical switch. The shorter winder handles for 67 Furys vent windows are repoped. They match 67 a-body and would be my choice for this application. The shorter handle leads back to solving the door speaker grille conflict also.
Just for the sake of saying, I already have those shorter handles in use at my quarter windows.
 
I think '66 dart vert used salvaged power regulators from a dodge truck in his dart vert. Try a search to find how it was done.

Thanks ... yeah I have done mine ala "junkyard" style all you really need is the motor to adapt to your "extra" regulators. I had a couple of extra's floating around from junk doors. I went to the junk.....Salvage yard and got a couple of motors off of mid 90's vans and trucks early Dakotas have the same motor but different regulators. Snag the wiring and switches too or hit the help section at the local parts store for switches . I made a 3 hole thin metal plate that would match the bolt pattern and tacked it to the modified regulator. (watch your clocking of the motor (it matters) hence (??? is that a word really?) the tack instead of solid weld yet. test it and aligned it. since your using your old regulators you know they fit. but the motors have to clear the inner structure. mine took me a couple of tries to get right and I found out that it was best @ straight down position



old regulator with the "crank mechanism" gutted don't remove "bump". you need it.
View attachment DSCF3538.jpg

slightly bigger hole (for me to actually see what I'm doing in there) for motor alignment
View attachment DSCF3540.jpg


here you can see the thin 18 gauge metal plate. it has a curve on the inside side matching the curve of the gear to clear.
View attachment DSCF3542.jpg

see the bump helps clear the bolts.. it's tight!
View attachment DSCF3546.jpg

finished and clocked to fit in the door without hitting the vent window and side window chanel.
View attachment DSCF3544.jpg

total cost.. $37.00 from the salvage yard. (got 4 motors since I have 4 windows)
total time making and installing. (not counting scratching my head for a bit to "finagly things") was about
1.5 hours making (scratching head the whole time) plate took the longest to figure out right.
1 hour installing. (forgot I had to remove a few parts first (DUH):banghead:
wiring was a bit tricky for me since there didn't seem to be any good looking switches in the salvage yard and on the next car I'm cheating.
I'm buying one of the ready made power window kits just for the wiring and tossing the junk window motors or just a wiring kit like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12v-Univers...Parts_Accessories&hash=item20d8f7853c&vxp=mtr
 
If I was going to adapt parts from some other vehicle, I would definitely avoid those direct gear drive designs. Cable driven power windows have a much lower failure rate. The drivers power window in my 96 Camry finally broke its cable about a year ago. In servicing I could see that this was the OEM regulator assembly. The car has 277,*** miles on it. There's no guessing how many times that window was moved.
I'm not saying the Camrys parts could be grafted into our a-body. It's a prime candidate for trial in my opinion.
 
Thanks ... yeah I have done mine ala "junkyard" style all you really need is the motor to adapt to your "extra" regulators. I had a couple of extra's floating around from junk doors. I went to the junk.....Salvage yard and got a couple of motors off of mid 90's vans and trucks early Dakotas have the same motor but different regulators. Snag the wiring and switches too or hit the help section at the local parts store for switches . I made a 3 hole thin metal plate that would match the bolt pattern and tacked it to the modified regulator. (watch your clocking of the motor (it matters) hence (??? is that a word really?) the tack instead of solid weld yet. test it and aligned it. since your using your old regulators you know they fit. but the motors have to clear the inner structure. mine took me a couple of tries to get right and I found out that it was best @ straight down position



old regulator with the "crank mechanism" gutted don't remove "bump". you need it.
View attachment 1714774133

slightly bigger hole (for me to actually see what I'm doing in there) for motor alignment
View attachment 1714774134


here you can see the thin 18 gauge metal plate. it has a curve on the inside side matching the curve of the gear to clear.
View attachment 1714774135

see the bump helps clear the bolts.. it's tight!
View attachment 1714774136

finished and clocked to fit in the door without hitting the vent window and side window chanel.
View attachment 1714774137

total cost.. $37.00 from the salvage yard. (got 4 motors since I have 4 windows)
total time making and installing. (not counting scratching my head for a bit to "finagly things") was about
1.5 hours making (scratching head the whole time) plate took the longest to figure out right.
1 hour installing. (forgot I had to remove a few parts first (DUH):banghead:
wiring was a bit tricky for me since there didn't seem to be any good looking switches in the salvage yard and on the next car I'm cheating.
I'm buying one of the ready made power window kits just for the wiring and tossing the junk window motors or just a wiring kit like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12v-Univers...Parts_Accessories&hash=item20d8f7853c&vxp=mtr


GREAT INFO and great pics!!! I guess the gear teeth mesh properly (60s/70s regulator VS 90s/Dakota motor)????

Treblig
 
Thanks guys for all the info. I have a few sets of regulators and several yards with Dakotas. Might try that route.
Classic shows kits for 63-66 and 73-76 but not for 67-72, go figure.
 
-
Back
Top