How do you replace a window motor on a 2001 Chrysler Town and Country Van?

Answer 1

1) remove the 2 screws from the door. There is one behind the handle and one on the arm rest where you pull the door shut. Pry off the little plastic covers and simply screw them out. There might also be one on the bottom of the very bottom of the door panel, but there was not on my van.

2) Pry off the auto window control panel. It takes some force, but should off clean and be able to re-insert without any replacement parts.

3) Pull the door panel off. It's held on by a number of clips, so you'll want to start at one corner and pull all the way around. It sounds like you are breaking the door, but it's just the sound of the clips popping. YOU MAY BREAK SOME CLIPS, but you can re-insert them easily...if you can find them. I had to look at 3 different auto parts stores. But you can move them around so that they are in the right place and get by with less clips than you think when you replace the door.

4) push the panel up over the lock button and pull slowly back and unplug the connection to the control panel, this should pull out pretty easily. Then disconnect the door handle from the rod by rotating it and pulling down. It will push right back in the same way.

5) The motor is at the bottom and is connected to the regulator. check the regulator to make sure it's not damaged. If it really is just the motor, you won't hear anything when you push the window button. If the regulator is locked up, you will hear the motor trying to push against it.

6) Unplug the electric connection from the motor.

7) Make sure the window is held in place. I taped it in place, but the tape left a residue, so if possibe, you'll want to wedge something in to hold it fully upright.

7) Use a pliers to remove the circular sheet metal cover that attaches the regulator to the motor. I pulled this off before disconnecting the motor itself and then pulled the white wire coil off and attached it to my new motor to make sure everything worked before removing the old motor.

7a) Beware of the regulator cables wrapped around the spool. In my case, once I got the spool and cable guide off of the motor, the cables unraveled instantly from the spool.

7b) Since they are unraveled anyways, pull the cable ends out of the spool and place the white cable keeper on the motor.

7c) Run the cables through the cable keeper with the spring spacer tube feeding into the end.

7d) To wind the cables back up, lock the cable end from the right back into the front of the spool and wind it in the logical direction (I say this because the lock on the spool points the cable in the direction it will be wound).

7e) Next thread and lock the back (short cable coming from the left if your window was stuck in the full up position) cable into the lock on the back of the spool and again wind in the logical direction. This is another tricky part because the cables will be very tight when wound correctly. i held the spool horrizontal and had to pull the back (now top) cable over the first wind of itself in order to get it in the correct position.

7f) Now slowly and carefully tilt the spool back to the normal vertical position and see if it miraculously matches the position of the new motor shaft (square). Don't worry, if it doesn't, temporarily hook up the motor wire to the motor and the window switch (unless you have a helper who can operate the drivers side switch) to the car wire and slightly tap it. 1 tap was all it took for mine to line up and on it went.

8) Attaching the regulator coil to the new motor is easy, just push it in place and re-attach the metal cover by bending the little tabs back over the motor. If the square drive is not alligned with the regulator coil indent, you can plug in the new motor and use the swith to rotate it into place. This is also a good check to make sure it works and that you problem is not in the wiring.

9) After the metal cover is back on, reconnect the electrical and you can test the new motor before you actually mount it.

10) To remove the old motor, there are 3 bolts with rubber encased nuts on the back. They will screw out, but they can be tricky. First try holding with your fingers. If that doesn't work, try a thin pair of pliers (like needle nose), but make sure they are as close to the sheet metal as you can get. If that fails, the rubber is most likely weakened and you should be able to just pull or wedge the motor away from the door and the nut will pull out of the rubber (I was able to get one with my fingers, one with pliers and had to pull the other thru).

11) Then I bought some new bolts, nuts and washers and screwed the new motor in normally. Optionally, the bolts and rubber washers can be replaced by parts from a home improvement store such as Lowe's or Home Depot. Purchase at least three of each of the following.

• 1/4-20 Pan Head Machine Screw, Stainless Steel
• 1/4-20 Lock Nuts, Nylon Insert, Stainless Steel
• Rubber Grommet, 9/16 OD x 1/4 ID
• 1/4 flat washer, Stainless Steel for use inside the door to protect the grommet from damage when the nut is tightended.

The Stainless Steel parts will resist rust as the inside of the door will get wet and the nylon locking nut will not loosen up on you.

12) to reattach the door, I made sure there were at least a couple of working clips on each side of the door and just pushed it back on. MAKE SURE TO RECONNECT AND TEST THE SWITCH AND HANDLE before pushing it all the way in.

13) replace the 2 screws and that's it.

Any questions, send me an email at thadfisher@yahoo.com

Here's how to video that I'll include in the related links section below, that will walk you through this repair. Hope this helps you out Tony 1aauto.com