The cable on the window motor came undone from the window lift on your 2003 ford focus ...any place where you can get a diagram to see where it connects?

Answer 1

AnswerFord really needs to look into this as a recall. The window on the Focus is junk. On one of my friends Focus' both is rear windows fell, and the same thing happened to another friend about a week later!! Junk! Anyone have a fix for this problem, rather than taking it to the dealership who will gouge you in cash for their defect??? AnswerI agree that the window actuator is poorly designed plastic. The actuator or "window regulator" as it is called, is a metal rail with a white Teflon, nylon or other plastic slider. There are two ends to a metal cable that spins via a motor on a spool. One end of the cable and it's spring with a metal rivet on the end, slips into a groove in the unit and around a pulley and pulls the window up. This rivet slides into the groove much like a bicycle brake cable. The other end of the cable goes into the same grove at it's opposite end, sort of like your fingers in one of those Chinese finger trap puzzles.

Poor design makes this a fragile assembly The plastic slider will break at one of the ends of it's channel and the cable will just pull out. The two fingers that hold the slider onto the rail can also break. The cable can then get horribly tangled or bent inside the spool if the motor is run with the cable disconnected. If your slider is not broken, you can remove the entire regulator and motor by removing the axle pin holding the regulator to the window and then the 3 bolts that hold metal rail to the door.

Look at the slider where it holds the window. You will see a round piece of plastic near the top of the slider and centered horizontally. If you look closely, you can see that this axle has two pieces, an outer cylinder about 3/8" in diameter and a center cylinder pin of about 1/8". This little assembly is like an axle that goes through a hole in the window glass and gives the slider someting to grab.

Gently tap out the center plastic pin. This pin acts like a spreader to fatten the larger plastic cylinder and hold it in the hole in the window glass. I put a cloth in there to catch the pin as I push or pop it towards the outside door side of the window. Once it is removed, the plastic axle easily slides out toward or away from you. Once the axle is gone, the window and the regulator are no longer attached. You support the window to keep it from falling when you remove the 3 bolts holding the metal regulator rail. The entire regulator can now be removed from the car door.

The plastic slider can pop right off the rail on one side where you can bend a tab outward. Be careful not to break the two fingers on the other side that hold the slider on the rail. If nothing is broken, you can then check the cable and make sure it is wound properly on the spool. If not, you may have to take the motor off the rail with a torx driver and wind it back properly. You can hold it with a twist tie or something else you can remove once you get things back together. Put the rivet ends and their spring in the rectangular slot for them. Put the entire slider back on the rail and run the lifter cable over it's pully. The descender cable just uses gravity to slide down and up inside the door as necessary. Just reverse the process to put it all back together. Remember to put the spreader pin in from the back, not the front.

Now here's the rub: The assembly only comes as one unit. They are also very hard to find in junkyards. That means that if one tiny part breaks, it is $130 or more for the part.