85 Econoline......Unhook battery. Tape window to the frame with packing tape. Remove armrest and door panel. Drill the heads off 4 rivets near the center of the door. Punch out the pins from the rivets. The regulator and motor will drop. Spin the regulator and motor to the left and take it to the bottom of the door. Unhook the power cable. The regulator and motor will now come out the bottom of the door. Change the motor. Make sure that it is in the same position on the regulator that the other one was. Reverse to reinstall. The hardest part will be getting the regulator arm into the slide on the window. slide a bolt into the regulator when you get the holes lined up. Use a clamp or vise grips to hold it tight against the door frame. You will need to rivet it back to the door. There is no access to the back of two of the four holes.

I changed both sides today, it took about 6 hours. On the off brand motors(Dorman is what I bought) only two of the three holes in the motors will line up.
This is not an easy DIY job, but it can be done.

 

We knew all the while you could do it !
Thanks for sharing the procedure with us.

 

The worst part was figuring it out as I went along. I hope this helps someone else.

 

nice job rusty! i still havent figured out where my electrical problem is with mine, but the good part is that we are rapidly approaching the season where it is cold enough that i dont care! i generally have a rule when buying used automobiles that i never buy one with power windows, unfortunately i made an exception to that rule with this van, and have been paying the price ever since.

maybe next year.

 

My in-laws bought this one new and gave it to us. It only has 120,000 miles. But it has a bunch of little nagging problems and I have to drive it while fixing them.

 

Just an update. A couple weeks after I changed the window motors, the driver's side quit again. Yep, a bad new motor. Still haven't had a chance to swap it again. Are all replacement parts junk?

 

Rusty I think you hit a nerve with your question.
A good part of the time certain parts are no longer available from the dealer.
After you get burned enough times you do everything you can to stick with OEM parts.
They cost more, but there's nothing like doing the job over.
If I go to purchase a part and it's made in chow mien land I have learned to just give it back and go somewhere else. The sore spot on the nerve is a lot of aftermarket companies spend a lot of $$ promoting their junk where they could improve the quality with that $$. It's cheaper, but it usually doesn't last as long as OEM and many times it is defective right out of the box. Hopefully , some of our "manufacturers" will consider making the parts back here in the USA where quality was a given. Many dealer parts are made out of the country, but I think they have higher standards than most imported junk.