I'm sure that it will.

 

Is there any way that a speaker magnet can disrupt power? I took the stereo speakers out of the doors, the magnets sit against the motor plug in, and now the motors work.

 

Hi Rusty !
If the plug in connection is not tight and complete , I suppose anything is possible.
If that was the cause of the problem , it's one for the books.

 

Been driving the old van a lot and today, the window quit again. I give up.

 

Speaker isn't going to cause a drop out unless it shorts the window harness/connector somehow.

When the window quits, you would most likely be losing power distribution to the master switch (more so since you've changed out the motor a few times? or tried another master switch) Did you ever do a wiggle test on the harness in the door jamb/ boot? If the wire breaks there from stress, it will cause an intermittent. If no power at the master also check for distribution at/ through the kick panel connector where the door harness plugs in. If there's power there, and no window function, and nothing at the switch, the harness has an open. Could also wire a dedicated, protected feed to the master to eliminate power feed problems to see if the intermittent corrects if you have problems finding the cause.

If you suspect power issues,, use a temp/test wire setup, but power it off of a dedicated source, not the master connector just in case it has a distribution issue, just to rule everything else out. If your feeding the motor direction voltage, through an added in dedicated/test circuit, and the motor won't come to life, either it's a ground issue, or a questionable motor..

Even if you need to have pigtail wires piggybacking into the motor connector hanging out of the door panel, and a proven power source available,, manually powering up the motor on up/down on a system drop out, THEN, if the window quits it would have to be a motor issue.

Certainly would be better and easier to prove out if it just quit all together, but something is being overlooked..

 

If I plug another motor into the harness,( I can access it thru the speaker holes) it will operate with the switch. Has to be something about the motors, I would guess.

 

Any idea what color the ground wire is going through the door opening?

 

If anyone is interested, I just left the driver's window down and cover it with plastic when it rains.

 

Hi again Rusty !
You probably know more about the window system than a lot of us by this time.
What kind of testing equip do you have to work with?
Have you considered splicing in a tail into the wiring to the motors so you could check the tail sticking out of the speaker hole without touching anything when the window won't work and you could confirm right then and there if it is a wiring problem or definitely a motor problem. (Hope you are using clear or slightly tinted plastic because you will be able to cook eggs in the vehicle if you are using a black plastic bag.) You do realize after you correct this problem you're gonna have to come up with another so we benefit from your experience don't ya ?

 

The passenger side motor is bad. I can unplug it and plug another motor in and the one plugged in works off the switch. I am now wondering if the off and on of the driver's side could be in the ignition switch. As you probably know, the 80s models had a very bad ignition switch problem. That is one reason the starters don't last long. They have a very weak return spring in the switch. The weather here for the last month has been either 100+ degrees or T storms. Hard to work on anything. I have a voltmeter and a multimeter to use for circuit checking.