Sid,
STOP!
No drilling tiny holes in things. No disassembling things and disconnecting wires before knowing what goes where, or at least being prepared to label things that you have disconnected.
At your level of knowledge, one of the most valuable and least dangerous tools you can own is a small spiral or other binding, plastic covered notebook. In this you take notes AS you work. You draw little diagrams of plugs and wires and list what color went to what pin, etc.
The window switches sit on your center console, where they can collect spilled coffee, soda, salt from french fries, etc. as well as just plain dust and lint from normal life. Drilling even tiny holes is calculated to aggravate any bad effects from such things. AND is SO UNNECESSARY.
The window switches MAY be your problem But they may not. They come out easily. That center console board comes out (two little screws in the back edge, if I recall correctly, then moves back and up, GENTLY. You will see that the switches are on plugs and are pressure fit into the board. Pressing the pressure plates on each side lets the switch lift out.
The switches can be opened and cleaned. As with any good switch, the contacts are cleaned with electronic contact cleaner or a pencil eraser. Anything more abrasive than a pencil eraser GUARANTEES future corrosion problems - GUARANTEES!!!
When you take the switches apart, you will discovery that they contain a variety of small springs and ball bearings, each of which is actually alive and will try to escape from you if you let it. The trick is to do the disassembly on a CLEAN, white towel LARGER than you think that you will need, and to work in a well lit space. If it wouldn't be guaranteed to lead to spouse-icide, I'd suggest the dining room table and your wife's best linen tablecloth as a nearly perfect environment and setting for such work.
These switches are also cheap items at any pick-a-part yard. So grabbing a few for experimental disassembly and cleaning before you work on the ones in your car is a good idea. (That way, you also end up with spare innards, for the ones that will escape when you disassemble the ones in your car.)
Step back and think about this. Was the previous owner a smoker? That could cause schmutz buildup in the switches. But there are other possible reasons.
Have you checked the fuses, to make sure that contacts are good and you are actually getting full voltage to the switches and window motors?
You can open up the door panels and see if the window lifts are all dry. You can apply power directly to the motors to see if they run up and down.
Everything on the car should be connected with plugs (except the damn seat position switches on early 126s, which are soldered!!!) This means that you can rig up mirror plugs that let you power the motors from a battery or power supply, bypassing the switch, to check whether the wiring, the motor, or the lift mechanism is having any difficulty.
If you are lucky, cleaning or replacing the switches will solve your problem. but if you start by taking things apart, without notes or any guide to how to put them back together, you are not going to be lucky. Drilling holes in things that you don't YET know about is going to reduce your luck even further.
Tom
In a message dated 11/25/2011 4:10:36 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, sidcranston@yahoo.com writes:
Now that you have solved my shifting dilemma, I would like to attack my power window faliures.
The driver's window has been noticibly slower than the passanger's side. One day, I couldn't close it at all. Then it worked, later in the day. Now it is down 3/8ths", and annoying. I have tried the button at least 100 times. Might I be able to drill a tiny hole in the top of it and spray some good electrical contact cleaner in there and expect it to do any good?
I know when I bought the car, the seller said the rear windows had just quit working. I popped the rear switch out and was tinkering with it, and discovered that there are 6 wires to it, and I had them all over the place. I succeded in getting them back in the holder so thay can't short togeather, but not in any correct order! I am afraid to press the button back there now!
Now all I have working is the passanger's side front.
Sid, near Niagara Falls, (NY)
Where 'they' will be spreadding SALT on the roads soon! REAL soon!
This is a 1985 300 SD
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