12 replies to this topic

[Jimmer 84mayfair]

Hi all,

As the Topic describes, what's going on!?

Have you encountered this before? What was your resolve?

The passenger side winds up and down ok, just the drivers side giving me problems, going down is relatively smooth, but trying to get it back up you have to use two hands, I fear the winder will snap before long.

The mini is a 1984 Mayfair.

Cheers, Jim

[steven]

i had this so i stripped it all out and cleaned it up using lots of grease works fine now

[Jimmer 84mayfair]

Grease it up, I shall give it a go

[TehMarchant]

The runners started to rust in mine and it got a little stiff, so just give a clean up and do what steven said.

[steven]

it's a common problem

[chrisj]

Common problem on a lot of older cars to be fair, strip down, liberal clean and grease.

[ibrooks]

Has it always been like this or has the problem developed?

I'm dredging from long term memory here as it's been a while since I've had a Mini with windy windows let alone messed with them but I seem to remember that it's possible to get something on the winder mechanism (possibly the whole mechanism) swapped right to left and the end result is that the spring that is supposed to assist with winding the window up actually assists in winding it down and you are working against it when winding the window up.

Sort of similar to the way that you can get the brake calipers swapped from side-to-side and despite the fact that it all seems to go together fine you can't bleed them.

Iain

[JonnyBMX]

strangly i rebuild both my winder systems includding new runners both sides and rebuilt them the same, the passnger one is REALLLY stiff but the drivers in really good.

still havnt got to the bottom of this

[AVV IT]

Yes it's a common problem, the runners attached to the the bottom of he glass corrode and the arms on the winder mechanism can't run along them properly. You need to take the door furniture off, remove the door card and have a look at the runners. If it's a small amount of corrosion you might be able to get away with re-greasing the runners as a temporary fix, but ideally you need to remove the runners remove the corrosion, repaint, refit and re-grease them. If the corrosion is significant though, (which it usually is if you've got problems closing the windows) then you'll need to fit new runners.

[Woreign]

I just replaced the felt/rubber channels that the glass slides in. Winding the glass up and down is a bit difficult. What would be an appropriate lubricant to use in this case?

[AVV IT]

I just use standard moly grease in mine!!

Edited by AVV IT, 17 January 2013 - 07:02 PM.

[Steely]

My '84 25 has the same problem but on the passenger door.

[AVV IT]

Both mine have had this problem and both of them on the passenger door. My original mini had this problem when I first owned it and the runner was so far gone that I had to replace it. Now 13 years on and it's corroded through again, but I've never had any such problems on the passenger door though. I think it probably depends on how good the seal is between the rubber and the glass at the top of the door skin and how much rain water it lets inside the door.