After a 3 hours road trip, our newly acquired 1999 SAAB 9-5 developed a minor problem. The passenger front door window would not roll up. And at 4:30 pm, nobody was available to look at it. So, I used Morley Library’s copy of AllData for instructions on how to take the door paneling apart. It wasn’t very helpful with instructions like “remove the door trim,” (and how do you do that?) but it did give me the incentive to start tearing things apart.
Maybe the instructions weren’t so dumb after all. The trim and door panel came off easily. And once the “water separator” was removed from the door, Jefferson and I found that one of the window regulator bushings had cracked apart. These are the plastic wheels that connect the bottom of the “scissors” to the slides on the bottom of the window glass. Not having one available to replace it, we super-glued what we could find back together.
After greasing the slides generously, I attempted to attach the window. The hardest part was getting the glass in the front and rear slides while getting the bushings into the slides. (Can you tell it’s kinda hard to describe?) The key was getting the glass in the guides before attaching both bushings. After several attempts, I took a walk to calm down. Shortly thereafter it all slipped together nicely.
Then with the help of Trenton and Josiah (a friend of the family), we got the door put back together. The trim snapped back into place. The door handle was reattached. The speaker was bolted back on. Everything was perfect … until I tested the power window again. The bushing waited until everything was back together to break again. So, I guess we’ll be without a window until the new bushings arrive. Thankfully, I’ll know how to do it next time and it shouldn’t take as long.