Question regarding Power Window cables

[Fiat1980spyder]

I was wondering how many turns the cable should have on the pulley attached to the motor? I have 4 and seems to be very loose and 5 makes it too tight and i have tried using adjuster. Also my drivers window motor is pointed down towards the floor and my passengers power window motor is pointed up towards the sky is this correct? I used the same cable setup as a crank window for the cable but confused why i can't get the tension right?

[pope]

When you said that you tried the adjustor, you mean that you loosened the bolt on the bracket at the bottom of the door to tighten the cable?

[Fiat1980spyder]

yea the bracket on the bottom only does virticle movement there is another pulley that does the horizontal tension this is below the power window motor it self. This might sound confusing so heres a diagram.
http://www.mirafiori.com/faq/images/cel ... t-door.jpg (Note this diagram is for a handcrank setup not power windows.) The diagram should be basically what i need but i do not think the wires criss cross and the amount that should be around the motors pulley is ???.
The car had hand crank windows previously i just purchased these to keep things simple and not have to fabricate anything new on the door. I almost think that would be faster then trying to find out these stupid cables.

[Daveje]

I recently went through the same thing after my cable broke and found it very difficult to get the tension right also. Motor down driver's side,motor up passenger. The outer winding,toward the outside of the door,goes up on driver's side, down on passenger,so the opposite also.The "up" wire pulls the window up. Don't crisscross like in that drawing although the winding pattern they show is correct. I don't think the bottom bar is for tension adjustment,that should always be tightened down when your done although it helps to loosen it to get the cable on, just that one wheel is for tension I think. I went about 4 windings, it works OK for the past 2 weeks but it was still slightly looser than I wanted it to be,anymore was too tight though. Mine might be slightly different since I re-strung my own with cable I bought and I might have had the length off a little bit. Good luck and keep playing with it,you'll get it.

[Fiat1980spyder]

I think i am going to put 4 loops of cable and make an automatic tensioner the tension in the cable is way to loose. If you made the cable the same size as the orginal i am sure ur cable is just like mine with bout same slack. The adjustment at the bottom is used for tension as well as making sure the cable has clearence and not rubing or crossing while it loops back to the motor. I rather get some more tension then have it come off the pulleys track one day and end up opening the dorr panel again more of a pain because i put plastic behind door panel. Oh and just a pointer if you have that stuff out the best thing you can do is remove the pulley wheels and regrease them they are held on by clips easily removed and the adjuster comes out with (2) (10 mm bolts well the head of it is 10mm the actual threaded part is 8mm)these however are crimped on the adjuster and can be pulled out and in to shove grease on shaft. Might feel like a waste of time but if they seize and you make a cut in them good luck finding a plastic wheel. Thank you for the quick response i will keep you updated with what i attempt maybe you will try it yourself.

[pope]

The adjustment pulley is really the fine adjustment wheel. The bar at the bottom is the one that should be loosened at installation to get the cables on ( yes, it is also used as the horizontal adjustment). If the cable just slips over the bottom bar rollers on installation without having to loosen it, then there is too much cable slack. Also, keep no tension on the adjustment wheel at install. There should be around 97" of cable loop that extends out of the winder, not counting what is on the loop.

Since I have never had power windows, I did not know that you can set the amount of winds on the winder. The manual winder is preset. I suggest getting close to the 97" loop and going from there.

[Daveje]

Also, if it feels too loose check to make sure you haven't slipped off one of the wheels while you were getting everything set in place. Odd that it doesn't fit if it's a stock unit but then you're switching from manual to power? You can also shorten the cable a bit by cutting it and crimping on a new ferrule thingy available at the hdwe. store,but be sure it's what you need to do before you do it,there's no turning back!

[Fiat1980spyder]

Yea its weird to me that it does not fit and i highly doubt that it would make a difference wether its manual or power windows the factory door has existing holes for both. Yea when it comes to chopping factory items espeicailly something like orignial power windows motors and gears rather just make a tensioner. There should be some trick to putting them that no one so far knows i highly doubt they would change things that much from manual windows to power windows. How would the factory switch them over with this much slack doubt it. Tried this thing bout 15 times and gettin full of it but i am sure one of these days someones going to look at this post and know exactly how to do it.

[Daveje]

Well I went out to have another look at mine today to see why it was working kinda slow and found out I had accidentally put the cable behind one of the wheels, not surprised since I was doing it at night with a flashlight. Anyway, tension is real good now and the window works great so it is possible. You can try just winding the cable on the reel but don't assemble it on the regulator,string it through the wheels and keep playing with the windings/tensioner and lining the reel up with the hole until you get the tension right, then assemble the whole mess and try it. It's a PITA no matter how you do it though. Otherwise, good luck with the tensioner,let us know how it goes.