Passenger window not working.

[Eeersh]

Hey y'all,

I recently bought a 91 SE and the previous owners had the electrical skills of a hammer. I'm pretty certain they were going for a sweet "custom" sound system and in the process butchered the audio wiring harness and several of the other wires behind the audio bay. My question is after fiddling with a replacement radio and trying to get it to operate, what could I fudged with that made only the driver window work? I checked all the connections to make sure they had solid connection, but I fear that what I thought was a poorly rigged speaker could've been a bypass wire for the windows that the previous owner tried to fix in their snipping frenzy.

[cody1racing]

I don't believe there is any wires related to the windows near or in the vicinity of the radio wire loom. Best bet is to use a a volt meter (this is preferred but a lighted 12-24v probe will work) to find your power (constant) and switcher power from the factory radio wire harness loom. You'll want to make a new ground wire (its the simplest way to insure a good ground) after that, you should never, ever use the factory speaker wire. running new wire insures better sound quality and bypasses tons of factory crap that gets in the way.

 

that being said, when it comes to your windows, again trust in your volt meter or its ugly red headed step brother the lighted probe.

 

also, you didn't say which switch was the problem so we'll diagnose both at once in the magical world of our mind or you can just start at the one having problems! up to you really

 

You should start by making sure your switch (wires just before the switch that have been unplugged) at the door has power. (I'll assume for the sake of argument that your put in new speaker wires from the quarter panel to the door on both sides and i say this only because I'll assume that any fault in the wire will occur here first)

 

Why power at the switch you ask, because when it comes to diagnosing electrical gremlins you work backwards. (I will also assume that your going to check all switches that control this window, including but not limited to your drivers door and any cool custom switch you may or may not have)

 

Have power at the switch (again this is a figure of speech and we're referring to the unplugged wires the switch is connected to) in both up and down wires (from any switching source)? Great! Now check the switch itself for a failure. because there is not much more wrong with it then this. How is it this simple you ask... its because if you have power getting to the switch for all functions, then the fault must lie in the switch!

 

ans there you go, you graduated form working on anyone else's electoral problems with a hammer to an adjustable wrench (by the way, this is not a tool and is just a weapon, never, ever work on anything with an adjustable wrench...EVER)!

Edited September 4, 2012 by cody1racing

[Eeersh]

Thanks man!!

[ChatWithaNinja]

Is this Sean?

Forgive my prying, but a good friend of mine got a 91 and his stereo bay is also a mangled mess fit for a rat.

 

Check fuses. I've popped so many odd fuses while wiring in stereos that I keep a box of them handy in my electronics toolkit.

 

From the description, I'm thinking that you cannot roll up the passenger window from the drivers controls - does the wiring from the switch to the passenger window not run through the center console somewhere?