How to Replace Window Regulator 1994-2004 Ford Mustang

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Hi. I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20 plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1A Auto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.

In this video we are going to show you how to replace the window regulator on this 2000 Ford Mustang. It's pretty much the same as any '94 to '04. We do the passenger side. The driver's side is a similar procedure. It you're having any problems with your window such as it kind of has play in it or seems like the window stops working or you hear some grinding or something we always recommend you replace the motor and regulator. If your motor's not bad chances are whatever's wrong with your regulator has put some stress on your original motor so you're probably going to better off replacing the whole assembly. Tool you will need are a flat blade screwdriver both a regular and a large size, a Phillips screwdriver, an 11 mm socket and ratchet or a wrench, pliers and also need an extra set of hands in an assistant.

First there's actually a pin on the front side right there. I use a flat blade screwdriver and carefully pry the clip and then once you get to a certain point you can pull it out with your fingers. Now right on top of this panel is a little notch where you can insert a screwdriver and lightly pry it out. Once you have this out use the screwdriver down here and pry up and bring this right out. Then use the Phillips screwdriver to disconnect the switch from the panel. On this vehicle there's two Phillips screws right here. If I remember from my past experience there's either kind of a pin like there was down here or a bolt. I'm going to remove these two Phillips screws. Keep in mind there may be another fastener here as well. Around your door handle just insert a screwdriver and you want to pry the bottom first, not the top. Pull the handle out and take it off. Up here just with your fingers or use a screwdriver, pry that panel right off. Now your door panel will lift up and off.

Now you want to pull your water shield back. You want to do this slowly and carefully. Just make sure you don't rip it. You can see with my window down in this position which is basically about two inches down, you can look right through this hole and you can see a rivet right there as well as a rivet right there. This window regulator is riveted basically onto the window. You can see this is my new regulator and here's that track and there's the holes where those rivets are. Now the new regulator is made just like the Ford. Normally what you would do is have the regulator in there then lower the window down in and attach the regulator to the window. But that's not the case. The easiest way to do it when you're replacing a regulator is actually to take this off the new regulator. The only time that that wouldn't work is if your problem is that one of the rivets on your original regulator is broken, but that's a pretty rare occurrence. Normally it's either one of these joints has gone bad or your window motor has gone bad.

First thing you will want to do is actually take the new regulator part which basically is just a matter of bending this track with the little indentations in the track. Take a screwdriver and twist it in there. Now go to a larger screwdriver. Now you have the regulator without that track. Since most regulators or motors don't break in that position I'm running it down so I can show you have to take it apart if your motor is all the way in the down position.

There are connections right here. There's a tab you can pry back with your thumb and pull all the contacts out. Then you want to pull this away from your door and push it through the hole. Now there are four bolts here. There are two nuts right here. There are two bolts here. Then these two nuts here need to come off. Take your 11 mm socket and ratchet. I'll fast forward here as we remove those nuts and bolts. This procedure would be the same if your window motor or regulator broke in the up position as well. You just want to be careful as you take these bolts apart if your window is up as the regulator could shift and fall down.

Now you are also going to want to take and remove this piece of weather stripping. That's pretty easy. You just have to pry out and it comes off. Now push this stud through and lift up on your regulator, lift up on your window. Put a piece of wood right in there to hold it up. Right here I'm just going to bend this little tab stop with my screwdriver so it's flush against the track. There now it's bent flat and we will use a pair of pliers to bend this tab up some.

Once you've bent those tabs out of the way then actually have an assistant hold the window, you can pull the piece of wood out of the way. Now lift up on the window some. Just a note here, whenever you're lifting the window, always try to lift it nice and level. Don't let the front drop down too much or it could come out of its track. That's good. Now you just slide the track out and you have to kind of pull it towards the inside of the door and it comes out. Lift the window up some more. As the window goes up more you can actually take this arm and bend it around and let the window back down some. Then that comes out. Now you just have to get your regulator, can you lift it up all the way or is it while your assistant lifts the window out of the way, you can pull the regulator out of the door.

Take the new regulator and you want to have this basically turned this way. When you mount it goes like that, but to start you want to have it like that. Put the new regulator in. You want to reach in and get your harness and make sure that you feed your harness through. You can see here my harness is just fed through. Can you let the window down some? Just have him let the window down so you can see the track up here and make sure you're taking your swing arm and putting that in first. Bend that arm that way and now lift your regulator up and put your second arm in. Then slide it back this way, lift it up. Can you let the window down just a little bit? Up, I'm sorry. Go up. That's good. Down a little bit. I've got one of the studs through to put a nut on. Push the other stud through and I've got both those nuts on now. Starting these two bolts. Then we will take this track and put it on like that. Slide it right in. You're assistant is all set now.

Here I'm just going to fast forward through putting those nuts on and then tightening down the two bolts that hold the regulator and then the four nuts. Then I'll turn the key on and test the window.

Turn the key on. Pull this all the way through. Connect it. Your window should work. If there seems to be any hesitation at all you want to make sure that it didn't come off track. There's the weather strip right here, but there's also a track down inside which this nut is bolted to. If you tilt your window too much at any time the front track will come out and it will cause it to catch. If it does happen what you want to do is loosen up this bolt and push that track. You will have to reach in with your arm, push that track over and get the window back in it and then retighten this bolt, but it looks like we're working well.

Here I will put the water shield back in place and then reinstall that upper weather strip. It just pushes right down on to the top of the door. To put the door panel back on what you want to do is line up your lower tab with the slots in the door. Then lift it up. Put your door lock in place. Might need to lift the back door panel up just a little bit. Make sure your harness is coming back up through. Lift up and get the panel on. Start pushing it down in. As you push it down in you may see it do this so I use a screwdriver and make sure that that goes down into the channel. Make sure the panel is right against the door, all the way around. Take this corner, snap that back on. The tab that goes in the front of here to hold it. Our two screws into the panel here. If you've got something holding it there reinstall that. Take our switch put it in and turn it over. Start one screw. Take this put it down in back here first, then push it down into place.

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