Simplified window crank remove/install

[Bert]

Those awkward window crank wire spring clips can easily be eliminated by installing a sheet metal screw (colour or shape of your choosing) through the handle and into the crank mechanism. Center of the metal crank mechanism is easy to drill into and finding the center of the handle (to similarly drill through) is straightforward from inside.

Now you can intentionally lose those stupid clips, and disregard thinking about searching for them when they fall on your gravel driveway!

Far as I know it also opens up avenues for using other manufacture handles provided the spline and diameter match.

[Christ]

Even if other handles are larger, you can use them this way. Wrap the splines with string tightly, or tape, and slide the new handle over it and screw tightly. The friction between the screw, handle, and spline stub should be enough for a well maintained window system

[htchbck]

Or get one of these:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WMR-W80646

Works like a charm first time everytime!

[Christ]

I generally h just use a rag

[Grey Vw]

I will be doing this soon. Thanks

[Festiva_Fred]

I never found it difficult to unsnap the clips, rag, pick tool, or the tool specifically made for them works every time.

[GenevaDirt]

I just use a flat head screw driver to pop them out....no big deal. Personally I think the screw looks like crap in our handle. JMO

[drddan]

^ X2

I can pop the spring clip in like 2 seconds. Dont need much of anything really. I usually use a shop towel, slid behind the handle to lift the clip right out. I have been in JY's and used the seat belt from the car to do the same. :p

[Bert]

Nice to see there are supposed econobox purists.
Exposed screw heads make perfect sense to me and I hate concealed fasteners. Hidden stuff was invented by designers, not engineers. Allows one with some expertise (?) to 'put royalty nose in the air' when ordinary folks, that barely know how to use a screwdriver, cry for help about even the simplest thing.
More and more this cosmetic foolishness adds to the mystique (and costs) of what modern car repair is all about. Festys by and large are appealing to novices and hacks because they don't have a lot of 'magic' panels and fixtures.
My two cents worth: Horsefeathers to the rest of you.

[bobstad]

Hey Bert; the photos make perfect sense; while your description in my thread confused me.

Not that you weren't concise; but, that my mind is far from being so.

Looks like the plan, Dan. Lots of cars used to come that way from the factory, if memory serves.

One of my life's favorite koans; "form follows function" is to little served IMHO.

[bobstad]

Hey,

To be creative, there are lots of ways to doll up that center screw idea; no?

Various sorts of washers; nicer screw, etc.

I used to love to roam around auto wrecking yards collecting odds and ends; whose owners were always happy to let me leave with what I'd pocketed for free if I showed them first.

Imagine the number of fasteners which end up part of the soil for no particular reasons other than people being too busy to glean things ultimately taxing on the biosphere if not reused.

And "recycle" under capitalism really means "reprocess" is another thing; which gets in my craw.
.

[hot4dl8ly]

I too just use a folded over shop rag- hardest part is finding the open end of the clip to snag(easy).

[drddan]

The open end of the clips are usually pointed towards the handle.
I push the handle down, and slide the towel up .... and pop goes the clip.

I've been known to do this, just to get clips! :p

[Bert]

My 86 F150 uses a visible/exposed retaining screw on the metal window cranks. Early versions used a Phillips and later ones a Torx. Then starting in 92 the buggers went to plastic cranks with a hidden fastener. At the JYs there are many more stripped and broken handles on later models than there are on the earlier ones and I accidentally discovered that cranks from pre-80s pickups are even better (and yet look identical).

One of my earlier vehicles was a 68 Chev pickup. Aside from requiring a special GM tool to remove the window cranks (spring clip sort of like a brake hose clip on a Festy) you could take the entire insides of the truck apart with nothing but a Phillips screwdriver. Nothing was hidden from view, needed special knowledge or required fancy tricks known only to bodymen. When you're young and stupid these are lovely features when learning to work on cars. There is very little intuitive to get curious minds interested in working on modern vehicles.

[GenevaDirt]

exposed screws on a vehicle that is supposed to have them is just fine...they look normal. Drilling a hole and putting a crap screw in the handle and then having it protrude out and look like a wart is ugly as hell. Never knew that removing a little clip that takes about 2 seconds to do would be such a big deal that it needed to be modified on our cars.