Strange problem with power window ('87 model)

[Skunksmash]

My passenger side power window switch was broke, (didn't function) old, and ugly. A lot of the chrome had peeled off. So i was glad to find that my local auto parts store had a nice new replacement for me under their "Help!" section. I am sure you have seen this section before. Well, the new one works, sort of. You can roll down the new one all the way, if you want to. You can also roll it up all the way if you want to... but only if you did not roll the window down all the way. You have to leave 3 inches of window showing for it to work going back up. But, it works fully from the driver's side. Any ideas?

I am starting to think that these aftermarket switches are of very poor quality. I also bought a new driver's side door lock switch, and the thing is reversed. The word "Lock" is in the right spot and is right side up, but you have to flick the switch up to get the doors to lock, and down to get the doors to unlock... kind of annoying to have two brand new parts be so glitchy. I may just be used to Ford, but i think it's safe to assume GM didn't want it to seem backwards. (first one of these trucks i have had with power locks)

[VileZambonie]

check the wires on both doors between the jam and the door. Also check the wires inside the door.

[Skunksmash]

Got into the wiring, and man is this thing messed up. Come to find out, the driver's side does actually work, it was just unplugged. So i plug it back up, and now when you press down on the driver's side, it locks the driver's side. But at the same time it unlocks the passenger side. And of course when you press up on the driver's side, the passenger side gets locked.  Now here is the weird part. In my humble opinion, this thing hasn't been messed with by someone who had no clue what they were doing, in the past. I mean, to look at all the wiring and such, you would think it is still all in stock configuration and such. There are no telltale signs such as spliced wires, electrical tape haphazardly put on, missing wire loom, stripped wires, ect. If someone has been messing with it, i can't tell. And i have seen some pretty darn shoddy electrical work in my day, as im sure you all have. So is is possible that this is some sort of weird, uncommon factory defect thing? Cause from where i am sitting now, it looks as though I am the one who is going to have to go switching things all around, and cutting and splicing wires if i wanted to take the easy way to get this thing to function properly.

My buddy suggested that it could be an internal malfunction of the actuators themselves, but i find that highly unlikely. First of all i have never heard of an actuator that malfunctioned in such a way. Second, it would be a very big coincidence for both sided to get the same internal malfunction. More likley only one side would do it if it were true. Oh and for the guys who have never tore into one of these yet, it can not be a switch problem of any kind, as it is only possible to connect the switch to the wiring connector one way. That and both of the switches are brand new. Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be? I have been through just about all of the wiring in the lock system trying to find the cause, to no avail. I am about to just totally rewire the whole setup so that i know that it is correct.

[ccz145a]

sounds like you need the same type of lock switch on each side.

[Skunksmash]

That is another thing i thought about, and i needed to ask one of the vets here if there is any difference at all between the two. It did not look like there was when i held them up close to each other, but looks can be deceiving....

[ccz145a]

they may both work "wrong" when your done (up on switch to lock the doors) but at least they will both work the same way. once you have them working the same way, then you can cut and splice the wires to both switches to make them "right".

Just a thought, can you flip the connector and rotate and reconnect at just the new switch?

[Skunksmash]

Yeah i probly can. Either that or splice like you said. I was just looking for a way to do it that would not alter the factory settings all that much. I know that during a restoration that there are times when the factory setup just aint going to happen, (for one reason or antoher) but i like to try. Oh well.

[musicitymafia]

The door locks are the same part # on both sides.  The switch itself will come out of the chrome bezel if you pop off the clips.  Maybe it got put in backwards in china town, everything IS backwards over there. Either way pop the clips and turn over, maybe that will work.

[GoatBeard]

Mine was stuck all the way down for upwards of a year.  One day my wife needed to drive it to work for whatever reason.  She gets in, pushes the button up and it goes up!!!  I started jumping up and down and with a horrified look on her face she said, "Did I do something wrong?"   

To this day I won't roll that window down all the way -- so leaving 3" is probably not such a bad thing in the big picture. 

[Skunksmash]

It's actually a very simple switch. You can just sort of peel the backplate out, and reposition that little metal bar in there to fix it when they get stuck. Although you may have to JB-Quick the plastic backplate back on. They like to keep popping back out once you have taken them apart.