Question on electric tailgate window

[Dr_Snooz]

My Suburban came in the Scottsdale trim, which, apparently, had a manual crank rear window. The previous owner installed a different tailgate with an electric rear window. That's all well and good, but he ran power to it in the most hillbilly way imaginable. He hacked into another wire in the engine bay and ran a hot wire under the truck to an interior grade toggle switch dangling a few inches from the road. Nothing was secured, protected, insulated or so much as black taped to prevent snags, shorting or water incursion.

Of course, it didn't live very long like that and now I need to redo it. Can someone tell me where GM put this switch and what kind of switch it was (toggle, rocker, custom OE)? I'd like to get somewhat close to stock when I redo it. I will be heading to the junkyard at some point, and if the gods smile on me, I might swap back to a manual crank. In the meantime, I'd like to get this mess sorted out.

Thanks a lot.

[Irish_Alley]

if memory serves me right it was a rocker switch besides the ashtray right about where the tank selector switch is at. and if it had dual tanks they would side side by side

[LTZ C20]

The suburban and blazer power rear window switches were in the exact same place as the switches for dual fuel tanks on the trucks. Tho, suburban and blazer never had dual fuel tanks. If the suburban had rear air conditioning, the switch for that was built into that area as well. It was just left of the ash try. Very late model suburbans with a 1 extra option (which escapes my memory at the moment) had another switch just right of the ash tray. So if you had a burb with those three options, you got both switch panels on both sides of the ash tray. Let me see if I can find some pics for you.

[Irish_Alley]

told you it was from memory lol but this should help to put a picture in your head


its been years since i saw one but does window up/down, rear heat and defrost sound right ltz?

[Dr_Snooz]

Cool! Thank you! Is there any reason why I would want the power window over the manual crank (assuming I can find a manual crank assembly).

[LTZ C20]

told you it was from memory lol but this should help to put a picture in your head


its been years since i saw one but does window up/down, rear heat and defrost sound right ltz?

Rear power window, rear air conditioning and rear defrost I believe was it. No rear heat.

Also, I own 2 of those pieces on the left.

[LTZ C20]

Cool! Thank you! Is there any reason why I would want the power window over the manual crank (assuming I can find a manual crank assembly).

Uhh, rolling the window down from the drivers seat? That's the only benefit. It's either that or get your butt out and roll it down by hand.

[LTZ C20]

Ok, this is the more common, left side switch panel. I have 1 of these currently in my truck. It is broken however, I have a second which is in new condition but used. I will have to eventually switch the two, but I also need to get new switches so I'll do that all at the same time. Anyway, this is my good condition piece.



Notice here the side matches the curve of the dash.


Notice here the GM part number, 14040839.


I will post a pic of the 1 in my truck soon as I can.

[LTZ C20]

Alright folks. This is the current switch arrangement in my truck.

Now here's the setup.

Top switch is the Rear A/C switch. I have it wired so that middle is off as normal, left is normally LO and right is normally HI, but here I have if wired as left or right is just ON. So it's just a dual direction toggle on/off switch. I used this switch to turn on fog lights I used to have on a push bumper/grille guard. The lights and push/guard are both removed currently. I don't know when I will be putting the lights back on the truck. The little black box above the switch is my indicator for the fog lights being on.





Bottom switch is for the dual fuel tanks. Normally this switch is for power rear window. Pushing left makes the window go up and pushing right makes it go down (my left=up/right=down could be vice versa, I don't remember which way is actually which direction). Now my bottom switch is physically the same shape as the top switch but the bottom switch is a late 70's model switch and my top is a late 80's model switch so I had to do some modifying to get the bottom switch to fit well with the top switch in the housing. This is because the 70's switch has metal mounting tabs and the 80's switch has plastic snaps.



I painted over the white labels of both switch bezels because the labels did not apply to my current setup. Also, the screw in the top is not normal, I had to do that to get it to stay up, it was broken when I got it, my second piece is not broken. I saw the switch panel with only 1 opening once at a junk yard when I got the extra 2 switch panel, I should have grabbed the 1 switch panel but didn't and I still kick my self for that.

Eventually one day, I will get a new switch for the fuel tanks, get the duel tanks working again, move the fog light switch to somewhere on left side of the steering column, probably near the headlight switch. Fix the holes in the dash from the current switch arrangement and start over with a cleaner and better switch installation for the dual tanks and possibly some other option I may want to add.

[fitz]

I'll get you pictures of the rear window/rear ac switches in my suburban in a day of two.

[Dr_Snooz]

Uhh, rolling the window down from the drivers seat? That's the only benefit. It's either that or get your butt out and roll it down by hand.

You'll think I'm crazy, but to me it sounds like the electric window is more hassle. Knowing myself, I'll be standing at the back of the truck, wanting to get in and I'll have to set everything down to go to the front of the truck and lean into the cab to roll it down, then go back and do my thing. I'm liking the manual crank better and better.

Is it hard to convert back to manual? Probably just a handle and possibly a regulator, but one never knows.

[blazer74]

If it's set up correctly you can open the window at the tailgate with the key.

Regulator and crank handle is what you need to convert back to manual.


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[Dr_Snooz]

Turns out my tailgate also has an open in one of the wires, so after shorting my wires together outside (because the switch failed), I then have to remove the panel off the interior of the tailgate and whack the wires to get the window down. Sheeeeeeesh.

[LTZ C20]

Yea if it's wired up right, you put the key in tailgate lock, turning one way goes up and turning the other way goes down.

Whacking stuff has always proved an affective method of repair.

[Dr_Snooz]

Whacking stuff has always proved an affective method of repair.

LOL. Isn't that how they got Apollo 13 down safely?