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Unresponsive Windows on '72 280 SE

Help! It's getting hot in here!

Weirdest thing. My electric windows were working fine one day, then we have a big storm, and the next day the passenger side front and driver side rear won't respond to the switch. Not a big deal because i mostly use the driver's window. Now, about a week later, the driver side front and passender side rear won't work either. To top it off, it's summer. In San Antonio. And this car is my daily driver. Argh. It's hot. The main fuses all tested out fine, although none of them were labeled as fuses for the window motors.

Aside from baking dinner on the floorboard on the way home, you have any suggestions?

Jeff

Reply to
rhinesj
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They may test fine, biut replace the, anyway with new ones and clean the contacts of the fuse holder very well with an ink eraser.

If that doesn't fix it then get a volt meter and trace back to see why you're not getting any electrons to the fusebox.

As you've noticed the fuses do control diagonal windows.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

Concur. Storms and Hot weather do cause condensation, and this does give rise to lots of problems. You will probably find that rotating the fuses in the holders allow operation again.

Try replacing the fuses to ones with brass links, if you can find them, the tin ones really do oxidise fast.

Happened to my 115, 123 and to a lesser extent on my 124.

Contact cleaner does help to slow down the oxidation.

Cheers, WS

Reply to
ws

Same thing happened to me, and it was a not "blown" fuse, but one in which the aluminum had shrunk from heating of corroded elements causing the fuse element to heat up causing it to shrink to the point that it can't carry enough amperage to run the motor any more. They can look fine and be bad!

Also, when you say that you checked the "main" fuses, if you mean the fues box under the dash . . . the window fuses aren't there. At least they weren't there in my car. I found my window fuses in one of the little rectangular black boxes on the firewall of the engine compartment. They were near the passenger side of the firewall, and they were all red fuses in the little black boxes. Check in there and just replace them all. At this point no original fuse in your car is really good. They are all too old to be reliable.

All the best - H

Reply to
Hazey

I was an English motorcycle guy (think Lucus electrics) before I started playing with MBs. One of the coolest tools i made was a fuse tester. I took a 5 amp breaker (about $5 at Napa) and attached two clips. I could put it across a fuse holder and it would complete the curcuit without taking out the wirering if there was a dead short. I actaully made it for finding dead shorts since the breaker would blow, i would disconnect parts of the circuit until it stopped blowing. However, for any electrical gemlins, the first thing i do is toss this across a fuse holder and see if a fuse is bad. If everything works as it should, then the fuse is bad. Something I do on my MBs, is if one fuse corrodes, then I change them all out. I have a jar of spares int he trunk. Quite handy.

Reply to
PT in OR

Thanks -- that was it exactly -- it just took me a couple weeks to get back to posting.

Reply to
rhinesj

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