ah crud. :( regulated.

I replaced one of mine with the roller out of an old busted drawer glide - bearings and all. Hooray for junk boxes!

Ooo.. now there is an idea. I just happen to have a junk box with drawer slides in it. :)

bzzt.. oh well. Those rollers are too big and can't be trimmed down. However, not all is lost. The hardware store has replacement rollers. Heh.. ya know what? It's the same size as my computer desk shelf uses. I think there was a bag of spare parts that came with this thing.

Check out the wheels for sliding glass doors and screens at the local hardware store.

The little plastic roller in the window regulator is broken.

Replacement regulator is.. get this.. $190 (lowest I can find $148) No NAPA option so it's either mail order dealer or get screwed by a local dealer.

All for a little freaking plastic doodad that probably costs all of ten cents. Well, maybe more. It does look like it once contained a raceway and ballbearings.

Sooooo.

Guess what this Scottish/Canadian descendent is going to do, eh.

Take the bits I have and fabricate a new one of course. :)

Looks fairly simple to make out of some round stock. Or might be able to figure one out from large plastic washers. And it's almost the size of thick wall PVC drip irrigation feeder or riser pipe.

Either way it's going to take a weekend when I can have the window out and time to build the part. Can't risk getting rained on with a window open. Seeing I don't drive a real Jeep. ;)

Yep. Measured out what remained and will be stopping by the local hardware store on the way home tomorow.

Found two. Both with threaded inserts and real close to the correct size. Assuming the old one wore down (or liberal use of sandpaper) the roller from a screen door (or glass bathroom slider) looks to be dang close. The one I found was from Slide-Co, Part 111492. Two of them for about three bucks.

If this works I'm buying another couple of packs for the eventual failure of the other three windows.

Glad you found something. I think spares are a great idea Doug. You know how notoriously unreliable sliding glass doors can be.

You seriously only read usenet?

K.

Found two. Both with threaded inserts and real close to the correct size. Assuming the old one wore down (or liberal use of sandpaper) the roller from a screen door (or glass bathroom slider) looks to be dang close. The one I found was from Slide-Co, Part 111492. Two of them for about three bucks.

If this works I'm buying another couple of packs for the eventual failure of the other three windows.

Might have to try that. Seems the part I found is just a touch too big and can't be sanded down.

Going to try a few more places. Might have to give up and fork over the $$$ for the replacement regulator.

At least it wasn't my driver window. I can deal with the rear windows up.

Did you consider a wrecking yard? They might have a perfectly good one (for really cheap).

Yea. Problem is they also know how much the part is and I'd be buying one that might break again. Most of the yards around here prefer to sell the door as a unit. Might get lucky and find a rollover or T-bone that still has good parts.

Then I found this. BK 6651723 (napa parts pro doesn't handle direct links) You have to go to

then select "SEARCH NAPA CATALOG" put 6651723, click the button for part number, then search.

From what I have figured out, this doodad will snap onto the existing metal ball. If it doesn't fit then I'll try something else. It's for a GM product, but I'm currently using GM plastic trees for the door pops and other plastic poprivits and such. Quite a bit of this stuff is standard since just a few houses produce stuff for auto makers. Heck, it's 5$ (pricy for a piddling bit of nylon) but if it does fit I can order a whole box of them from another source.

Same part. Just an easier link.

"DougW" wrote Seems the part I found is just a touch too big and can't be sanded down.

Alas, no. There isn't enough material on the outside edge to do that. I was hoping the unit was more solid.

We'll see if the part I ordered from napa will work.

If it does I'll order a box from another source down in Ft Worth Texas. They sell these silly things for 5-7$ each and for $20 I can get a box of fifty or so.

Damn, how long do figure to keep this heap? I've replaced exactly one on my

88 MJ so that box would last me..... 500 years at 10 years per replacement???

Of course, you could put the ones you don't use up on eBay one at a time for five bucks plus S&H and pay for lots of toys ;-) Folks seem to buy just about anything you put up there.

I figure that if one is gone, the other 11 rollers are probably close. Same reason I bought a bag of door trees for $15. Probably won't use the 100 or so I got, but if one gets broken, who cares. :)

Plan on keeping the heep till it falls apart or I get tired of tinkering with it. Kept my 1982 Chevy C-10 till 93 when it got traded in on the ZJ. Honestly, the chevy had body cancer, and got about 9MPG.

Some folks around work think I'm mental for not getting a shiny new automobubble, but they are the ones that don't think twice about paying $500 for a tune-up and timing belt change.

I'd rather take that $500 and by a good Snap-On socket. :D

Yep. Free on eBay plus 5$ for S&H. ;)

"DougW" wrote

Yep. Free on eBay plus 5$ for S&H. ;)

We would get along well ;-)

I own a perfectly good welder, lathe and mill so I figure the old 88 will lead my funeral procession. When they wanted $650-$700 to fix the a/c so I could make a comfortable trip to South Texas next month, I spent $50 and rebuilt the compressor. Works fine and now I can justify the cost of the fifty years or so of collecting tools.

Another kindred spirit! My usual response is the old fighter pilot standby: YGBSM!

hmm..

NAPA's warehouse was out. :(

However, all is not lost.

GM 9666748 is a cross reference and it just so happens that Advance Auto has them in the warehouse for $3.24 and will have one for me tomorow!

So now the weekend looks like

1) oil change new oil drain bolt or plastic washer 2) driver side motor mount 3) transmission mount 4) window doodad 5) spark plugs 6) transfer case fluid

Oh yea.

7) mow yard

Think I should start popping 800 Ibuprofin now. :/