HOW TO: use a '95+ power window switch in a '92

[ninjajim4]

as many of us pre '95 owners have found, when our power window control on the driver's side has broken and we've replaced it with a window switch from a 95+, the passnger side no longer has the ability to open or close its own window.

further, the power toggle switch that used to control access to the passenger side's control no longer works right -- now it cuts off power to the driver's side contol of the passenger window.

unfortunately, problem #2 is by (stupid) design. problem #1 is easily remedied!!

first a quick look at the switches:



obviously the quick way to tell, the old one is green pcb and simple looking, the new kind are black with all sorts of stuff going on, mostly extra stuff for the auto down function on the driver's side which is self contained.

ok well, the reason the passenger side doesn't work is because there's no power getting to the passenger side's control. in the 92 version, the passenger side control gets power from the driver's side control. in the 95 version, the passenger control gets power directly from the harness (don't ask me where, i dont have a 95). so obviously, the thing to do is to add power. so one way to do it is to splice into the harness and add power to the passenger side, but i like to keep things clean and not hack up my harness where ever possible to prevent.

fortunately, since the 95 style control doesn't provide power to the passenger control, there is actually one wire less, and so there is an empty spot on the connector:



logically speaking, this empty pin slot SHOULD correspond to the same wire on the harness side that provides 12v power to the passenger controls, and as it turns out, it does.

now that we know where to plug in the power, where can we get power from? the wiring diagram tells us that 12v is the black/white line on the harness, which corresponds to the red/black wire on the window switch side. i harvested an old wire from my broken '92 switch. you can pull it out of the old connecter by sticking in a bobby pin or saftey to push the plastic tab out of the way. alternatively you can just buy a new metal pin and crimp it onto the end of some wire. then you solder it onto the red/black wire connection:



plug that wire into the connector, and hook it back up to the harness. the new 12v you just added should correspond to the black/blue wire on the harness side.

that is it! according to 95 switch design, switching the 'power' switch on the driver's side control disables the controls for both the driver side and passenger side. when it's set to off, NOBODY can open or close the passenger window. pretty dumb. my next project will be to bypass that on the passenger side, but right now i'm so sick of window switches that just ain gonna happen.

basically you are just adding in one wire onto the 95 switch and you're ready to go! should take all of ten minutes to do.

enjoy!

[Daninski]

Excellant work. Does anyone know what fails on the older switches. I use to fix toyota switches and found all of them to have the same problem. Once I knew that I just replaced the weak link with a salvaged part . Had friends asking me to do their vehicles.

[Mooneggs]

is your solution the answer to the problem I was having here???

http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=59527" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mooneggs]

Excellant work. Does anyone know what fails on the older switches. I use to fix toyota switches and found all of them to have the same problem. Once I knew that I just replaced the weak link with a salvaged part.

this is what has always failed on mine and I am not sure how you could correct the problem... it's basically the internals of the switch itself (plastic parts) that wear out over time and finally break. it's a very fragile little part!

[ninjajim4]

is your solution the answer to the problem I was having here???

http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=59527" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

hmm interesting problem. i'm inclined to say no it won't work, but come to think of it, i actually have a 95 door in my garage so i'll take a look at the wiring.

off the top of my head, though, since the 95 driver's switch doesn't supply power to the passenger side controls (hence the empty slot on the connector) logically i would think that that wire is also absent on the harness counterpart as well. also i have no idea whats going on with the passenger side wiring and dont have a 95 passenger side door to look at, but likewise the wiring on that side is expecting to get 12v from the harness and not from the driver's side control.. though my hunch is that the wiring is the same on the passenger's side, so it may just come down to the door wiring on the driver's side.

so i think there's a few options. if you have the 92 door wiring still, then switching it out and doing whats outline above would work of course. the quick dirty answer with your current wiring is get 12v running to the black/white wire on the passenger door harness. i think i'll have one more suggestion once i take a look at the harness on my 95 driver's door

[ninjajim4]

Excellant work. Does anyone know what fails on the older switches. I use to fix toyota switches and found all of them to have the same problem. Once I knew that I just replaced the weak link with a salvaged part.

this is what has always failed on mine and I am not sure how you could correct the problem... it's basically the internals of the switch itself (plastic parts) that wear out over time and finally break. it's a very fragile little part!

i agree its quite fragile. mine was broken and then i further broke it trying to get it out, so i wouldnt even attempt to take a good one out. but i also think that that is symptomatic of a bigger problem. even without the cosmetics, the electronics themselves on my old switch were not working right. i think spraying it down with carb cleaner to clean up the contacts might have helped. didn't bother to verify since i had a spare. but i think what happens to a lot of people is the electical part starts getting tempramental so ppl press hard on the switches and break them too. sorta a two parter...

[Mooneggs]

i agree its quite fragile. mine was broken and then i further broke it trying to get it out, so i wouldnt even attempt to take a good one out.

this is important to note. I created one good master window switch set out of 2 broken sets. in order to make that work I had to destroy one of the sets just to get the switch out in one piece! It's easy to pop it in but almost impossible to get it back out again

[ninjajim4]

mark,

i took a look at the 95+ wiring harness in the door, and it's like i thought... there's 5 wires on the window switch and there are 5 corresponding wires on the harness. there is no blue/black wire at all, which the 92 door harness has. that explains why neither the 92 switch nor the 95 switch would enable the passenger controls.

so, if you added a wire on the door harness, then added the wire via my original post, then it would hook up correctly to the main harness and everything would work. right now the main harness that hooks up to the door harness is expecting a 12 v line that doesn't currently exist. i think the the passenger door doesnt need any modifications.

again, just adding 12 v in to the black/white line on the passenger door harness would be doing the same thing more or less. and i think the power on/off switch would work regardless of which way you do it, since it's not dependent on that 12v line at all on the 95 model. hope that helps!

[Daninski]

Failure of plastic is not what I had in mind. I was involved with magneticlly switched switches. Any way I'm deeply into a legal situation this week and my brain is taxed. I think you guys have more on the ball with this than I would anyway but if it isn't fixed by weeks end I can look at my 92 compared to either my 95 or 96 what ever you want. Cheers