Hi Derf, can you send me a picture of the headlamp covers?

 

**** I just read this. I can't send you a standalone pic but I can send you pictures of my car and point them out.

 

They are the two squarish doors that rotate upwards to point the headlights down the road. If you stand at the front of the car facing the windshield, The headlight covers are the two cutouts at either end of the front hood area.

In the picture you posted, one is clearly visible on the passenger side and the driver side headlamp assembly is partly up. It is those top painted pieces that I am looking for. I will include a few pictures of my own car, one has the remaining pieces of a black leather bra on the headlamp covers so they are black in the picture but underneath they are the same color white as the car.

Since there will be no battery in the car, you will have to crank them open by hand. Just to the inside of each headlamp cover is a cylindrical worm gear with a goofy plastic cover over it. If you don't know what you're looking for you'd never know what it was for. Pull the rubber cover straight up and off. You should then be able to rotate the gear by hand, I think clockwise raises the assembly, until it reaches its maximum height. I'm thinking the headlight brackets and plastic side trim are long gone. If it's not, it's a few torx screws for the trim and a few spring loaded Phillips screws to get the adjusters out. The plastic trim pulls forward at the top, then you have to rotate the whole piece down to be able to get the bottom out from between the underside of the headlamp and the rest of the assembly.

In the event that you can only get it partly apart, please take pictures of the underside of the headlight cover door. It's not that I don't want to do the work on my own car. The adjusters are more or less impossible to find as NOS, as are the metal piece that frames the front of the headlight and allows you to aim it. It's a **** design and every time you go to aim it, something gets bent or the groove in the adjuster gets widened and it goes downhill from there. So I don't touch them unless I absolutely must. I drive it a couple days a week around town to keep it happy So I need the lights aligned.

they used plastic gears in the motor so shouldn't be any rust issues.

Bring a cordless ratchet, several length extensions, torx bit sockets, quarter and 3/8 u joints and pivot socket joints from an impact set to make it easier to get all the damn torx bolts off of the door panel. I believe the headlamp trim is t10 or t15.

Okay now for the pictures.

3 year siesta

Post three year siesta

I also attached the parts diagram. The headlamp door cover is part number 12. I don't know how it attaches to part number 7 but if they come off together by all means do it that way and I will take those as well.

I've also put a yellow dot on the part I described earlier that you will need to rotate by hand to raise and lower the motors.

If needed you can use an adjustable wrench to rotate that hand gear.

Here's the diagram




Many thanks!

Derf

 

Hi Derek. Understood. Thanks for the detailed explanation. I’ll let you know how it goes. We’re hitting the road in a couple of hours (8am central).

 

We found what we needed at the pick a part in Louisville, thank you your offer to help.

 

The search for a window regulator has finally ended. Thank you for all the comments and support.

We spent a few hours at the Pull-a-Part in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday. We found a 1994 SC-2 with power windows. We were very happy to find that it had been replaced before. That meant this old car had a newer regulator and motor. It came out very easily and became our first treasure of the day. That same car would donate several other parts on our list. We spent the rest of our time looking at the other 10 S-series vehicles that were there. We almost bought some seats but they were not exactly what we wanted. Hopefully we will not regret that decision in the future.

We have been told by our local parts store that there is a person in town that has a collection of Saturns. We left our contact information and can't wait to meet him. Gary from Lebanon, TN, please contact me on this forum.

On Sunday we went to install our newly found window regulator assembly. We immediately realized that it was wrong. For those unfamiliar, there is a long sliding channel that attaches to the glass and a smaller sliding channel that is mounted below. Both were too long. Fortunately, the sliding channels are bent on the open ends to keep them from falling off. We were able to remove them and use our original sliding channels. Problem solved? Not so fast. When we went to install the hybrid assembly we found that the motor was wrong too. In fact, it was a mirror image of the correct motor.

Fortunately we had already bought a new correct motor, so after drilling out the rivets and bolting up the new motor we were back in business.

A quick summary, our car is a 1993 SW-1 with electric windows. The driver's door window regulator and motor needed to be replaced. The donor parts came from a 1994 SC-2...from the driver's door. Other than the sliding channels issue, the motor on the SC-2 driver's door looks like the motor on our front passenger door.

So, if I knew then what I know now, I would not hesitate to buy the SC-2 parts as the job was not that bad after I got over the initial shock of learning that the part wasn't the same.

 

The main thing is that you got it fixed and now have a functioning window. Did you find the headlight covers for derf?

 

Yes, handed them to FedEx today. They are there way to Derf. Covers with plastic frames.

 

Hats off to your perseverance on both accounts.

For the life of me I could not figure out how the regulator for the coupes could be identical to the sedan doors. They are totally different sizes. But there were so many port numbers to choose from It was dizzying.

With the important thing is you made it work.

And thanks again for the flippy headlight covers. Very difficult to locate up north.

 

You are also now a great human being!