Repairs

The Galaxie has a crank handle which opens the vent window (yes it really is over-engineered but whatever). To convert the lateral action to vertical there is a small gearbox inside each door. Both of these were broken allowing the vent window to be simply pushed open. Apparently this is a common problem but I figured that I had nothing to lose by taking them out and trying to repair them. And so it comes that under the guise of education I present my gearbox repair 101 course.

First remove the inside door trim (I didn't have to do this so if it is a bitch, sorry). Now locate the two screws that hold the gearbox to the door and the one that couples the shaft to the window and undo them. Once you have the screws undone you can wriggle the gearbox out of the door. Now reach into the bottom of the door and pluck out the end cap that will have fallen off.

This would be a good time to re grease the gears so go ahead and push on the shaft and drive the worm out. Whilst the worm is out, drill out the rivets that held the cap on. Now all that you need to do is reassemble the worm and twist it counterclockwise to seat it. Then bolt the end cap on and you are done.

If, however, you can't find the end cap, which is the piece lower right, then you can always just make up anything to stop the worm disengaging as shown to the left. Either way the vent will now crank and you are Captain Bigpeen.