Ok i have to replace the motor on my 97. I have a friend who works at the Dealership and said there is 2 ways to do .. of course there is the easy way .. the cheper in price way or the other way $$$. he said the easier way is to make a couple of small holes on the inside and get to the bolts or rivets... the more $$$ way is to take the whole window unit out and replace the motor on the outside of the car and then put window crank and motor back in the door. I am kinda running low on money and I dont want him to hack the door with holes.. Its my 97 SS .. I love this car and It will just hurt me knowing I have holes in my door..even though you cant see them ... are these the only 2 ways to change the motor out ?

thanks for any info and your time

Rob

Robert - I had to do this on my '96 Z28SS driver door and would highly recomend just drilling the 2 half inch holes in the inner door panel and drilling out the rivits. Once it's done and the door panel is back on nobody will be the wiser. Having done this myself I took plenty of time trying to figure another way. For me removing the glass to remove the rest of the assembly seemed like the wrong way to go. I have had vehicles with big doors and big windows that the window was never quite right. Stuff like rattling when down and feeling loose when up. I figured it came from someone taking the window out of the door and not getting it back in properly. My '96 windows were perfect and didn't rattle and rolled up and down in perfect alignment. I was able to live with a couple 1/2" holes in the inner door panel. I also figured if the factory power motor went, a replacement might go in the future too...

Dennis .. thanks for the quick Reply ........ Yeah I guess thats whats going to have to be done. How does he know where exactly he needs to drill .. is there a marking there ... hope he does'nt guess wrong and end up with holes all over the place...

BTW .. where did you get your replacement motors at ..?? there is a store here that sells nothing but AC Delco stuff and they have the originals there for 75 bucks a piece... does that sound right ?

I got the least expensive one I could find off ebay, it was about $29 I think. It lasted 2 years for me and was working fine when I sold the car. (I know :clonk: but I did end up with a '72 Nova in it's place :yes: )

When I did mine I was worried and didn't want to end up with a swiss door. Once I got started it was actually fairly easy to identify the rivets that had to be drilled and get the holes right.

Here's what I used to guide me... Looks like it was 3 holes not 2, my bad it was a while ago... Just study the pic's and your door and motor, it will all come together...

http://shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html

I used that same guide to help me replace my motors the first time. Just following that guide and you'll be ok.

As for where to find window motors, I highly recommend autozone. They have a brand called Simmens or something close to that which carry a lifetime warrenty. You want this because no matter what motor you buy its going to go out again so you might as well only pay for it once.