Warglock

Evening Folks,

A little background. I bought an 01 Cherokee almost two years ago and as my luck would have it the driver window stopped working about 2 weeks after purchase. This has bothered me to some extent but I can live with it since I don't go through many drive-thrus. I did notice one important thing. The driver window works in extreme cold, ie. 0 or below. More on this bit later.

Recently, my passenger window switch lost control of the window, but the master switch could still control it. I did some surfing and found that this is a common problem and can be fixed in various ways from a paper clip to re-soldering the switch contacts. I re-soldered them and cleaned the whole switch at the same time.

I was a little heavy handed with the dielectric grease and got some on the window switch contacts so it eventually stopped working. I credit Northwoods Snowman for his in-depth guide to repairing the window lock as well as scubasteve90xj over on JeepForums for his in-depth guide in posts 51 and 55 on getting at the Master Window Switch. See scubasteve90xj's guide to get to where my guide will begin. Now, to the guide.

TOOLS
1x small flathead
Handful of Q-tips
Isopropyl Alcohol - IPA (I have 91%, but I'm sure 70% would work)
A couple paper towels
Emery Paper
2x Hemostats (not necessary, I just have them handy, so I use them)
Fine point tweezers (makes reassembling the switch mechanism MUCH easier)

Let's take a look at the 9 nearly identical switches that control the power windows and door locks.


As you can see it is a clear plastic housing with 2 springs and 2 plastic push-rods with metal feet that actuate when switched. The feet make contact on different points to determine the direction of the window. It's these feet and contacts that can get dirty and prevent a circuit from being made.

To disassemble these switches, use your small flathead screwdriver and pop one side of the clear plastic housing out of its two retainers.

Hold the clear plastic housing in place and repeat for the other side. Now, carefully remove the clear plastic housing. Most of the time the grease will hold both the springs and the push-rods in the housing, but be aware that they can fall out.

Once you have the clear plastic housing set aside, you will see this.

These are the two metal feet. Remove these metal feet with your fine-point tweezers and inspect the underside of the feet for dirt/grime. You can use the IPA to clean off the grime and if theres some corrosion or patina, use the emery paper to buff it clean.

With both feet removed, you will see this.

This is the door lock switch, which I never use, so it's fairly clean. Use some IPA to clean off the round contacts as well as the two thin blade contacts in the middle. As with the feet, use the emery paper to buff if necessary. To get into the tough spots, use your tweezers or hemostats with the emery paper like so:

Use the edges to get into the tight spots.

You have successfully cleaned your switch. Time for greasing and reassembly. Grease everything that has a moving point; the saddles (both on top and underneath) of the feet where it touches plastic but NOT on the round contacts. Place the feet back in the base then reinsert the clear plastic housing with the push-rods and springs. Everything should clip back in easily and work like before. Repeat these steps with all the switches. It shouldn't take very long to clean all the switches.

Now, back to the bit about my driver window only working in extreme cold. Metal contracts in cold weather which explains why it only worked in extreme cold. I took my multi-meter to the wires in the door and had power going to the motor. I knew the motor worked so there was a short/break somewhere in the circuit. This is where Northwoods Snowman's guide come into play. If you mosey on over to his guide, you will see in a second post that he discovered broken solder points that controlled the window lock switch. Since my master window switch had the same broken solder points, I checked all the solder points on my switch...

Lo and behold...


There were two more broken solder points. I soldered those back together and when I had the master switch back together and in my door it started working! Huzzah! I can go through drive-thrus again!

Case in point, make sure all your contacts are clean and that none of your solder points are broken. If your switch still doesn't work, check your wires for continuity and replace accordingly.

Here are some hi-rez pics.

And never take Jeep's word on electronics being "non-serviceable"...