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Steve Emmott
Frequent User
Username: steve_e

Post Number: 68
Registered: 11-2018
Posted on Friday, 15 February, 2019 - 09:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Got a worried call Wednesday night from a fellow old friend and RR Shadow 1 owner.
His daughter is getting married tomorrow (Saturday) and he put his car in to a local valet company to get it all polished and spruced up for the wedding.

He told them not to use the driver’s door window as it had been playing up...........however they forgot and lowered the window and could not get it back up. Not ideal this time of year in UK to be driving around with an open window.

I gathered all my tools and one of my spare refurbished window motor/mechanisms well actually one of each as I have some with the square motor and some with the later round motors just in case.
Sadly I forgot my digital camera but got down to Derby around 70 miles from me early in the morning.

I told him he should have just removed the fuse but hindsight was not going to fix anything now. Fuse was good, so checked the door microswitches and all was well so power appeared getting to motor.

No option now but to remove all the door trim.........but I did look for the thermal cut out switch I learnt from here was fitted under the glovebox but again like my car there is not one.......I now realise this seems an addition to the window circuitry when the round permanent magnet motors were fitted. I wonder now if the later motors don’t have the individual thermal cut out inside like the square motors do so that is why the under dash cut out has been fitted into the window circuitry.

Well as soon as the door trim was off it revealed that at some time past the door glass had been broken as there was toughened glass particles in the bottom of the door and trapped all around the motor gearbox top and inside the chain channel.
Seemed quickest solution was just to remove the whole assembly and replace the unit with one of my spares.

Glad to say all went well and windows all work fine...........I don’t charge as I am not a business but asked he contributed something to one of my favourite charities. I can restore his old unit and put it back into my spare stock so not at any loss here. He also gave me a RR handbook from a Shadow 1 he had owned previously over 30 years ago and said to see if I can repatriate it back to the car. I have no registration number of the car and he had it on private plates and could not remember what number was assigned when these were removed.

The handbook shows the car is chassis SRH 12552 but does not state the year. As mine is SRH 13315 and a 1972 I would expect the car must be around 1971. It shows the car was Porcelain White over Caribbean Blue with dark blue upholstery. Apparently the car was also owned by a famous singer.

I will also have a look on this site and see if there is any information on Shadow 1 window regulator restoration and if not will take some pictures and upload what I have to do to restore it. Not sure at the moment whether it has just been jammed up with broken glass or commutator/brush problems. Or even spiders as they seem to have remade their home overnight.











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Robert J. Sprauer
Prolific User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 119
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Friday, 15 February, 2019 - 10:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Steve, A known cause of slow windows is old grease in the main drive box. It gets very sticky and thick and slows down the works. Also a liberal dose of silicon spray within the glass channels helps along with cleaning any electrical connectors. The driver door usually suffers less due to frequent use but use is subjective. There is no thermal cut out within the motor due to service access vs locating it in the glove box area.
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Larry Kavanagh
Grand Master
Username: shadow_11

Post Number: 339
Registered: 5-2016
Posted on Sunday, 17 February, 2019 - 09:39 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Happened to one of my rear window motors immediately prior to a wedding too. I had to improvise by removing the motor and jury-rigging a device to hold the window shut i.e., a length of 2"x4" timber wedged between the bottom of the door and the window glass concealed from view by the replaced door trim. Desperate situations require desperate measures.
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Steve Emmott
Frequent User
Username: steve_e

Post Number: 69
Registered: 11-2018
Posted on Wednesday, 20 February, 2019 - 03:29 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Robert, I have restored many Shadow 1 and a few Shadow 11 window motor regulators and believe me there is hardly any grease in these gear boxes.

I know old grease though can be a problem on some situations as my 308 window motors are completely filled with grease that had gone hard, as is the Shadow window wiper motor and a few others I have restored where grease has hardened.

On the Shadow the metal worm drive works on a nylon wheel and has only a minimal amount of grease around the worm wheel and teeth.

Also if you look at the second picture down on my original post showing the motor insides...top right hand corner you can see the bi-metal motor cut-out in circuit with the 'field windings'.

A permanent magnet motor AKA the later round ones do not require these windings to create the magnetic field. Hence you will see only two wires on the newer permanent magnet motors whereas there are four wires to the older 'square' window motor. (clutch wiring aside)

I think that the remote under glovebox safety cut out was installed in line with the update to the permanent magnet window motor somewhere around 1975 or maybe the introduction of the Shadow 11.

My Shadow 1 and my friends too did not have the remote safety cut out as it appears each motor has its own internal one.

They do not require a manual reset as they auto reset when cooled down that occurs with a bimetal device so access inside the motor is not required. (technically I don't think it may be bi-metal device but a reaction due to its profile when it overheats)

I have seen these contacts inside the motor 'weld' themselves together which causes fuse to blow on overload. At other times I have seen these contacts oxidise and not make contact which results in total window failure.

You do have to strip out the gearbox casing though to remove the motor as one retention bolt is fitted from inside.

Larry I did take a piece of wood with me....I have done the same in the past to wedge a window shut.

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