Posted by Dan Lowe on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 10:40AM :
In Reply to: windshield regulator posted by Dana (in Ma) on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 8:31AM :
The best thing I have found to make these work better (assuming the gears aren't binding) is to first remove the tape winding shaft, remove the tape and then replace the winding shaft. Now that the tape has been removed generously lube up the regulator with wd-40. Now with a handle work the regulator back and forth. Once you have some movement in the regulator put the input shaft into a drill. ( Make sure you use a 1/2" drill so you don't have to chuck on the splines) Hold onto the regulator body and use the drill to spin the regulator in both directions at high speed.
I have rebuilt around 30 of these for Eric B now and I have found this to be the most effective way of freeing up a stuck regulator. Initially I would completely disasemble each regulator, sandblast all of the pieces to remove any rust and gunk, lube and reassemble. I have found that spinning the regulator without the tape back and forth with a drill has worked the best.
If the gears are chewed up then you can file the teeth carefully to remove any binding spots.