My lift gate window slid down crooked when I got my 4runner from the previous owner, and would eventually fall down on the right side of the 4runner. I unfortunately cannot take credit for this idea for fixing it, but I thought I would share what I did. I think it would actually work on any window regulator that has a plastic slider.
So here's the issue:
This ball normally has a small plastic piece that slides in a rail on the bottom of the window. This is the actual arm that lifts the window up on either side (there's two on the liftgate window). That plastic piece broke out of the slider and that's how the window fell down on one side. Unfortunately, you have to buy an entire new regulator to replace that tiny plastic piece. Then I found this thread:
Broken window regulator rollers? I got a cheap fix for you. - JeepForum.com
And I bought these from home depot:
Then you just have to grind off the back of the ball with a dremel:
And carefully remove it with vice grips (without slamming them into the glass!). This will leave a hole in the arm, which I unfortunately didn't take a picture of. The new shower door wheel is just slightly too large to go in the rail on the window, so use your dremel to sand down the diameter just a bit. There is a small retainer tab in the rail that has to be bent up to get the wheel in the rail, and after that all you have to do is screw the arm to the wheel, resulting in the following:
You can see the small retainer on the rail, and you also have to remove that bolt that holds the rail to the window, just to get the wheel in the rail.
Hopefully someone will get some use out of this, saved me about $80!
So here's the issue:
This ball normally has a small plastic piece that slides in a rail on the bottom of the window. This is the actual arm that lifts the window up on either side (there's two on the liftgate window). That plastic piece broke out of the slider and that's how the window fell down on one side. Unfortunately, you have to buy an entire new regulator to replace that tiny plastic piece. Then I found this thread:
Broken window regulator rollers? I got a cheap fix for you. - JeepForum.com
And I bought these from home depot:
Then you just have to grind off the back of the ball with a dremel:
And carefully remove it with vice grips (without slamming them into the glass!). This will leave a hole in the arm, which I unfortunately didn't take a picture of. The new shower door wheel is just slightly too large to go in the rail on the window, so use your dremel to sand down the diameter just a bit. There is a small retainer tab in the rail that has to be bent up to get the wheel in the rail, and after that all you have to do is screw the arm to the wheel, resulting in the following:
You can see the small retainer on the rail, and you also have to remove that bolt that holds the rail to the window, just to get the wheel in the rail.
Hopefully someone will get some use out of this, saved me about $80!
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