Passenger window will not roll down

[Dan Diego]

I am unable to roll down the passenger side window of my 2001 Ram 1500. I do not have a lock-out switch on the master the best I can tell. I cannot roll the window down using either the master switch or passenger side switch. I can hear the motor receive power when I attempt to roll up. But I get nothing when trying to roll down. I have been through the switch and it appears to be ok but i cannot be certain. There are two wires that go to the power window motor. One is gray and the other purple. It is my understanding that one will deliver +12v and the other -12v which will control the direction of rotation of the motor. A check with my multimeter shows that the gray wire has +12v when the up switch is activated. I am then surprised to get +12v at the purple wire when the down switch is activated. Am I correct in expecting -12v on the purple wire when the switch is in the down position?

 

[Dan Diego]

I have done some more looking and discovered that the previous owner has done some "rewiring" on the driver side master switch. Not sure what I will do at this point. My haynes does not show the wiring for the windows so I look for a detailed schematic and then go from there.

 

[David H]

Kind of sounds like the glass has come loose from the rail. (Regulator) The unit will push the window up but if it has come lose, it will not pull the window down.
This can happen when the windows are frozen up in the winter and we keep trying to open them with the switch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAf3LWVuGjE

 

[Dan Diego]

David,

Thank you for your reply. I have already removed the regulator and motor from the passenger side and tested it using the driver side power connector. The passenger side regulator and motor work fine and the passenger side window moves freely. I suspect that I have a wiring issue from the door frame to the door. I have seen other posts citing a similar problem. In my case, it looks as though the previous owner already had this problem and ran replacement wiring outside of the the flexible rubber conduit between the door and the frame. I need to figure out if the "repair" wiring is bad or if more original wiring is the cause. There also is the possibility that a Power Window Module is bad. I did not know they existed until I removed the door panel on the driver side. There are two of then so I assume one is for the passenger side and the other for driver side.

 

[sgopus]

On my truck, I found that if one window doesn't work, then it could very well be both switches are bad, my drivers window would go down, but not up, my passengers window wouldn't work at all, so I replaced the passenger switch and still nothing, then replaced the drivers switch and both now work great, so the switches are hooked in series with each other, if for some reason the drivers switch goes bad, then most likely the passenger switch will work in one direction, but not both or not at all, I would try replacing both switches using the factory wiring (if it's not too messed with by previous owner too much).

 

[Dan Diego]

sgopus,

Thanks for the reply. I have learned a few more things since my last post and believe that I am on my way to resolving the problem. I noticed that the previous owner had done some rewiring. At first I thought that it must have been a repair. I realize now that home-cooking rewire job is for an after-market power window module. I have seen similar modules used as a feature of an alarm system that rolls up windows automatically when the alarm system is enabled. My hope is that when I eliminate the two power modules (one of which has failed) that the windows will work as originally designed. Fingers crossed.

 

[Dan Diego]

I have resolved the problem by removing both after market power window modules and restoring the original factory wiring connections.