one minor problem..my door

[r_0h]

hey hows it going guys & gals, my legacy is still running strong.
one minor problem, my motor on my passenger door stopped working.
I know its the motor because it slowly lost power, maybe it could be
something else but im 99% sure its the motor. I tried searching on the
forums but got nothing, or im searching the wrong words...
Im sure it's very simple but i never had luck fixing door problems /w doors.
is there a guide out there to make things simpler for me? should i just buy
the cars manual? hope you guys can give me a little help, its getting cold
driving at night

[mike-tracy]

Is this the window motor? Not the power locks, right?

Rock Auto sells the power window motor:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/sub ... motor,1516

Basic steps are: removing the door card (which involves taking out a couple screws that are under a foam plug and 1 or more hidden under a plastic panel and maybe under the ash tray (not 100% sure if the ash tray needs to come out)

Once the door card is out, you can pull off the plastic seal and access the bolts that hold in the motor for replacement. You'll probably want to add new grease to the moving parts such as the gears in there.

[r_0h]

thanks mike-tracy for posting, i really appreciate it.
gonna give a follow up post in the next day or two.

[r_0h]

that was a bit pricey so I went to my local pick-n-pull; and they had a good interior '94 legacy - can I use a multi-meter and and 12v battery to test the motor that way? If i get it used, it will save me a nice chunk of change.
can I use that car for parts on my '91 legacy ls? i might need new struts too.

[mike-tracy]

You can test the motor on the car, I've done it before. it's not completely obvious which pin goes to what, but the black one was always negative (for me), one pin ran the motor up, and the other down.

I used one of those batteries from a power tool that i brought with me, found some wire in the engine bay and carefully tested the leads against the pins.

The 91 and 94 have different lengths for the rear suspension (even though everything bolts together), swapping them is possible, but I know from experience switching one to the other makes the rear either too high or too low depending which direction you go.

I'd encourage you to get brand new KYB GR2 (or Exel-G, same struts with a different name) instead of putting used in place of used. A couple hundred in new parts will transform your car!

This list is for a 1990-1991 Legacy:
Front (the same between FWD and AWD)
https://www.amazon.com/KYB-235063-Suspe ... 007XS4EN6/
https://www.amazon.com/KYB-235064-Excel ... 000C44BVS/

Rear, AWD specific
https://www.amazon.com/KYB-235068-Excel ... 0006HNMTI/
https://www.amazon.com/KYB-235067-Suspe ... B006ZN4GGU (note the picture is goofy and wrong, but this is the correct part number from KYB's catalog)

Rear, FWD specific
https://www.amazon.com/KYB-235072-Suspe ... 006ZN4H1Y/
https://www.amazon.com/KYB-235071-Suspe ... 006ZN4GR4/

[mike-tracy]

Heres my 1992 with 1991 rear suspension (and lowering springs, would you believe it? )

[r_0h]

i used a 9v battery to test the motor and it showed life, but the pinion gear wasn't rotating as fast as I assumed. maybe because it was low voltage?
i got a multi-meter - should I test something with it?

[mike-tracy]

I think 9v isn't enough to activate the motor. My power tools battery is 18v, which is more than the motor is rated for, but I only touched the contacts for really short amounts of time

[r_0h]

Im not sure what the problem is if the motor is fine...
the fuse box didn't show windows, im not sure where to look next...test wires? maybe water got in and damaged something...
any ideas where to test next? thanks

[mike-tracy]

Dumb question, but have you tried both switches that control that window?