How-To Spotlight: C3 Power Window Motor Replacement

We take power windows for granted, but the motors do fail eventually.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to get fresh air into your car, you hand to manually crank down the window. Back then, the biggest fear was the window coming off the track, or having something strip out somehow. Once power windows were introduced, there was no going back. While parts and accessories today are over-assembled and tested to failure, back then, that wasn’t necessarily the case. It could take a few years, or in some cases decades, but your C3’s power window motors will at some point fail. You can take it to a mechanic, or with help from today’s How-To Spotlight article, you can make the repair yourself.

Today’s Spotlight shines directly on the process of swapping out the failed power window motor in a C3 Corvette. As with most items in the older generations, having the proper tools may not be as difficult as it could be for the newer models. We are not going to sit here and tell you that this will be the easiest and shortest 13-step process, but it could definitely be worse.

CHECK OUT: The Entire Corvette Forum How-To Article

Getting the door panel off and exposing the interior of the door has you almost a quarter of the way home. The simplicity of the build of each generation before the C4 makes us take a step back from time to time, and it is easy to see as much in this picture.

Take a read through this week’s article to see the basic steps to swap out the power window motor. We are confident that once you take on this task, you may find yourself wondering what other items you can handle on your own.