Alright, I got the door panel off, only to find nothing...

But its so tight in there, how in the hell are you supposed to get the motor and what not out???

Anyone have any sugestions? Other wise I think I may just end up taking it to the shop.

 

Mine did the same thing you describe on the passenger side and it turned out to be the switch.

 

hey guys. First time posting here. I just got a 98 Ram 1500 SLT and I must admit I am glad to see this thread as I am having a similar problem, only slightly different.

On My Ram the Drivers side window and door lock switch are working just sometimes. I can always get the passenger window to go down and up from the D-side switch, the Drivers Side window will always go down, but getting it back up is a different story. I usually have to push the switch up, then slowly bring it back to a certain point for the window to go up. this usually works, but sometimes it won't go up at all. the drivers side door lock switch is also pretty random. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I did pull it apart and take the switch apart. cleaned it up, put some dielectric grease on the connections too, but its still doing it. I'm kinda thinkng the switch is bad. Am I correct?

P.S., sorry for the hijack but didn';t see the point to starting a new thread when this was already being discussed.

And If i have to replace the switch, what year did the auto down feature get added? it'd be nice to add that if its just a plug and play.

 

Sounds like the switch is bad to me, but im not very good with electrical things... obviouosly otherwise I wouldent of made this thread... lol

Dont worry about the hijack, I do it all the time.
They added the auto feature in 1999, and after having the switch apart im not sure if it would be plug and play or not... with my switchyou press it halfway, and it triggers one connection, and press it more if triggers another connection while leaving the first connection still connected... its hard to explain... but I think there would have to be another wire or somthing going to the window motor.

 

The switch itself is not meant to be serviceable.A newer switch that has the auto feature will convert any window to an auto feature as well.

Did you check the female ends of the wiring harness? I had a few that the"springiness" of the female side was too depressed to make a good connection. Rather than disassemble the entire harness, Ijust bent a prong in the switch to make a solid connection.

The motoron the window is another matter. The2001 FSM shows how to remove the regulator (which has the motor connected to the end of it.) Afailingmotor "may" cause problems with the window goingupward.Iftime isn't the issue, you can remove the passenger side motor from the regulator over there and connect it to the driver side regulator to test it. The motors should be interchangable.

I don't know thatthe driver and passenger switches are interchangeable.The+ and - might be reversed on theoppositesides and that could blow thelittle 10amp fuse that works thelocks and windows.

 

nope drivers and pass side are not interchangable, drivers side is a master control, it really coltrols everything, pass side is just a remote to the drivers side, or the slave control, however if the pass side f's up it can affect the drivers control, may wanna look at it too

 

Thats a good idea...

I think im going to work on it a little bit more tonight, but I really dont have time for it... I goto school from 7-3, then work from 330 - 1030 so im too tried at the end of the day todo anything to it so ill probably just end up taking it to the shop.

 

Well, my window works now...

Heres the story of waht I did... Not really the cause, but what I just did to "find" the problem...

I went aganst what one of you said, and went and tryed the passenger side switch on the driver side... soon as I plugged it in I herd *snap* from the fuse area... I was like ****... I lost both my windows, and door locks.

So im like... waht a great idea. I went down to the local autozone and picked me up a new breaker (forgeting that its a breaker, and not a fuse) and plugged it in... the passenger side window worked but not the drivers, like it was before... I was kinda mad so I ended up slamming my door alittle bit and as I slammed my door the driver side window went down... lol I looked at it and had to take a double take. Now my window seems fine... I kind of abused it (something that in the past few months would for sure stop it from working for a few minutes) got the window down and in the middle of its process went up with it, and did it a few times fast... seems fine.
It was probably a bad connection, and will happen again but atleast now I know its a connection.

Anyways, after this I tryed the old breaker and it worked the same as it did with the new breaker so that wasent the problem, but now I have a spare breaker waiting for me in my powerseat breaker spot.

What I am thinking may of been the problem is, maybe somtthing was connecting the auto down feature and holding it connected, therefore from the constant connection rendering the window useless... becasue when I slammed my door I did not press any button and my window went down, and all the way down, the instant that my door shut.

Well anyways, im not calling this a "fix" and I will proably be working on it again in the future but thanks for all the replys... It did help out.

 

I'm going to take a guess at what could be wrong. I suspect the problem is in the motor. Either the armature of the motor may have a bad contact or one of the brushes got stuck. When you slammed the door it may have caused to motor armature to shift or the brush to unstick. It may be fine for know, but I suspect it will happen again.

 

if you gott a buddy with a truck like yours swap switch panels (or spend $10 at the wrecker for another one) if it quits after you swap them then you know its not it, if it dosent stop problem solved...there is a procedure to test them, but itll be easer to spend $10, and if u miss a step testing it you might not find the problem

thats auchually a really good thought...