True Connections

This month we are going to dive into power windows. In all 1964-1972 2 door Chevelles and El Caminos, Chevrolet offered power electric windows as an option. The front power regulators were the same for 1964-1965 Chevelles and 1964-1967 El Caminos. The rear power regulators in 1964-1965 were also the same, except hard tops were different from convertibles. 1966-1967 Chevelle front power regulators had a slightly different bend to the arms than the 64s-65s. The hardtop and convertible power regulators for 1968 were different from 1969 since there is no vent window on a 69, but the 1968-1972 El Camino power regulators were all the same, as are the 1970-1972 power regulators for Chevelles and Monte Carlos. Of course convertible rears were still different from hardtops. There are now factory style kits available for all years to convert your vehicle to power windows. Factory style being the key word since the new kits still work like the slightly under powered originals, so don’t think your new 1967 Chevelle power window kit is going to work like the ones on your 2004 Tahoe. They are still fast to go down and slow to go up. The other thing is that the 1964-1967 power regulators are not direct bolt in. Power regulators have a different bolt pattern than the manuals so there is drilling required. There are also 3 larger holes on each side that need to be drilled into the body and door for the wiring to pass through. Fortunately, most doors and bodies were stamped with dimples for locating the holes. On the inside frames where the manual regulators mount, you can find the four dimples that need to be drilled to mount the power regulators. Also on the front of the door jambs and in the jamb itself you can find the dimples you would drill for the wiring to pass through. These holes need to be large enough for the special rubber boots that protect the wiring. 1964-1967 electric windows are powered by a 10 gauge lead coming from the horn relay to a 30 amp breaker on the firewall, while 1968-1972 cars had the breaker mounted on the inside. From there power goes inside the car and into the driver side door harness. A cross over harness goes from the drivers door under the dash to power the passenger door. On Chevelles a special harness, which is not available reproduction, connected to the cross over, ran under the carpet, and connected to the two harnesses that power each side of the rear window switches, and then to small jumper harnesses that ran to the motors. Chevelles used a 4 button switch on the drivers side to control all 4 windows, and single button switches on the other three windows. El Caminos would obviously have a 2 button switch on the drivers side, and a single button on the passenger side. The control switches for 1964 to early 1970 had rounded corners and are available reproduction while the late 1970 through 1972 switches have square corners and can be difficult to come by. Stay tuned for next month when we discuss power seats.