Some local yokel
shot out the right rear window on my 4 door 1990 300E 2.5 Turbo (W124 body) with a pellet gun. I suspect some neighbor's kid or perhaps a neighbor rendered infantile through the overconsumption of beer. I don't even know these new neighbors, so I am sure that the cause is more likely doltishness and irresponsibility than malice.
I found a replacement in a boneyard, and managed to get the rear trim panel off okay, all the old window bits out (not too many, as I taped it on the outside and it already had sunscreen on the inside). I lubed up everything: the motor, the tracks, the door checkstrap, but the problem is getting the window back in place. Nothing seems to be out of place or broken in the door, by the way.
The window has an aluminum holder at the bottom and this has to slide over a white square on the regulator and is clipped in place with a plastic dohickey in the shape of a wide L__________I. To get it on, the window must be tilted. The next trick is to get the glass to tilt back into a perpendicular way and slide evenly into the channels on either side.
That is where I have had the difficulty. I can barely get the square on the window holder, and then the window will not tilt back to the proper position. If I unscrew the two nuts that hold the motor and the two bolts that hold the perpendicular part of the regulator that is welded to the motor in place, then I can get the square on, and the window has more room to move, but not enough to get it into the channels. The rear of the window is always tilted too far towards the rear to get the front side into the front channel. There is no access to the forward side of the window, unless one is Plastic Man.
I am pretty sure that there would be no way of putting the rubber channel in after the window is in place, either.
I have been fiddling with this for four hours now and still can't get it to fit. I checked the factory plate on the junk car, and it was a 124, so I am pretty sure I have the correct window. It matches up with the outside of the car as well.
I have replaced a window on a Colt, a Toyota, and the regulator on my w123 before, and was sure it would be a piece of cake when I began, but this seems to be a bit beyond me, and I don't want to throw a fit
and break the window.
Many thanks to all who have an answer. I am sure that there is a trick, but I have not found it.
I did find that soapy water made it a lot easier to press the rubber window tracks back in. I bet salad oil would also help.