Bought the funny looking anti-rattle sliding jaw for the front window regulator today. Before I take the door apart, does anyone have a pic of the regulator showing this odd sliding jaw and how it fits?

Thx.

Tell me which door and I will see if I can lower the window and get you a shot. It will be tomorrow though.

Driver's side front. I am told that the front and back regulator are not the same design.

Thx.

AAAH.
 

I took this shot before I got on the internet today. It is the passenger's door but it will work to guide you through the instructions. The shot is taken from looking up at the subject part.

The subject part guides the regulator end at the strike end of the door. You can see the exterior door handle in its mounted position on the left. I believe you can make out the plastic guide just to the right of the handle.

I don't know the proper way to change this part but it can be done with patients. I've only changed one. It's been a few years so all I remember is the struggle.

<img src="http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=148011&stc=1&d=1527965056">

That is very interesting. On the back door you just drill out and replace the rivet. This front jaw has no rivet. No idea what to do. Will just have to take it apart and see.

Much thx for the pic. Need to puzzle this out.

93 degrees in Atlanta today; way too hot to work on it.

This is the vertical guide. There is also a horizontal guide like those on the rear windows. One vertical and one horizontal. You will see the horizontal guide first after removing the door interior panel.

I remember removing the motor then moving the window/regulator down to the lowest point and working that rear guide out one way or another. Mine was put in wrong by the PO and wasn't installed properly. I had to take the door panel off the other door to see the proper orientation.

And I assume the horizontal guide has a normal sliding jaw like the back door?

Someone mentioned that there might be some sort of a stop on one of the channels in the front regulator? Does that ring a bell?

Yes, I'm not sure you could call them horizontal but I believe the jaws are identical, most likely the same part number.

If there is a stop it won't play a part in changing the sliding jaws until you reassemble the system.

W126 Window Lifts
 

There are two distinctly different front door lifts .

One is stamped steel, the other is cast .

Both are Mercedes parts .

I've had to replace the stamped steel lifts in my Brother's two W126's over the years .

According to Kent the cast one is the earlier version. I have an '81 so that is probably what I have. He says MB improved and moved to a stamped version after problems with the cast version. Many years ago I remember that my back regulator arm bent, blew the sliding jaw; I replaced the sliding jaw and bent the arm slightly back and it worked fine.

Interesting to tear apart the front door and look at that one. But hot here. Land Rover said it was 102 degrees while I was driving about 1PM today.

broke glass
 

Its called regulator guide jaw, it goes into rear vertical guide track. I am waiting for MB mail to deliver mine today. Do not operate window without this part in place, it can shatter your glass. Ask me how I know.

Wow; that is news. No one told me. Thanks for the info.

And just for confirmation. Unlike the back regulator, the front one takes a standard sliding jaw plus this funny looking one (regulator guide jaw) ?

As an aside on my old 1973 450 SEL (as I remember) the sliding jaw was not held together with a rivet and was really easy to take apart and replace. Then later, certainly by 1981, the MB engineers decided to use a rivet which had to be drilled out. I note this funny sliding jaw which I just purchased has no rivet either but it looks like it does not need to be taken apart to be installed.

Early on I bent the arm of the stamped window regulator because it needed cleaning and lube.

I keep several of the sliding guides being discussed in case they are needed. They need to have the plastic removed and be "peened" into the arm for the install. I think I used the bench vice to begin mushrooming the part that goes through the hole in the arm. I probably used a hammer & punch to finish the job.

Use a bench grinder to remove enough metal from the part that goes through the arm for dis-assembly. Don't grind too much of the arm. For the record, regulators are door and body style specific but any 126 regulator will fit any other 126. I "think" this holds true even if the rear doors of the donor are longer than where it's being installed.

OK, it is working again. Took about three hours because I did not know what I was doing. The regulator was a bear to get out of the door. I finally figured out that it needed to be unbolted from the window rail on one side and the standard sliding jaw had to be slid out of the very short channel where it is housed. Still it was very hard. I finally pushed the window up all the way and chocked it and finagled the regulator out. Getting it back in was also a bear.

I never found any problem. The regular sliding jaw and the funny sliding jaw (called regulator guide jaw) looked fine. l left the old regular sliding jaw and used the new regulator guide jaw just because I had it. Hint: to remove the regulator guide jaw, just push it out the short side of the channel; to install it push it in the other/long side of the channel before inserting the regular sliding jaw in same channel. Just push it along the channel with a finger until it fits the vertical channel; easy to readjust later when you are trying to get the regulator back in and everything lined up.

Hint: I think it works better to lower the window completely when you are unbolting and trying to remove the regulator. Then you need to push the window back up and chock it. Not sure the regulator will come out of the door frame if it is not in the fully lowered position.

Hint to rebolt the metal tab on the regulator to the metal tab on the window channel. You just cannot get a straight shot at the hole. So MB drilled a service hole in the door frame; you can insert a skinny extension from your ratchet set and get the bolt lined up and started that way.

It was very difficult to get the regulator back in. And the glass dropped and did not line up with the opening at the top. I cut a flap off a large cardboard box and slid it down from the top and behind the glass hoping it would guide it to and through the opening.

Everything was binding when I first put the regulator back in. I tested it with the power button and nothing would move. Turned out that lifting the rear end of the window finally loosened things and the three threaded bolts of the regulator finally matched the doorframe holes without forcing them to line up. That said I loosely fitted everything and tried the window button several times before I found the magic spot where it all worked. And the glass guided itself back through the top opening.

Looking back I think the trick is to unbolt the glass and then raise it completely and secure it outside the doorframe. That way you have more room inside the doorframe to wiggle out the regulator. At times I was not sure it was going to come out. And going back in was just as hard until I raised and chocked the glass.

Not something I would want to do again; that's for sure.

Window Service
 

This is why I hate working on/in doors .