Lubricate your windows before 1st Spring use.
 

If your windows haven't been used since fall, I'd advise you to clean the glass on both sides and leave them wet when you first use them. Helping them along with your hands would also be a good idea. The problem is that the rubber may have dried or stuck to the glass, making the glass difficult to slide in the channel. If it's too hard to move, the plastic slider on the actuator arm will break and it is not a fun job to replace them! I also shot some Silicone Lube into the side channels.

If you are so unfortunate as to face this job, (my daughter broke them on both of my back windows on the Diesel) you can save yourself the job of pulling the motor and riveting the new slider in place by opening the new slider, removing the rivet and running a 1/4 - 20 die on the small end. Run a similar tap through the hole in the arm. Use Loctite on the thread and assemble in place. (You remove the old rivet by grinding the end flush with the arm, then grab the inside part with a pliers and rotate/twist until it comes loose). You will still have to loosen the motor mounts to be able to get the new slider into the channel, but this way saves you a bit of aggravation.

The problem is that the slider system was designed to be assembled in a factory, and little thought was given to field replacement. Riveting is just a lost art, other than Pop Rivets, and in this case it could have been avoided by any number of different design approaches.

Hope this is of some help.

Just like running the A/C in the winter......

Always a good idea.

Good post, Ron. Thanks!

Just to clarify -- where do you spray silicone? On the "furry" side channels in the visible part of the window frame? Or are you talking about using the nozzle and spraying silicone inside the door?

Thanks for your kind words guys. I sprayed silicone into the side channels only. Spraying the rubber seals at the bottom of the window would be great, but it would cause the entire window to be coated with silicone. A better idea, now that I think about it, would be to thoroughly clean the windows and then use "Rain-X" on them. That stuff is clear, won't smear and is very slippery. It's a really good product!