found that indeed the arm is welded to the large gear on the regulator. the welds had broken and the gear was not connected to anything hence my window not working!
after removing the regulator (and confirming my hypothesis) i decided to try to fix this otherwise good regulator.
i drilled ten 1/8 holes ( the 3 original plus several others for added strength) and three larger holes through the arm and into the gear. being careful not to go through the gear and risk welding the arm and gear through to the regulator body and having it not move!
i mig welded through the arm to the gear in all the holes. the large holes allowed me to fill in a little more material.
i bench tested it after a couple tacks to make sure it would still operate, and it did.
the regulator on my car was riveted in with some massive rivets. i had to drill them out to remove the unit and do not own a rivet tool that would hold that size rivet.
i decided to use some spare 10mm nut/bolt set ups in the 3 holes to hold the reg to the door
everything is back in place and i now have an operational window
