Ups and Downs with Skylark (electric window conversion)

Get a coffee as this post may be a long one! My latest project (started last November) was to install electric windows in Skylark. Some may ask Why? When it’s such a small van you can reach the opposite side, well trouble is it’s not quite safe doing it whilst driving when you want a bit more ventilation. So after looking about for genuine Hijet electric windows I decided that they were harder to come by than bull bars! The next choice was to get one of the conversion kits, videos looked good and I took the plunge.
Fitting them (only attempted the drivers side) was relatively straight forward but I could never get it to work reliably. Sometimes it would work, other times it would jam. It wasn’t the runners etc more like there was too much inefficiency in the long drive from the motor to the window winder spindle and also where it could be fitted. To cut a long story short I abandoned them but I have re used the wiring harness and switches but these can be bought cheaply elsewhere i.e eBay.
After a bit of thinking, thought I would go to a system that did work, the standard way of opening a window, the motor directly driving the mechanism. A stab in the dark was an eBay purchase of two Daihatsu Sirion electric window winder mechanisms including motors for £15.


The next bit was to see if they fitted, they were not unfortunately a straight fit. The main arms of the mechanism are the same but the slider that controls keeping the window glass is longer. The other difference is that the toothed gear is fitted at a different angle.




Fortunately if you drill out the spot welds that hold it on it can be turned around and it becomes the correct orientation, re weld it back on and job done.


A tab on the bottom runner needs removing otherwise it catches on the door as it gets to the top. The winder/motor mechanism fits existing holes in the door but to fit the longer slide bar two new holes need to be drilled as shown. The other thing you would need to do is drill a new hole to match to existing spacing of the bolts that fix the window to the runner.



Now all fitted and tested it’s the electrics, all fairly straight forward except it needs a 30A fused supply which is OK if you want a permanent supply but I only want them to work with ignition on so a relay had to be fitted which was triggered by a 12v switched supply.

The switches from the kit were supposed to be fitted to the door panel but they didn’t look good and looked very ‘add on’. I took the choice to modify the wire harness and fit the switches in the handbrake console instead of the silly coin tray. Much better and easy to access. Not quite finished as I need to spray the modified console and actually fit the switches, think I may need to move something next to the handbrake but not looked yet.


Overall I am really happy with how it turned out. Took a long time to do but that was because there was a lot of trial and error fitting etc.

Wow thank you for such a good description - I have to admit after reading what was involved I do not think this is a job I would want to undertake. But I take my hat off to you, that you will take on a task like this.
Jon

Let’s just say...I like a challenge! Next project is a challenge but more of that another time

Final pic to show it finished.

3 window switches?

Yup, driver can do passenger and passenger can do their own without fiddling about other side of handbrake, suppose could have got away with two but as thats how the original loom for them was set out I just kept it but changed the length as they were originally meant to be installed in pods mounted on the door cards, didn’t like that as they looked just add on rather than an original option.

Ah, I understand. Looks good enough to be original (of course it is, you did it!) - shame about the snag in the paint though. So what's the next challenge?

Yes paint snag was a ....snag, was great till I had to ‘generate’ some clearance beneath it for the switch! Caught the edge and cracked it. Will probably fix it shortly. The next project is....