back seat windows

how far are these supposed to go down? mine only go down less than half way.

That's correct. They do not go down all the way.

Look at the bottom of the door. See the cut part for the rear wheel well? That's why the window can't go down.

jayoldschool wrote:

Look at the bottom of the door.  See the cut part for the rear wheel well?  That's why the window can't go down.

your car has a cut part?

jayoldschool wrote:

Look at the bottom of the door.  See the cut part for the rear wheel well?  That's why the window can't go down.

a lot of sedans only open about 80% for that reason, but this thing only goes 40% and there has to be room for it to go further. piss poor engineering on GM's part.

It is a good safety feature. The kids can not hang out of the window, or throw thing out easily.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

It is a good safety feature. The kids can not hang out of the window, or throw thing out easily.

well I sure can understand the obama mentality of that. personally I like to see better responsible parenting. and responsible children. I guess my viewpoint comes from becoming a parent when most people are already grandparents.

Yep. Obama did it way back in 1991. He's an insightful guy like that.

/sarcasm

The Roadie Sedans go all the way down, doubt it's a safety thing.

95BRMW wrote:

The Roadie Sedans go all the way down, doubt it's a safety thing.

yeah I took a tape measure out there and it looked like it could go down all the way. if the sedans do and the wagons don't then I will be looking to swap mechanisms.

Have a look at the Roadie sedan window. You'll instantly know why they roll down further. Maybe Obama was on that design team

It might be possible to modify the RMS glass to fit a wagon. I believe the mechanism is the same. The moving piece should work, and the pillar should fit pretty close. The rear part may require a specially cut piece of glass.

I will never understand why this is such a darn "issue" with so many people. Who gives a crap how far it goes down? Why doesn't it go all the way down?

1.Walk outside and take a long hard look at the window.

2.Take a long hard look at the door.

3.The answer will smack you in the face after enough looking.

The Buick Sedan has a 2 piece rear window, hence the reason it goes down farther. Sedan windows are a different size/shape than the wagon glass.

It would would take more fab work and money to make a window that goes all the way down than it is worth.

I would be happy if both of my windows actually worked.

Haha, I like this thread.

Let's be thankful these open at all.   Think of all the poor G-body wagon owners from the 80's that had only useless opening vent windows in the rear doors! They look at us with jealously!

To be fair, one of the main reasons I like my Suburbans/Denali XL's more than the Tahoe's is that the back door glass on the Burbs goes all the way down, and the Tahoe only halfway.

I do think it's silly how little the windows on our wagons open, but I think it's more of a styling issue.   GM wanted fewer lines on the sides of the car...it DOES look smoother with the single piece of glass. If we had a fixed vent window in the rear door, like the 80's-era full-size wagons, or the Roadmaster Sedans for that matter, then the door glass would not be as wide, and could most likely roll all the way down without hitting the wheel-wells.    

-Mike

frederickflintstone wrote:

I like to see better responsible parenting. and responsible children.

I used to know everything there is to know about raising children. Then I had some.

4 kids and 5 grandkids later, I have learned at least one thing: sometimes kids do stupid things, and there's nothing that parents can do to prevent that. Influence, yes, control: no. Kids are independent human beings and rapidly develop their own unique personalities. Two siblings, raised by the same responsible, caring, watchful parents under the same rules and in the same environment can behave completely different under the same circumstances. One might be timid, the other fearless. One might be passive, the other curious. Either one can have a lapse in judgement and even someone with perfect judgement is still subject to the laws of physics.

The best you can do is the best you can do, then pray a lot and lose a lot of sleep -- especially when they hit their teen years.

Specific to the RMW: Being a station wagon, this car was specifically marketed towards families with young children. Early models did not have a power window lock-out feature (although later years did). Intentional or not, limiting the glass travel was one way to limit possible harm in an era where child car seats with 5 point safety harnesses were still a bit of a novelty. I have personally responded to accidents where the rolling car flung a child out an open window before the car landed on them. Not a pretty sight.

Speaking as a responsible parent, if restricted glass opening can help prevent injury to a child, then I'm all in favour of it. If, on the other hand, this restriction on your personal freedoms bothers you that much, vote with your wallet and buy something else instead. Can I interest you in the Sedan line?

94Woody wrote:

I will never understand why this is such a darn "issue" with so many people. Who gives a crap how far it goes down? Why doesn't it go all the way down?

1.Walk outside and take a long hard look at the window.

2.Take a long hard look at the door.

3.The answer will smack you in the face after enough looking.

The Buick Sedan has a 2 piece rear window, hence the reason it goes down farther. Sedan windows are a different size/shape than the wagon glass.

It would would take more fab work and money to make a window that goes all the way down than it is worth.

I do give a **** how far the window goes down. I truly dislike this on modern sedans when the window only goes down 90% of the way. I like convertibles and April thru October the top is down if it ain’t raining. I owned a 61 Electra 4 dr coupe where if you put down both front and rear windows you could slide something 5 foot long thru the window opening. Heck I wish the cargo windows were removable.

FWIW I pulled up a pic of a sedan and yeah I don’t think the 2 pc window would look good on the wagon but a strip of electrical tape would give a good idea of what it might look like.

After pulling out the tape measure it looked like the window should still open 80% instead of 40%. It wasn’t until I opened the rear door and looked at how much the outer door skin overhangs the door framework did I understand why it doesn’t go down far enough. I personally would rather have the rear axle 3-4 inches rearward and have a frigin window that opens but that is just my opinion.

Well, all you have to do is buy a D body, and put the wagon body on that frame, using the longer rear doors of the D body! Easy!

Wow!
I've been driving my wagon around for five years with a rear window that doesn't roll down..... No issues here!.......Thought I might ask some questions about repairing it, but I guess this is the wrong thread for that...... On the other side of the car, though, I guess I'm kind of an optimist..... I see the window as halfway up rather than halfway down......and in the rain I prefer it all the way up.....not sure why anybody would want it all the way down(?) Isnt that what air conditioning is for?

Since my last post on this thread, I have found that the regulators for the rear of the RMS are different from the wagons and Caprice sedan.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Since my last post on this thread, I have found that the regulators for the rear of the RMS are different from the wagons and Caprice sedan.

That would make sense, they are basically a scissor mechanism and the sedan ones have to move further than the wagon ones.

I still want my rear windows to go all the way down, but I have lost all interest in this car. Its nice for a road trip but beyond that I have other vehicles I like better for other purposes. having the fuel pump die when it did saved me from what could have been a huge problem if it went out on our road trip, but despite it being fixed now I doubt if I will ever trust the car again.

The RMS regulators are smaller than the wagon and Caprice sedan units.