Rear tailgate glass channel position?

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Suburbanja

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Hi everyone I am new on the site and this is my first post. I meant to find a forum and post on it a few days ago but life can be full of distractions. Anyways I am having new glass installed in my 1989 Suburban in about 8 hours and I have basically rebuilt all of the tailgate including the seals and scrapers and so on. I bought a new lower channel from LMC that holds the glass but I can't figure out exactly which way it goes. It can only go two ways and the LMC description isn't the best because the way it shows is opposite from the one that came out but who knows if the one that came out was right considering it was busted with no glass. The one from LMC is also longer and bend slightly different. Does anyone have a photo or can tell me how that lower channel is to properly be put to the window regulator?

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Charlie

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Suburbanja

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I found this YouTube that shows a manual crank window channel . But I think it looks like how my original was installed . I need to contact LMC and see if they have any insite . However last time I tried to clear up some stuff with LMC the people were less then helpful. In fact the sales people don’t know anything about thenparts they are selling. At least the two I talked to admited that.

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bucket

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I think the way pictured in your top picture is the correct way. I've actually seen those channels installed both ways and either way seems to work. But from what I remember, you have it right.
 

Suburbanja

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I think the way pictured in your top picture is the correct way. I've actually seen those channels installed both ways and either way seems to work. But from what I remember, you have it right.

Hey thanks for the reply. So I actually installed it opposite from the way I had pictures and I will explain why. My original has an imprint of where the sliders were mounted to the angle on the high side ... meaning looking at the angle from the side I mounted like this “ L “ . The picture I took was the channel mounted opposite of that . I am posting a drawing which I have mounted like the image drawn on the left. I chose this way because my original bar was mounted this way and the LMC bar followed this countor because the glass is slightly curved and the LMC bar is longer as well. So a couple of questions that I asked myself were maybe it’s supposed to be the other way and it would be a tighter fit . This is why my glass setting rubber did hold the glass the first time I installed the glass this morning . And this is also why I am now having an issue hitting the latch linkage which I am posting a pic of as well . Maybe the PO put the glass is wrong and I thought it was original? I used 3m urethane to set the glass after the rubber didn’t hold well enough to my liking which I’m worried about now because it’s not going to be easy to remove and flip that bar so I need people’s input. Maybe I can cut the glass out of the urethane and flip it but I’m still not 100% sold on that working either . Pretty stressed about it because I have a lot of money invested in this tailgate already . Any help is greatly appreciated .

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Suburbanja

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Ok after thinking about the situation all night I decided to flip the glass channel to the second diagram that I drew . I am confident that this will solve my problem but if it doesn’t it will be very annoying as th3 3m urethane adhesive is no joke and very hard and messy to remove.
 

bucket

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Well when you install it the other way, there's a simple step you can do to help it hold together longer. If you drill several holes through the window sash, it will give the urethane more to bite onto later on when the steel sash starts to rust.
 

Suburbanja

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I flipped the channel earlier yesterday morning . That 3M stuff was a PITA but it all worked out and cleared what I needed to clear. I have no idea why the PO har their channel the opposite. Anyways now I have the issue with the motor being weak . When I put the inside cover on, which has the inner scraper felt , the window is pinched and the motor doesn’t have enough torque to push through it but so far up or down. But if I remove that cover the window goes up and down just fine but of course I can’t leave it like this or the inside of the window will be scratched and rattle. I’m really thinking about ordering the inside scraper for the non Silverado suburban . I’m not a huge fan of the plastic cover with carpet anyways but with that being said I ordered a remanufactured motor . Hopefully that is the issue because if it’s not then I have resistance in the wiring or a bad ground .

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Suburbanja

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The glass in place without the inner felt on the tailgate but at least there’s a window now .

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bucket

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The motor mounts up with the three bolts, and there is supposed to be a suport plate that also bolts up using the same bolts. It supports the output shaft on the motor. Does yours still have this?

I've had a total of 4 Burbs with a power tailgate. Two of those are without the plastic interior cover and I like that style much better. Interestingly, my '88 is a Silverado and was built new without the plastic cover.
 

Suburbanja

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The motor mounts up with the three bolts, and there is supposed to be a suport plate that also bolts up using the same bolts. It supports the output shaft on the motor. Does yours still have this?

I've had a total of 4 Burbs with a power tailgate. Two of those are without the plastic interior cover and I like that style much better. Interestingly, my '88 is a Silverado and was built new without the plastic cover.

Yes it still has the support plate and bushing. The remanned motor from O’Reilly’s did the trick and it now works properly with the inner plastic cover . The only thing I’m wondering about now is how to stop the door from being able to open when the glass is up. I have kids so I would like to have this locking feature back. I think there may have been a bar at one time that kept it locked? I haven’t found any info on that yet so any on-site will help. I can fabricate anything as long as I have original specs to go off of . You can see a video on this link https://www.instagram.com/p/BnMlSC_nHzW/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1hukx2ply855i

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trukman1

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Not sure if this is addressing your problem but my K5 has a switch located at the LH latch (inside the tailgate) that prevents the tailgate from opening when the window is in the up position. I think it is there to prevent trying to open the tailgate with the window up as, being locked in the "track" it could break the glass. Hope this helps. BTW, my switch didn't work, all full of dirt, so my son sprayed it out with carb cleaner (didn't realize I had contact cleaner) and it started working fine.
 

Suburbanja

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Not sure if this is addressing your problem but my K5 has a switch located at the LH latch (inside the tailgate) that prevents the tailgate from opening when the window is in the up position. I think it is there to prevent trying to open the tailgate with the window up as, being locked in the "track" it could break the glass. Hope this helps. BTW, my switch didn't work, all full of dirt, so my son sprayed it out with carb cleaner (didn't realize I had contact cleaner) and it started working fine.

After reading more I don’t think there is a locking mechanism to stop the tailgate from being opened from the inside at any point. I do have the switch and the PO had bypassed it but I cleaned it all up and it works . What that switch does is keep the glass from being raised up when it is not 100% latched.
 

saltdog

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Does anyone have a pic of the support plate and bushing for the tailgate motor gear? Been looking at this guys site on converting from an OEM Tailgate motor (https://www.tradecraftspecialties.com/SquareBodyTailgateWindowMotors#Topic1) to Standard door motor #: Cardone 42-16, or 82-016, or REP0468701, or OEM 22048629. I was able to find gear that works (Dorman 747-410 Power Window Motor Gear ), but it needs a support plate and bushing.
 
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