nimrod.sixty9
Hold on, I got this.
This writeup is written using a 99 Yukon; this may differ from your year/model.
I had put this off for so long, not only due to price of the motor but fear of going through the hell of getting the bars and alignment back in proper order. I wanted to share this due to this not being the case. A new motor, nor the removal of the motor is necessary. This does involve soldering, so if you have Parkinson's or suffer from dementia, please take medication before lighting your truck on fire.
Tools you may have to buy are a soldering gun, solder, and a T10 Torx bit. As you can see by the pic below I used the cheap solder gun and solder; both available at every chain auto parts stores. And I already had a bit for the Torx screws. Basically you can do this for less than $10 in less than 30 minutes. No reason to put off safety any longer!
For those of you who do not know where the motor is:
Pic of the Torx for those who dont know:
First you will need to remove the wiring harness. Pull the blue securing tab toward the front of the of the vehicle. Now you will need to pry the tab while pulling out the wiring harness. You may need to wiggle this back and forth to get this out. Now you are ready to remove the three Torx screws. Once removed, you can now remove the plastic cover/board assembly. This will need some coaxing to remove. Not hard to do, I grabbed the assembly where the wiring harness connected.
Here you will see the culprit. If you look closely you can see the cold solder joints. I simply heated this and added a little of the new solder to the old. Not best practice for soldering but this has worked for me (and on a budget).
These tabs you see cicled here should be cleaned as well as bent toward the point of contact. This will assure better contact for the motor. Use needle nose pliers and bend at the base of the contacts. The tip of the tab should be fine at 1/8" from current position.
Inspect the rest of the board for damage; as you can see here I have another issue. I cleaned this area with rubbing alcohol and dropped solder over the area, making sure to not burn the board or crossing the connection.
From here its ready to put back in the same way it came out. No alignment or motor removal necessary.
My goal is to have this explained in a way anyone can do this fix, but please don't hesitate to ask any questions!
I hope this helps clear up any confusion.
I had put this off for so long, not only due to price of the motor but fear of going through the hell of getting the bars and alignment back in proper order. I wanted to share this due to this not being the case. A new motor, nor the removal of the motor is necessary. This does involve soldering, so if you have Parkinson's or suffer from dementia, please take medication before lighting your truck on fire.
Tools you may have to buy are a soldering gun, solder, and a T10 Torx bit. As you can see by the pic below I used the cheap solder gun and solder; both available at every chain auto parts stores. And I already had a bit for the Torx screws. Basically you can do this for less than $10 in less than 30 minutes. No reason to put off safety any longer!
For those of you who do not know where the motor is:
Pic of the Torx for those who dont know:
First you will need to remove the wiring harness. Pull the blue securing tab toward the front of the of the vehicle. Now you will need to pry the tab while pulling out the wiring harness. You may need to wiggle this back and forth to get this out. Now you are ready to remove the three Torx screws. Once removed, you can now remove the plastic cover/board assembly. This will need some coaxing to remove. Not hard to do, I grabbed the assembly where the wiring harness connected.
Here you will see the culprit. If you look closely you can see the cold solder joints. I simply heated this and added a little of the new solder to the old. Not best practice for soldering but this has worked for me (and on a budget).
These tabs you see cicled here should be cleaned as well as bent toward the point of contact. This will assure better contact for the motor. Use needle nose pliers and bend at the base of the contacts. The tip of the tab should be fine at 1/8" from current position.
Inspect the rest of the board for damage; as you can see here I have another issue. I cleaned this area with rubbing alcohol and dropped solder over the area, making sure to not burn the board or crossing the connection.
From here its ready to put back in the same way it came out. No alignment or motor removal necessary.
My goal is to have this explained in a way anyone can do this fix, but please don't hesitate to ask any questions!
I hope this helps clear up any confusion.
Last edited: