Okay, got good news and bad news. My car cover is still frozen to the car, but I can pull it up to get to the doors. My Driver'* side door, frozen shut. Can't unlock the doors, can't open the door, nothing. The good news.. the Passenger'* side door unlocks, and opens. So, I was able to get to the rear door trim piece, and brought that inside.

I am hoping that the disassembly will be the same as the master power switch..

First off, you need to take off the whole woodgrain trim piece.. it just pops off.. well, it takes a little more work than that. You first off, must remove the torx head nut for the backing of the door handle.. then it pretty much pops off. There is a velco like thing on the top center thing between the grab handle, and lock switch. So, try to regulate pressure to that area, so you don't break anything. Once you have it separated, you need to unplug the lock switch and window switch [power mirrors if equiped]. Now that you have the trim piece off, you can get started. There are two tabs on the side of the switch, which you just take your keys, insert on the top of that side, and pry away [be careful.. old and cold plastic doesn't like to be flexed], and take a small screw driver and pry it UNDER the tab, so you can push the switch out the bottom of the trim piece. Once you have one side off, you will need to repeat the key process, but not the small screw driver one, and just grab ahold of the sides and pull off. You now have the switch removed. Here comes the tricky part. You have to separate the switch now. Remember those tabs you have on the sides? Well, pry on those [on the crack, which separates top and bottom of the switch].. get in there, then on the sides you will see it separate a little, get a small screw driver in there [while still prying on the top], then pry up on the sides.. this is hard, you don't want to go too far in because you'll hit the sides of the metal contacts [and possibly damage them]. Then just keep working your way around the switch, until you have separated the whole thing.

You've now got a separted switch.. you can see the metal contacts [mine are gold].. and you can easily remove them. Note how they are placed. This can be mixed up, so be careful on that. Mine seem to have die-electric grease on the contacts.. but it doesn't look like die-electric grease much anymore.. so if GM put some on it, I suggest you do too. I'd also suggest pulling one contact out at a time, cleaning it thoroughly with electric parts cleaner [don't forget to clean the base contacts too!]. Put a dab of die-electric grease on the contacts [the ones that sit on the base of the switch]. Re-assemble, and re-assembly is just snapping plastic together.. so it'* even easier than disassembly. The woodgrain trim will NEVER want to go back into it'* spot.. the trick I used, was to put the woodgrain trim in the freezer, and take a blow drier to the plastic surrounding it. Be careful with the cold plastic trim.. you have a greater risk of breaking it then.. so you have been warned.

EDIT: Also clean the pins for the connector, and the connector itself. Might want to put on a dab of die-electric grease there too. I noticed a lot of dirt on my pins... that didn't take a whole lot of cleaning to do. Our windows are so slow, they need all the help they can get.


-justin

thanks for the info.

and just to be sure you're not selling one right?

Nope. I got my car defrosted, however.. so if you would like instructions for the Master Switch, I may be able to find time sometime this week to get to it. Those previous instructions should be fine.. but I am just saying..


-justin

no no no dont' worry about it bud. I got mine off easily enough. thanks! Still looking to buy one if anyone has a spare though the GM dealer here wants 30 for a new one, and gmpartsdirect wants like 24 or so but i'm thinking a junkyard around here can't ask for too much