Need advice on converteing a K5 rear glass to electric

[Alan2smiley]

I'm converting a 84 K5 mechanical manual gate glass to electric, wounding were to mount the motor, route the wires and mount the switch the same as factory.

 

[dyeager535]

Pretty sure you'll need the electric 'bezel" that holds the lock cylinder in place. Never looked real close at the mechanical design, but I suspect the lock cylinder won't sit in it correctly.

In your first pic, the motor goes almost where it is sitting. Flip it over (bracket up), cable end facing the bottom of the tailgate. It goes in the corner of the cutout it is resting on, as looking at the picture, the lower left corner. Up where I can see the regulator arm almost to the opening for the glass, appears to be a hole for a bolt. That would be for the single bracket hole.

I believe all the wiring goes down to the bottom of the tailgate, behind/under the steel piece the regulator bolts to, then runs across to the drivers side. Should be able to find some small holes which is where the factory plastic wire clamps were positioned.

 

[Big Ray]

I have 2 suburbans with electric windows. Ones missing the glass, when I rebuild it I'm going manual. Same with the other when it goes.

 

[Alan2smiley]

Yeah like on the white truck I deleted all the electric windows but this came with everything to convert it to electric and the mechanical is all bent and jacked up. Ideally would be a rag top and pick up tailgate but as of now that's not in the agenda. For now probably wire it for just the key. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[dyeager535]

You probably figured it out, but IIRC you need to unbolt the regulator and slide it around and out of the way to bolt the electric window lock setup in place. Don't believe you can access it with the regulator still bolted in. At least not easily.

 

[campfire]

Ideally would be a rag top and pick up tailgate but as of now that's not in the agenda.

Why not? Is there some advantage to keeping the sliding window?

 

[Alan2smiley]

Yeah, I want to keep it original and I'm hoping it's a simple route to getting it done so I can start on this one and build it for function not looks.

 

[Alan2smiley]

Long story short I can't think of a good reason to keep the 84.

 

[chevyjunky77]

You will need a new lock mechanism and regulator. There are only four bolts holding the regulator in and it slides out of the gate body easily. Pretty easy access to the lock mechanism at that point. The motor mounts on the right hand side of the interior pull handle just inside of the shell near where you have it sitting in the pic. Cable faces down. LMC has a nice breakdown and parts list for the swap.

 

[Alan2smiley]

Pretty exciting.

 

[Alan2smiley]

It came with everything including the harness, I need to tuck it and mount the switch in the cab. Anyone have pictures of where the switch should be mounted?

 

[Alan2smiley]

 

[chevyjunky77]

It came with everything including the harness, I need to tuck it and mount the switch in the cab. Anyone have pictures of where the switch should be mounted?

If not in the drivers door it would be where the dual tank switch would be next to the ashtray.

 

[Alan2smiley]

 

[imiceman44]

Man your motor is loud.
But it's also faster than mine so

 

[Alan2smiley]

Man your motor is loud.
But it's also faster than mine so

It's probably the because of the
Flowmaster 50 Series.

 

[lamberthkp]

Crap! What kind of engine is in that tailgate? I want one...

 

[Alan2smiley]

Loud and fast!

 

[chevyjunky77]

I purchased a second power window upgrade kit from LMC and will apply it to the back window. Will post in my "build". I have not looked to see if anyone has done this yet.

 

[dyeager535]

I purchased a second power window upgrade kit from LMC and will apply it to the back window. Will post in my "build". I have not looked to see if anyone has done this yet.

Their website sucks now, doesn't it? When they had the PDF of the catalog, at least I could find stuff. Do you have a link to the page that has the tailgate motor upgrade? I'm definitely interested in seeing your results from it.

Not a complete naysayer, I'd like more power for sure, but in dealing with mine constantly for the last few years, trying anything but putting new good parts in a tailgate I keep telling myself I'm going to get rid of "next year", I've run into all sorts of problems that seem like they could be exacerbated by more power. The regulator arms are pretty flexible due to length, the rollers are plastic and flat spot pretty easy, the track felt comes apart relatively easily, the regulator itself seems to wear out, and so on.

As much work as I've done to mine replacing or strengthening components, I think an upgraded motor would work well. Someone posted on here a couple years about someone that was making gear reduction motors IIRC, but the guy never responded to my email so I dropped that idea.