heavy-duty window regulator fit problems

["Walter Coe" <Whalt@xxxx>]

If anyone has any photos of a properly installed heavy-duty window
regulator, please e-mail me a copy! I know of no installation directions in
existence. My problem is that the regulator could not be made to bolt up
properly with the supplied brackets. Since I'm not the only one with this
problem, I'm beginning to think that ALL heavy-duty window regulators are
like this. My theory is that the heavy-duty ones were designed to fit early
VIN cars but can not be made to bolt up the same way to later VIN cars.
Since my car came from the previous owner with one of these already
installed, I assumed that it was an OEM regulator since it worked so poorly.
If you already have installed heavy-duty regulators, read the following and
tell me if you have any of the symptoms that I just corrected:

The window now moves effortlessly with no slowing down as it opens or
speeding up as it closes. There is now no binding or torquing of the tube.
It now no longer scrapes my window tint film or puts pressure on the door
skin. The end of the lead-spring now no longer runs past the gear when the
window is rolled all the way up. I now no longer need an extension bracket
like a few other people have used as a fix to stop the ratcheting sound at
the top of travel. The glass now no longer disappears too deep into the
door where it tended to scrape the window fuzz off. And now the window
stays on track. (Imagine that.) Just how much can go wrong with a window
regulator anyway?

I started by making a small slip-on bracket for the very top of the tube and
attached this to the inside of the door with a screw and spacing it out with
washers. (It attaches in such a way that it does not block the slot in the
tube.) With the window rolled up, I determined the proper location for the
top of the tube & the new slip-on bracket. Then with the window rolled down
that put the bottom of the tube in the correct alignment. Since the tube
could slide through the slip-on bracket at the top, I was able to determine
the optimum height of the regulator in the door. This was the perfect
orientation of the tube to effortlessly operate the window, but the shape of
the tube made it impossible to not interfere with the door skin. So I had
to bend the tube slightly. Then the dog-ear tab welded on the regulator
tube didn't even come close to reaching anything that I could bolt it to.
In addition, the bracket for the grab handle support was now chronically in
the way, so I drilled the spot-welds out and removed the back part of it.
(I hated that thing anyway as I always had to pry it through the opening.)
Now with it gone, I had plenty of room to make new brackets. With what was
left of the door handle bracket, there was a convenient unused 6M screw
hole, so I used this as an attachment point. I ended up making 4 new
brackets out of 1/8"x3/4" aluminum. This is plenty strong and lighter than
the combined weight of the steel that it replaced. I'll post pictures when
I get a chance. If anyone has any similar experiences, please confess.
Thanks.

Walt Tampa, FL