Having sorted out one Bright Regulator, I'm now in the process of trying to get the glass to go up and down smoothly. However, this is somewhat hampered by the wheels that sit in the channel on the bottom edge of the glass. Both of these little alloy wheels were seized solid and whilst I've managed to free them off a bit, they still lock up and refuse to turn every now and then. The new (old) regulator and parallelogram I've just received from Flying Spares is even worse with both wheels seized solid.
To my mind, this presents a problem in that any resistance to the wheels running smoothly in the channel will inevitably result in failure of the Bright Regulator as the alloy back plate will start to wear on the square section of the regulator shaft and this will eventually round off completely. No more window going up and down.
These little alloy wheels are riveted in place and I wonder if it is possible to grind off the rivets and replace with something that allows the wheels to run more smoothly.
All 4 of my wheels were seized solid and had actually developed flats where they had slid from side to side in the window channel rather than turned. I freed them off with mole grips to start with but they were still reluctant to turn freely.
I soaked them in unleaded for the afternoon, turning them every now and then to make sure the fuel was getting into the wheels properly. Pushing in the sprung ball bearing also helps.
At the end of the afternoon, I now have 4 wheels turning freely. I now need to apply some gentle sandpapering to try and get rid of the flat spots.
Tbh, this is a poor bit of design and WILL inevitably seize up again. If I could find some suitably sized nylon wheels that fitted, I'd swap them.
Ah, but not Peerless fault in this instance, Frank. The Bright Regulator is just a bad design. Steel peg in an alloy hole?? Wheels that seize up and refuse to run putting strain on the mechanism?? And as for the internals??
The runners are actually in really good condition and it would be a shame not to use them. Tbh, I think it would be easier to fix the wheel issue than to make up a new runner.
I have a cunning plan to 'adjust' the wheels to suite the runner. If that doesn't work, I'll wait 'till I get the nylon wheels from China to see if I can make that work.
Typically, the RR regulator is for the door I've just finished restoring and the regulator that actually fits the runner perfectly is for the door I've start on.
On the matter of the section that fits to the bottom of the glass and wheel trundle (you hope) along. Just did a bit of trolling through images looking for something that might suit and found this?