Technical Buick Hydraulic windows help

Hey All,

This is my first post on here and i'm hoping some of you experts can help me out.

I have 53' Buick Roadmaster 2dr hard top that I am slowly getting back into shape. When I bought the car the hydraulic windows were half down, except the drivers front. I never messed with them since it has been inside since i bought the car. Now i finally am at the point where i have the car running, the brakes work and it is almost drive-able. I took out the interior to get refurbished at a local upholstery shop, and now i have full access to the removable panels for all of the windows.

Now for the problem: The passenger and both back windows will only go up 3/4 of the way. they work well up and down until the 3/4 mark, and they stop like they are hitting something. For the life of me i cannot figure out what they are hitting and it seems sort of weird that all three stop about 3/4 of the way up. The passenger door cylinder does seem to leak a bit, but it still works fine up to the point at which it stops. The drivers window works perfect and does not get stuck or bind at all. the hydraulic seat works perfectly

Does anyone have any ideas what might be going on? My knowledge is limited on these hydraulic window systems.

Also, I pulled the reservoir off the pump and it appears to be full about half way with atf. does anyone know how full it should actually be?

Thanks for any help!

Scott

 

We always used hyd brake fluid in them...back in the early 60s

 

Are you looking inside the door watching for an obstruction as the glass moves up and down?

 

Don't know why they are stopping but like WBRW said they use brake fluid. I had a 53 Rivera coupe and worked on a 54 Skylark, both used BF.

Pat

 

If I had to guess, I'd say run all the windows to the fully down position and then check the fluid level. Add fluid if needed to nearly top off the reservoir. I suppose it might even be necessary to bleed the system if there's air trapped in it somewhere. Of course, I have no idea how you'd go about doing that...

 

Thanks Guys. The fluid in the canister definitely looks like atf to me. I will try putting all the windows down and filling the reservoir up. I have looked in the door at the mechanism many times to make sure that nothing is binding, but maybe i missed something? i just wish they gave you a bigger "cut-out" so you could see more without standing on your head.

worst case scenario is that i will remove the guts and inspect outside of the door, but i want to avoid that if possible because they sure look like a pain!

 

I think clatmart is on to something about bleeding the system.