Spring for Alwintite window

Hi,

The house was built in 1954 and a brand name on the window says "C-Alwintite". One picture shows a spring which I cut to remove it, so a square shaped metal plug attached to the spiral that wedged into the bottom of the sash. It was near impossible to re-insert the plug once it came out the bottom (at least with the sash still installed).

The spring measures 25.5 inches long and the spiral insert is about the same length. When the window is opened the spring will rotate. You can see at the top of the spring that at one time there was a thin tube that covered the spring when the window was closed. That tube was very brittle and has cracked off on every window but one in the house. The spring is 7/16ths in diameter. The channel in the frame has no tabs or latches except a screw hole at the top.

The underside of the sash is covered with a flexible layer (thin aluminum?) that looks like it is held in place by tension only and could be popped out.

I've tried to raise the sash and push it to one side to see if it will come out. Some times I can get part of the window clear of the channel but it would take some force to pry the window all the way out. Any idea how to remove the sash and/or hook up a new spring?

Thank You in advance.

- Paul

Hello again,

Here is some additional Information for this post.

I removed a spring from the other side to see the bottom fitting. See Photo.

The length of the spring when the spiral is fully wound inside is 27.25 inches (from the attachment hole on top to the lowest part of the spring). The window fully open would stretch this to 51.5 inches I can't weigh the window, but the storm window of the same size weighs about 10 lbs. Sash size is 27x39.

Thanks again.

Thanks for your reply. I will follow your advice.