Vehicle door window unit for raising and lowering a window having a cable tensioner for maintaining tension in support cables

A vehicle door, comprising:

• a window opening at an upper side of said vehicle door,
• a glass plate which is movable between an open position and a closed position, said glass plate closes said window opening when the glass plate is in said closed position and is housed inside a glass plate housing space within a lower side of said vehicle door when the glass plate is in said open position,
• guide rails are arranged at front and rear sides of the glass plate and guide the glass plate, and a drive unit is disposed inside the lower side of said vehicle door to drive said glass plate up and down,
• a base panel having a plurality of pulleys at upper and lower positions of said base panel for guiding wires for driving the glass plate up and down,
• said drive unit comprising a drum provided on the base panel for driving said wires,
• a carrier plate for moving up and down between the upper and lower pulleys while supporting a lower side of said glass plate,
• the wires engaging the plurality of pulleys, at least two of said wires partially wound around the drum and fixed to said carrier plate,
• a tensioner is disposed between at least one of the pulleys and the drum for tensioning one of the at least two of the wires to prevent said one of the at least two of the wires from slackening when said one of the at least two of the wires is being moved by rotating said drum to drive the carrier plate up and down, wherein said tensioner comprises a first slide member and a second slide member, wherein said first slide member and said second slide member are connected to each other and spaced apart by a gap which forms a passage for said one of the at least two of said wires;
• the first slide member being pivotally attached to the base panel so that the second slide member can pivot relative to said base panel,
• said first slide member including a circumferential surface and said second slide member including a circumferential surface generally parallel to said circumferential surface of said first slide member, said circumferential surfaces defining said passage, each of the circumferential surfaces of said first and second slide members including a substantially V-shaped groove having a groove bottom, said groove bottoms of the first and second slide members engage said one of the at least two of said wires passing along the passage between said first slide member and second slide member, said drum including an axis and said one of the at least two of said wires moves a distance along said axis between a first end position corresponding to said open position of said glass plate and a second end position corresponding to said closed position of said glass plate as said one of the at least two of said wires is wound on and unwound from said drum,
• wherein the the substantially V-shaped grooves of the tensioner are shifted from a center of said distance toward a side of the tensioner to which the greatest tension is applied by said one of the at least two of said wires to reduce the wear on said one of the at least two of said wires.