The Lotus Grand Tourers

The drivers side window of my 87 HE will only open about 1 inch and then makes a grinding noise. I can get the window back up again, but it is not happy.

I am not sure if it is the gear on the end of the motor that has seen better days.

Does anyone know what other vehicle uses this winder mechanism and motor, perhaps a Toyota? I will have a better chance of finding something out here to replace it with. Don't really want to go the import route as it is so expensive.

Mine did the same thing when bought. It turned out to be the nylon drive gear inside the motor.
Dont know what type your motor is but if its Delco like mine then you can take the cover plate off the gearbox, prise out the nylon gear and splined shaft and remove without having to take the whole mechanism out. On mine, only one edge of the gear had worn, so i removed it from the shaft and reversed it so the unworn side was taking the load. This involves drilling 3 holes and enlarging them into slots to take the metal tangs - hard to explain but very obvious what you need to do when you have it in your hand.
Good luck - Matt.