Pfc. Parts

I'm putting the finishing touches on restoring the electrical on my '85 and have run into the classic problem; gunked up sunroof frozen in place. Motor works fine, roof moves about 1/2" in either direction from the closed position then sticks.

I've read the many posts including Stan's excellent description of how to restore these roofs to working condition, but all of them assume the roof can be opened far enough to get at the three screws holding the roof to the guides, which I can't do.

I don't have the manual emergency crank and can't even find a spot for it in the toolkit, which makes me believe I never had one. I've tried taking the screw and washer out of the clutch/transmission and only satisfied myself that if I placed enough torque on that screw (straight blade driver) I'd only mess it up.

Is it worth trying to either fabricate or buy a hand crank? I've slid a tube as far into the mechanism as I can (about 3 inches) and injected silicon lubricant into it, so far that hasn't done anything. I'm considering WD-40 or maybe even PB Blaster but I'm worried I might mess up the headliner.

Suggestions on how to break this thing loose enough to open it up and give it a good cleaning would be welcome.

Mrmerlin

its easy to open the roof,

BUT you should tape a sheet of Thin cardboard to the top of the roof first,
use blue tape and use the sheet fliers you get in the mail,
this will protect the paint if it may have gotten out of adjustment.

to open the roof,
simply remove the motor cover,
then turn the black isolator between the transmission and the motor,
this will slowly open the roof

Pfc. Parts

I'm going to assume this is a very time consuming process? Is the hand crank a better approach if I can find one or is this pretty much the only reasonable option?

I'm a little concerned about putting torque on that isolator, it looks like it's rubber. My tool of choice would likely be channel locks. How easy is it to destroy that part?

Dave928S

Turning the rubber coupler is a bit slow, but will open the roof in a matter of minutes once you get it going. The crank is faster but I've rotated the coupler to open my roof a few times when the battery has been disconnected.

Don't use channel locks ... they'll totally wreck the coupler. Once the roof is 'unstuck' you should be able to rotate it with your fingers quite easily.

Try pressing gently up from underneath around the edge of the roof and from the top to help overcome the initial 'grab' on the seals, and if still difficult once you have it going. Giving it some help by gently pushing with your hand on the leading edge at each side also helps if it's getting skewed.

Use gentle persuasion only and don't force anything.

Mrmerlin

yeah just use your fingers to turn the isolator,
since your making these comments if you find the parts binding then you have other issues,
and should not force anything

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Thanks, I'll try it using finger pressure. I thought it was coupled to the same mechanism as the crank mounts too and the screw you remove to mount the crank doesn't move the isolator either way I turn it. There must be a clutch between that screw and the isolator.

Pfc. Parts

Yep, that works! I got it open enough to slip a plastic gasket scraper in and twisted it, that broke the rubber to rubber seal loose and the roof is sliding back slowly. The motor still won't move it but turning the isolator does.

It's odd that it doesn't take much force to turn the isolator and the roof moves, but the motor just makes a little noise and stops. Must be a very low torque motor?

Thanks again,

Mrmerlin

try jumping the motor with 12V,
disconnect it and try it,

reverse the wires for either direction.

if the motor works as it should, then the switch needs attention,
use deoxit to clean refresh it

Pfc. Parts

The motor seems to work fine (it spins briefly in both directions) but it's not pulling hard enough to move the roof much. It seems stronger in the "close" direction but that's not real scientific

Interesting you mention deoxit, that's the same stuff I use. I had a stuck passenger side window switch when I started working through this last week. I opened the center console and found a huge mouse nest than must have been in there since 1998. I could date it accurately because the nest was mostly pink fiberglass insulation and I finished re-modeling my house in '98.

Anyway, there was mouse **** all over the switch contacts. A couple of shots with deoxit cleaned them right up, so no switch issues.

Pfc. Parts

Any recommendations for grease on the guides? WSM mentions "Golda LS 2049", google's never heard of it.

Pfc. Parts

Never mind the grease question. Found it here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-tracks-2.html

Pfc. Parts

UPDATE: I have been able to get the roof open enough to get at the three screws Stan mentions in his writeup. The procedure was non-trivial in my case.

I began by using the motor to open the roof as far as possible (about 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch). I then used the rubber isolator to wind back the cables. NOTE: the isolator on my car wouldn't actually *move* the roof, all I could do was get it to take up slack. It spins freely while taking up slack and then just spins with resistance, not doing much of anything. After a few iterations I learned to stop turning the isolator once it began to resist.

When the isolator began to resist I first used a 1" plastic gasket knife inserted into the leading edge of the roof, then twisted gently but firmly to move the roof back. I then turned the isolator until I met resistance. This procedure repeated until there was enough gap between the leading edge of the sunroof and the roof to insert fingers.

After opening it to finger width I injected the rails with WD-40 and let the car sit overnight. In the morning I closed the roof under motor control and re-opened it using the procedure described above. This time it opened further under motor control.

I continued iterating between turning the isolator until resistance was felt and pulling back firmly on the roof (on each side, each time) until it was opened far enough to access the three screws Stan describes.

I now have the roof open far enough to begin servicing it.

PS: I used some old overhead projector film to protect the center section of the sunroof. I doubt anyone uses overhead projectors anymore, but if you have an old box of film around it works great.


Thanks,

Dave928S

Good work

Mrmerlin

I used to suggest to use the crystal film used on the magazines at the doctors/dentists offices,
but they dont sell these subscription magazines anymore.

Projector film should work great.

BTW I would think that the roof is out of adjustment and possibly the front rail is binding due to the screws being made too tight.

Also check the transition blocks to make sure they are both at the same location to adjust them remove the transmission and use a screw driver to push the cable

Pfc. Parts

I suspect you're right about that. Even the small amount of motion I can get out of the motor shows the right/left alignment is a little off. Using the motor to close the roof ends up leaving a small gap at the passenger side front. I can coax it closed but it isn't OK.

Will do. thanks.