agent325

My rear deck motor was very loud when it opened and closed. As of the weekend, the motor is frozen half way up. I'm assuming my motor is fried.

What much does a rear deck motor cost?

JPP

It might just be the 'transmission' gear assembly unit .. they get corroded from moisture and fail. I replaced one in my '95 Coupe, bought it from Sunset and IIRC, it was about $200. Easy DIY.

FGL28

Clean contacts of motor and clean and lube tranny. It workied for me

David in Chicago

Can tranny be lubed without removing and splitting case?

Regards to all.

Jeff96-993

I have an used motor and tranny I've been saving but no longer have a need for it. If your fix doesn't work send me a PM.

JPP

not to my knowledge. There is a DIY on P-car.com to replace the failed bearing which, according to many people here, solves the problem. I'll try and post a link here:
http://p-car.com/diy/spoilerdrive/

Dudley

When I replaced the bearings in my drive, I rejoined the housing with JB weld. It held up very well - still intact to my knowledge.

davesnothere

The problem with these units is that water can get in the case (usually by running down the cable) which causes corrosion on the (factory) unsealed bearing, thus requiring the DIY.

So I would see if you can get some spray lubricant in there first (likely in and around where the cable enters the unit, from memory). If that doesn't hold up then crack the transmission housing open. Note that this would only be a temporary fix and would require re-application.

- Dave

Dudley

Bearings are toast. BTW, your spoiler air dam will soon fail, your passenger seat will get stuck in the rear most position, your AC and Oil cooler resistors are fried, both sets of hood shocks are on their way out, the air cooling rubber duct will crack and disintegrate, the hinge on the driver's door pocket cover will fail, your spark wires are cracking, the rear/front window seal is trapping water soon to promote rust.
Nothing earth shattering, just a great car aging gracefully. Don't waste your time with bandaids, fix the problem and move on.

kjr914

^^^^^
Don't scare the guy too much!

However the DIY on the bearing is warranted in this case. The price of that little gear box with the bearing that fails is $450 on Pelican Parts. The motor is $500. Bearing cost <<$10.

600RR

LAOD had the electric motor for $100 (which I discovered days after buying a new one!)

NP993

Agent 325 -- you should diagnose the problem before buying any parts. Could be any number of things.

kjr914

Wise words. And luckily easy to do for this issue.

Take a look at the DIY linked above by JPP. Do Step 1 to separate the motor from the flexible drive shaft going to the gearbox. Now operate the tail via the center console switch. If it is relatively quiet without the gearbox attached, the gearbox is now your suspect (the more common failure).

If the motor doesn't spin or make any noise, the motor appears to be dead....however, still check for a bad gearbox as it may have caused the motor to die.

To confirm the gearbox failure, you can drive the flexible shaft with a reversible hand drill to see if that is the issue or you may be able to spin it with hand tools as well. If it won't move or makes horrendous noise, most likely you have the failed bearing issue. Splitting the gearbox case open (shown in the DIY) will confirm.

You may need a helper to operate the switch and monitor the tail at the same time.

Dudley

My bad. Just turn the radio up.

JPP

I did all of the above before I made a move. My tranny was corroded and the entire cable sheathing crumbled in my hand when I removed it from the car. The cable inside was rusty and when I tried to lubricate the tranny through the cable entry point, when I turned it, rusty oil gushed out. The cable isn't available as a separate part and I didn't want a 'Kludge" job in such an obvious visual place, so I opted to buy a new tranny from Sunset Porsche. IIRC, it was $250 give or take ... but as you know, prices of parts at Porsche seem to go up .... I do remember looking at Pelican but they were quite a bit more expensive.
After I installed the new tranny, the tail worked flawlessly and I couldn't hear it at all with the engine running ... as opposed to hearing it close at every stop light with the windows and roof shut and Fister Stage I's burbling ....