Sunroof broken / stuck! Advice? (1 Viewer)

[mingles]

Details are in this post...

What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend?

To stop wind noise I would stick to the tried and true “26” bicycle tube method” (search will bring up lots of posts on it if you need more info). My zip tie method ended up not being permanent (it will make sense if you read the above linked post).

 

[Rifleman]

I was trying to tilt the sunroof today and heard a fairly loud clang / bang and then it stopped.

This is the very reason why i telll my wife not to open our sun roof, i remind her that the plastic parts in it are now 25 years old, and it's best to always leave it CLOSED. YMMV

 

[leonard_nemoy]

Same, here I am afraid to open mine on my 91.

 

[e9999]

honestly, I didn't ever think about it being a problem. But even if I had, I would have probably shrugged it off with a "it's a Cruiser...". Goes to show you that reminders here can save the day...

 

[e9999]

well, yesterday I tried again to close it. And it did nicely so, to my surprise. I was stoked cuz it was supposed to rain today. So I left it at that and put on some wide painter tape I have as added protection, just in case it is not as tight as normal. (Did not want to put on duct tape just yet cuz that stuff is nasty to clean.) But I was at peace. Today I drove for a few hours on the freeway. Well the painter tape flew off right away despite my having degreased everything. I did not expect that, that stuff is sticky. But no matter, I checked and the sunroof was still nicely closed. Then got home tonight in the rain and noticed my passenger seat was wet. Sure enough, the sunroof is now partially open (tilted downward) and not budging. Cr@p! And it's supposed to rain some more...

 

[BILT4ME]

I only use Gorilla Tape duct tape on mine....

 

[e9999]

so, if take the headliner off and somehow disconnect offending parts, can I close the sunroof securely and lock it into place?

 

[e9999]

shoot, I just found some pics I took 15 years ago when I took the headliner off and it looks like there is not any more access to the mechanism than with the headliner on unless you take the pan and maybe more off. Maybe I should take the rest of the plastic trim off first and see what's under there, before I think about the headliner. Here is what it looks like, not encouraging:

I also found out that the headliner was $1,200 back in 2004....

 

[Rifleman]

Well the painter tape flew off right away despite my having degreased everything.

This is why Duck tape is called 100 Mile Per hour tape. I once had a friend tape his landing light housing back on his Cessna 180. Not really what the FAA would consider a recommended repair on an aircraft, but it did hold up to 100 plus MPH winds.

 

[abuck99]

Assuming there is similarity between 80 & 100 series sunroof, over in the 100 forum recent post on the subject with pics.

@CruiserTimPdx had some good tips-

Sunroof cable replacement

2000 LC 100 has a very flow moving sunroof. Has anyone experienced this ? Did lubticating the cables help ?

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[e9999]

thanks for pointing that one out, abuck. Not encouraging unfortunately. Still hoping somebody tells me that yes, I can get it closed without taking the headliner and whole assembly out...

 

[ZeGerman]

If you're by any chance around the Atlanta region hit me up. I have several complete sunroof cassettes that you are more than welcome to. Ill help you with the headliner etc etc. Less than an hour and you'll be as good as new.

 

[e9999]

Thanks, Ze. More on PM.

-----

Here is the latest in the saga in case that helps somebody else:

Tried to close the moonroof with the motor. Motor spins, both switches have the motor make noises and move things a bit sometimes (erratically), but I still could not fully close it. Best I could do was to have it in the almost close position with the rear low and the front about where it should be.

I decided not to go for the headliner first since it looks like that would not get me to see and reach much anyway, short of dropping the whole moonroof system. Instead, I removed all 4 plastic trims around the moonroof inside edge to find out if I could see something and maybe move the mechanism by hand. All 4 trim pieces broke into smithereens, as expected. If you're worried about that, it does not look that bad without them actually, so I don't plan on buying new ones. That didn't get me to see much at all unfortunately, though. Then I decided to remove the glass so I could see the mechanism from above. Here is one piece of good news for somebody doing this: with the trim off, it took literally 1 minute to remove the glass. Easy as pie. 3 bolts on each side, that's it. Nothing to it, comes right off. (As mentioned, label the shims.) Just don't drop it... All easily reachable and I bet you only need to remove the 2 side trim pieces, not even the other 2. That's good to know.

Now, having the glass off I could see some tracks and rails and pivots. Could not see the actuating cables, however, must be covered. I could even move the whole glass support brackets mechanism back into the roof by pushing on it manually (which probably means the cables are no longer connected). I could not get it to move forward manually all the way, however. It hit some stops. And then unfortunately, as a result, I could not get it to move up as in when the glass slides forward to closed and then lifts up to seal the opening. Played some more with the switches, that did not do anything much. Weird things happening, though, like the "Close" position would spin the motor continuously with nothing moving. Probably lost the connection to the brackets. Could move the brackets back some and sometimes forward a bit but very iffy. No tilting up or down though.

Then I figured out that if I wiggled the sliding brackets just right (that was not obvious, had to move them laterally a hair), I could finally move them all the way forward. That was good. Unfortunately, there was still no way to lift the bracket rears into the full closed position, even though they were now in the ready to go up position. That is until I figured out that I could move some sort of cam from the rear, which finally lifted the bracket into position. I imagine those cams should be connected to the cables somehow. Put the glass back on, and in 1 minute it's now closed and close to level. Success! (I hope)

So I'm finally back to where I was -I think- before I drove on the freeway a few days ago. Now I don't know if it's more securely closed now than before, but I will try to put something under the glass to prevent it from dropping down in the rear again, like wedges etc, just in case it might do that under vibrations. Then serious duct tape and if this all holds, and does not leak too much when it rains in a few days, this summer I work on the dang thing. Wish me luck!

 

[e9999]

I do have a new question though:
I tried to see if I could run the gears manually; under the light bezel, I could see the cover screw rotate when the motor is spinning, oddly enough. Then I unscrewed the cover screw and could see the location where to put the wrench. Seemed like it should rotate with a screwdriver but it did not.
Question: what kind of tool is used for that? Is it supposed to be in included with the truck? In the toolkit? I did not see it. The receptacle looks like a hole with side slots. Is there some sort of detent actuated when the wrench is put in that let's it spin, which would explain why I could not turn the gears, or is it just plain hard and needing a side handle?

 

[thelal]

good work

 

[e9999]

short-term update: have not yet bothered to put wedges etc under the brackets or ductape, but drove on the freeway some, maybe 20 or 30 miles and it's still in the closed position. So maybe it's there to stay now, we'll see, that would be good. If it tilts down again, I'll pull off the glass now that I know it's trivial, and somehow prop the bracketry up securely with wedges, clamps and what not.


Thought it might be a good idea to summarize what I know now, for somebody doing a search later on and not wanting to slog through the whole thread:

First shot at salvaging the situation with your moonroof not closing fully:
if your sunroof gets sort of stuck partly open, as in the motor won't close it fully or it no longer moves with the motor, try to bring it to the almost closed position at least, using the motor or by pushing and pulling (be gentle). If you can do that, don't bother to remove the headliner at all, which is a big job, just take the side trim pieces off, and remove the glass, it's very fast and easy. Should not take more than 5 minutes. (If the moonroof assembly is really stuck in the fully open position, as in under the metal roof, you may not be able to remove the glass like that, of course, but maybe you can remove bits of the mechanism to allow it to move forward manually- I don't know.) Once the glass is off you have now much better access to the mechanism and you might be able to move the bracketry into the closed position as I described above in the thread. At that point, put the glass back on, it's very easy and fast, and you have at least a closed moonroof that should get you through some rain.

Mmm... now that I read what I just wrote, I realize I may have been very lucky that in my case I was able to move the moonroof to an almost closed position where I was indeed able to pull the glass upwards through the hole in the roof... Well, I'll take that any day!

One more thing: if you find yourself dealing with an iffy moonroof and other people drive your truck -or you don't trust yourself- maybe pull the fuse out so nobody tries to open it with the switches by accident.

 

[ccslider]

It also helps if it was just tilted, to slide it part open and then slide close. It seals better that way.

If you want a used sunroof you can find them for 150 bucks.

 

[e9999]

Update after a month plus: Has not budged. So, seems like the camming upwards of the bits made all the difference.

The thing I enjoyed the most about all this is finding out how easy it is to remove and replace that glass... nice!

Maybe this summer, I'll see if I can find out what the deal is.

 

[Manuelsv]

Take a good look around the tracks. Mine was stuck could not close it all the way.. I was getting ready to drop the headliner and do major surgery when I decided to look once more at the mechanism before tearing it apart.
*It turned out one of the screws that holds the track had vibrated itself 3/4 of the way out and that stopped the sunroof. I tightened all the screws put a tiny dab of lock-tight to prevent them from shaking loose again and that was it.
(Sorry no pics this was 4-5 years ago)

 

[e9999]

good point, will look. Thanks.