Thanks, Ze. More on PM.
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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!
