How does sunroof work

[Oil 4 944]

My 86 car didnt seem to have arms locked into hold sunroof, i moved arms in and out a few times (with switch) and noticed drivers side arm didnt move

then it moved and once i returned it back inside it refused to come out and again and now neither one will move but motor only works one way also and continously goes when you hold switch, and i can pull both the curved/toothed arms out

removed drivers side arm housing and it just came out with no sign of how anything connects, just a empty tube black pipe on one side going to other arm body and a empty gold pipe on other side going down c piller

Had a look on ebay and seems there should be a cable?

 

[Oil 4 944]

Updated: yes, Clarke's Garage has it all!

Yes, there should be a cable. As you say, the tube runs down the C- pillar to the operating mechanism in the boot. Its behind the carpet on the passenger side. There's a motor with a cog drive to push & pull the cable, a couple of relays and, most importantly, some micro switches which act as limit switches for the cable movement. It sounds like one or more of these switches has failed and you may find the cable has retracted right out of the drive gears in the roof. I found an article somewhere online that takes you through it pretty well, I'll look later and send a link if I find it.

ORIGINAL: Oil 4 944

My 86 car didnt seem to have arms locked into hold sunroof, i moved arms in and out a few times (with switch) and noticed drivers side arm didnt move

then it moved and once i returned it back inside it refused to come out and again and now neither one will move but motor only works one way also and continously goes when you hold switch, and i can pull both the curved/toothed arms out

removed drivers side arm housing and it just came out with no sign of how anything connects, just a empty tube black pipe on one side going to other arm body and a empty gold pipe on other side going down c piller

Had a look on ebay and seems there should be a cable?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Clarkes garage have a good guide to the sunroof, and looking through PET gives an idea of what goes where. Both in the faqs.

 

[john lord]

I have a 924 and probably the sun roof operates in a similar manner.

A few years ago, Steve Kevlin gave me a print out of full details. Try him.

John Lord

 

[Veerzigzag]

there is an early and a later version - the change was in 1986.
Paul as ever has pointed you in exactly the right direction; here's a comment (usual proviso that this is MY OPINION AND NOT GUARANTEED AT ALL) from my experience in sorting out my later (1989) roof.
The gear wheels in the rear of the roof are plastic and strip very easily. The slipping clutch on the motor (mounted nearside of the boot) on mine was set exactly correctly at 6.5 nm as I recall, but that is basically too strong in my opinion. If both arms reach their stops simultaneously, no problem, but if one gets their first, due to wear / age etc, it will strip, followed a microsecond later by the other one. I spent some time making sure that the roof itself settled down fully and the sockets were perfectly aligned with the arms to make their job easier, then I backed off the slipping clutch adjustment until the roof closed OK but no more, greased everything with lithium grease, and lastly I try to avoid ever getting to the point where the arms hit the stops and rely on the slipping clutch. In my case, that means that when closing the roof, I release the switch to stop the arms at the right point and no further. The microswitches have different operations based on whether the key is in position 1 (accessories - locking the roof) or 2 (ignition on - opening and closing the roof).
Hope that helps, and remember that Clark's Garage is your best friend.

 

[zcacogp]

As said, read the details on Clark's Garage and you'll probably find the answer soon enough. I suggest you read them fully and understand what is meant to happen before looking at your car; it's not hard to understand, but if you are losing the drive wire out of the sheath then you need to understand how the limit switches work to re-adjust them.

It's a separate issue, but I'll go along with what Mike said about the clutch; having it too tight is going to mean it gets through the plastic gear wheels very quickly. I set mine so it only just grips enough to work. And if it slips slightly in use then I give the roof a bit of a gentle push with my hand. The clutch seems to grip more firmly on hot days; on both occasions that I have stripped the gears in mine it had been stinking hot and the car had been in the sun for a time.


Oli.

 

[edh]

Another option is to see if you can convert it to manual operation - I think you can fit latches at the rear. Not easy to find second hand but might be a lot simpler.