Sunroof flex cable questions?

[dquance]

Folks, the car is a 74 280C.
The sunroof was sluggish, so when replacing the rear seal, I thought it would be benificial to pull the cable, clean and re-lube.

This has not gone well.

Firstly, when re-installing the manual says to only grease the spring like bit on the end, another list member recommended greasing the whole thing(which I did), however even without the sunroof attached when I operate the sunroof switch the cable alone is somewhat labored.

Also, can someone tell me if the plastic spacers on the cable slide back and forth much or at all. On mine they slide back and forth about 2 inches, and I am wondering if that is a problem.

If I need a new cable, are they expensive?

Perhaps the motor and clutch are all sludged up with old dried grease?

All help appreciated.

Doug Quance

[300SDog]

If that's anything like the sunroof motor on the 123, then there's also an adjustable clutch that might be contributing to the problem. Also try hosing down the sunroof motor innards with electric parts cleaner for good measure.

And you can check the vintage links thread for mercedesshop.com. They sell a sunroof cable lube and clean kit that includes long wire brushes for cleaning cable channels inside the roof.

What did you do..... dismantle the entire sunroof cable system.... are you out of your mind?

[dquance]

240DieselDog
"What did you do..... dismantle the entire sunroof cable system.... are you out of your mind?"

I am beginning to think so. ;-)

I was pointed to the clutch adjustment, which you do by measuring the current drawn by the motor. Max is suppose to be 17 amps, mine was reading 25!
So some adjustment is required and I am also wondering about the motor.

Thanks for your input.

Doug

[ptoro01]

possibility is to check for a bad ground, on an old car its likely. My roof also goes inch by inch and when it moves it moves a few inches. I also need to throw tons of lube on there and perhaps drench my sunroof motor in cleaner and relube that too.

Peter