Project Sunroof: Phase I - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BodhiBenz1987 · #1 05-30-2007, 12:15 AM

Well, I finally dug in on the sunroof today. It took me pretty much half the day to get the thing disassembled, since disassembly instructions in the manuels are premised on the ability to slide the roof back, which mine wouldn't do. I got it to tilt up enough to shove a rod down behind the liner and pop off the snaps ... then manually pushed the liner back to get at the screws holding the cover on. I took a few pics, although maybe not the most useful ones because I did a lot of trial and error. Anyhow, finally got the thing apart, and found out why it doesn't work. Lift arms were in pieces, lots of little plastic "crumbs" came out as part of the carnage. Makes sense. I could hear the transport bridge moving (and could see it do so once the liner was removed), but it wasn't taking anything with it. Here's a picture of one of the arms ... the yellow arrows point to the two sides of the main fracture. The other one broke in pretty much the same place. Now I just have to wait for the new arms to come in (should be here Friday) and then I can launch into Phase II of this adventure. I'm pretty excited that I was able to get it all apart, for now, but I really hope I can end up with a functional roof at the end. Anyhow, thought the picture might be of interest. When I get it all done I'll post some more and update.

Austin85 · #2 05-30-2007, 02:50 AM

Not a fun job to have to do.

There are alot of MB techs that won't do sunroofs.

I hope you are also getting new felt pads with the new arms.

And since thisis on a 20yr old car you might as well remove the cable; spray a 1/2 can of brake fluid into the guide tube....with a catch pan in the trunk end;

Clean the cable too with more brake fluid; and regrease the cable with only MB sunroof grease.....

I would also take the SR motor apart and inspect the big oprange fiber gear to see if the teeth are wearing out. 89. for a new one, but they last 20 yrs.

( That's 4.45/ per year...or 0.085/week...)

Enjoy the open air!!!
AA

.....

rs899 · #3 05-30-2007, 07:10 AM

BB

Good luck- those W124 tilt sunroofs look like a bear. I have enough trouble with the W123 and W116s. I can only tell you that it will be nice and (hopefully) worth the effort once you are finished.

Rick

jshadows · #4 05-30-2007, 08:00 AM

and try not to be too shocked by the price of the MB grease. I paid $54 for 1 fluid oz. at the stealership

. It does actually go a long way though.

I've been pretty intimate with my 116 roof. Everything in the donor body was bad...sunroof frame, guide tube..though the roof itself was intact. Simpler than I thought now that the mystery is gone.

vstech · #5 05-30-2007, 08:15 AM

brake fluid on the cable? really? brake FLUID? not brake cleaner, BRAKE FLUID? hmm, it does eat paint, I guess it would be good for de gunking the grease/dirt from the cable channel.... FLUID?
cool auston85, thanks.
John

BodhiBenz1987 · #6 05-30-2007, 11:29 AM

Any recommendations as to what would be good to clean the rails before I regrease them and put the new arms in? Brake parts cleaner? I don't think there's any plastic other than what I took out, although I'd have to check again.

Thanks for the warning on the cost of the grease ... ouch ... I kinda assumed it would be cheaper than that. Oh well, small price to pay, assuming this thing works when I'm done.

SD Blue · #7 05-30-2007, 12:01 PM

There is a neat little kit with cleaning brush for the tube, cable grease, track grease and more, available for $45 here:http://**************.com/node/270

If you are just looking for the track grease, call Phil. He might have a "dab" for less money than the dealership.

Since you have been into the sunroof, maybe you can give me a hint on mine.....the front right corner won't release and let the panel drop in order for it to slide to the rear. As you said, everything I've read says partially open the sunroof. How do I get that corner to release?

tobybul · #8 05-30-2007, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin85

Not a fun job to have to do.

There are alot of MB techs that won't do sunroofs.

I hope you are also getting new felt pads with the new arms.

And since thisis on a 20yr old car you might as well remove the cable; spray a 1/2 can of brake fluid into the guide tube....with a catch pan in the trunk end;

.....

You did NOT mean brake FLUID did you??????????

BodhiBenz1987 · #9 05-30-2007, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SD Blue

Since you have been into the sunroof, maybe you can give me a hint on mine.....the front right corner won't release and let the panel drop in order for it to slide to the rear. As you said, everything I've read says partially open the sunroof. How do I get that corner to release?

Not sure if this will help, but here are two photos that give a better idea of where the snaps are located and what they look like. I'm not sure if our sunroofs are the same, but from what I understand they are at least close. Are you coming at it from the front, or are you trying to pry it off by entering from the rear tilt opening? I stuck a pole in the tilt opening and just pressed down where I thought the snaps were ... the middle two were easier than the two corner ones. Maybe knowing exactly where the snap is will help you get pressure on the appropriate area. I'm not sure what the danger is in terms of breaking a snap, but I did put quite a bit of pressure on before it released ... I may have just been lucky. One all the snaps had released, I pulled the liner foward and made sure if was flush with the headliner, then I pushed it back far enough to access the screws holding the cover on. The yellow arrows point to the snaps you'll be aiming for. I hope that helps in some way.

babymog · #10 05-30-2007, 09:49 PM

I found that I could remove the cable from the transport through the vent panel, then slide the sunroof open manually with the transport. I did this on my parts '87 first, so that I would less likely damage my non-working roof (broken cable) on my driver. Once the roof will slide open, I un-clipped the interior panel, slid the roof open the rest of the way, and removed the interior trim.

The hard part seems to be lining up the parts properly when reassembling, good luck with that, the alignment tool mentioned in the FSM seems helpful.

deerefanatic · #11 05-31-2007, 07:50 AM

Bodhi,

I don't know what other places are charging, but FastLane sells 1oz of sunroof paste in a plastic cylinder for $18.93 shipping included... I use disposable shop towels to clean the slide rails and stuff....

I wouldn't really bother with the sunroof cable.... I did on my conversion in the SD and ONLY because I had it out on the bench already and it was easy to do so.... It will be quite difficult and messy to do this to a car with an interior..... Not so much the cleaning part, but the greasing part......

You can still call me at the number I gave you if you've got questions.. Especially during re-install as the calibration upon re-assembly is kinda touchy..

I've literally worked on every inch of one of these roofs!

Also, yes, do replace all the little felt pieces, or at least take a shop towel and rub up them to get them "fuzzy" again and get un-clogged with grease...

ramjensen · #12 06-03-2007, 07:59 PM

My 87 300d sunroof was working what seemed to me slowly, then it started making noise and quit closing fully. I found out that the cable had blown out the side of the drive tube. I went to a junkyard and pulled another motor, drive tube, cable, and sunroof frame from another car. I don't know why my cable/drive tube blew, but I am afraid it is because the sunroof has some other problem. I don't want to just install the other cable/tube and then blow it out also. Has anyone found **************'s manual for sunroof repair helpful on a 124 even though it doesn't cover tilting/sliding roofs? I can open and close my roof manually with the drive tube disconnected from the sunroof frame, but it gets hard to move when it comes to the point where the sunroof is trying to lift up into the closed position. With effort, it is closeable. I also noticed that my headliner has some kinks in the metal rails on the side of it, and the front edge of the headliner tends to hang down since the clips are worn. There is a small tear in the headliner, could this be a sign that the sunroof hung up here at some point? Could any of these these impede the roof from closing and screw up the cable/tube? Could it be a lack of lubrication of the slide rails? They are not dry... Any ideas?

babymog · #13 06-03-2007, 08:52 PM

There is a clutch on the sunroof motor, it should slip before the cable is damaged or the tube, ...

I would have to believe that the tube was worn through. Was it in the trunk where the metal spiral cable contacts the tube or in the roof where the teflon rings touch it?

If the sunroof slides hard, it needs repairs. Remove the healiner panel and slide the roof alone, if still hard try cleaning/lubing first, if that doesn't cure it your plastic slide/lift arms might be going bad or one side broken. If it's the headliner sliding that hard, ... leave it out until you figure out the problem.

Brian Carlton · #14 06-03-2007, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstech

brake fluid on the cable? really? brake FLUID? not brake cleaner, BRAKE FLUID? hmm, it does eat paint, I guess it would be good for de gunking the grease/dirt from the cable channel.... FLUID?
cool auston85, thanks.
John

Can't be "brake fluid". It doesn't come in spray. He means "brake cleaner".

BodhiBenz1987 · #15 06-03-2007, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramjensen

My 87 300d sunroof was working what seemed to me slowly, then it started making noise and quit closing fully. I found out that the cable had blown out the side of the drive tube. I went to a junkyard and pulled another motor, drive tube, cable, and sunroof frame from another car. I don't know why my cable/drive tube blew, but I am afraid it is because the sunroof has some other problem. I don't want to just install the other cable/tube and then blow it out also. Has anyone found **************'s manual for sunroof repair helpful on a 124 even though it doesn't cover tilting/sliding roofs? I can open and close my roof manually with the drive tube disconnected from the sunroof frame, but it gets hard to move when it comes to the point where the sunroof is trying to lift up into the closed position. With effort, it is closeable. I also noticed that my headliner has some kinks in the metal rails on the side of it, and the front edge of the headliner tends to hang down since the clips are worn. There is a small tear in the headliner, could this be a sign that the sunroof hung up here at some point? Could any of these these impede the roof from closing and screw up the cable/tube? Could it be a lack of lubrication of the slide rails? They are not dry... Any ideas?

You may have a problem with the height setting on the sunroof cover or with the alignment of the lift arms. There's a screw in the front of each slide rail that can adjust the front height of the roof and adustments can also be made at the back via the screws on the lift arm brackets. You can also adjust it where the arms attach to the transport bridge and at the front where there are two sliding brackets that extend from the very front of the cover. If I can use my parents scanner, I'll scan the FSM pages that attend to this. I haven't had experience with these adjustments but I can imagine if any of this is "off" it would cause the sunroof to "stick" and put too much load on the cable.

Just a thought based on what I've seen and pondered ...