I have read a lot of posts about sunroofs and domeone posted something about changing the electric sunroof to manual.....is this possible
because my electric motor is going out and I would like to "upgrade" it so it doesn't fail again......I have a 1984300 sd and I can't get the motor to engage to the proper distance and it supposedly worked when I got it......
I put more power to the switch and got it to move a little bit but still.....
it just doesn't do it
any and all suggestions that you could offer about defective sunroofs would be appreciated since I am such a noob about m/b's systems
thanx

Mine right now is in a state of being worked on. My roof failed before it completely closed and I had to do something to get the panel to close. I removed the headliner and removed the cable entirely (I needed a new cable anyway). If you leave the trim panel out you can manually bring the roof forward and close it. The bar at the back can be pulled forward to "tilt" the roof back into place. To open the roof just pull on the tilt bar and the panel will lower under the roofline and then can be opened. Its not the most elegant thing in the world and I really don't open mine often because Im afraid of doing damage. You could rig some kind of chrome "latch" with a straight bar to move the tilt bar. A number of european cars came with manual roofs but the parts are rather hard to find. I have my local dismantler looking for me as I have done the overhaul thing before. One of the next steps for me will be to completely remove the panel and clean and lubricate EVERYTHING. My headliner is in good shape but is not perfect so I may even pull the headliner and replace the tube to the trunk for good measure. The thing I am having the most problem with is the motor and mounting bracket. I got a used motor because my transmission on the original motor failed. I am still looking for some hard to find parts like those metal clips that attach the tube to the motor plate. If those clips are not 100% perfect the cable has a tendancy to want to push itself out of the tube rather than push the roof panel in place. I think this is probably due to some extra resistance that my roof panel has and that's one of the reasons I am going to completely remove the panel.

Most passengers don't notice unless they look straight up and of course I explain that I am in the process of working some bugs out of it and they are amazed I can do my own work on my car.

Now that I have another car I may get more brave with some of my projects. With another car I can attempt some more daring projects without the fear of having an undriveable car. The sunroof project was one of those. I did not want to remove the panel because of the fear of having something break in the process and having a hole in my roof until I obtained some replacment parts.

One good book to buy is the sunroof "kit" from **************.com it comes with some of the official lubricant and other things you will need to clean your tube and grease your tracks. One word of caution though his instructions make the job sound easier than it really is. Its really an all day job if not a few days if you want to do a really good job. The book does not really describe the removal of the panel and for some of our cars that have not been dealer maintained and have some "oddball" lubricants in the tracks panel removal and cleaning is very much worthwhile. I may even talk to my local parts guy and find out what parts in the track and top panel can be replaced. Im sure there are some wear items in there from 24 years of sliding open and closed.

If anybody knows a source of the "tube clips" that clip the sunroof tube to the motor housing please let me know the part number or give me contact information. Im very close to having the tube tack welded to the motor housing.

I'm not shure what you mean by "I can't get the motor to engage to the proper distance", but if you mean that the roof does not stop in the right position, it can be adjusted as follows:

Inside the drive unit are two switches, which sense the position of the
roof (or rather the drive cable to the roof). There is a white knob on
the drive unit, which can be pulled out to "adjustment position", in
which it disengages from the drive cable. The drive unit gear can then
be turned by the knob independently from the sunroof. Turn it several turns cw and ccw and listen when the microswitches are actuated. With the sunroof closed, the drive unit shall be aligned just in between the the two switches actuating. Then push in the white knob, and see if it the sunroof closes correctly after having been opened or lifted. Readjust if necessary.

If it doesn't work this way, the microswitches may be bad, or there may be a bad connection in the wiring/connectors.

__________________
1991 300SEL (W140)
1987 190E 2.3 (W201)
1987 Honda Accord 2.0

Hmmm Is that for the late model 126's with the tilt roof or is that the first generation slide only roof? I don't remember having the ability to adjust my motor and had to manually crank my cable out for removal. Ill have to take some photos when I remove my roof panel for anybody out there that has to endure this not so fun job.