Pull off the motor access cover and close it manually?

 

No manual closing option on 96-07s

 

Huh? I've got the motor access on mine. Are you telling me there's not a manual close bolt in there? They just had that big hole for the motor?

 

I have no clue what to do... But Paul should know what to do!


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On some of the other Ford sunroofs I know the plastic wind deflector that pops up can crack and get caught near the hinges. I'm not sure if you can see anything but try looking at that area on the track carefully.

If it's that stuck I don't know if you can do anything other than pull the headliner and start taking it apart.

 

No manual close option on this. I've had to straight wire a battery on the floor and unplug the motor to get the juice to the motor in order to lower the moonroof down from 'vent'. The only thing I can think of is remove the motor and go from there.

 

Yes, this occurs when the motor gets strained because of something in the way. Your best bet is to take the assembly completely out.. which is not hard to do. Grease it up, make sure everything is aligned properly, so on and so forth. Something is jamming it, and these moonroof motors are very sensitive to that. But as someone pointed out, the plastic piece (of crap) tends to lodge itself in places it shouldn't.

 

Son of a q4qajhfaowaowu3huw

Ok.

So step 1, remove motor. Try to manually close it. Step 2. Remove moonroof track assembly et all.

The plastic trim piece is long gone but I know the bar is still back there that the stupid plastic trim attaches to.

So if I need to remove the track assembly, I need to remove the A B and C plastic trim pieces (which may include removing seat belts. Then remove sunvisors, grab handles, lights, and trim push pins. Then the headliner has to come out of the car, after that the moonroof assembly can be removed right (track et all)?

 

Or can I remove the track assembly through the roof and not have to drop the headliner (I really don't want to drop the headliner, ugh).

 

Yep, comes right out of the roof. All you need to do is drop the little moonroof access panel, remove 4 screws... 2 for the motor, and two for the track, and then the ones you can clearly see in the glass opening. But other than taking out the little headliner panel, the headliner will stay in place.

Then it just slides right out.

 

YOU ARE DA MAN!!!! That's the best news I have heard all day. THANKS!

I'll work on fixing this hopefully tonight, but probably tomorrow night after work.

 

Hope things work out for you Nick!

Let us know!!

We have alot of snow coming, you have alot of rain on the way!!

 

Thats cool TaurusDD.

 

Thanks! I'll report in tomorrow. Glad I have a garage to shield it from the weather.

 

OK it's 1AM, I spent some time outside. Guilty.

I removed the motor. 2 pictures attached show the gear that the motor turns, and the motor assembly.

I manually pushed the roof into as closed a position as I could get it.

For the heck of it, I put the key in run, and hit the button. Even without the motor attached, hitting the open/close moonroof button produced the same rapid click with pulsing interior lights. Hitting the vent button produced no response. I then beat the motor with a balled up fist and messed with the button again when all of a sudden the motor started working!

OK cool. Made sure to push the close button to make sure the moonroof was closed (didn't check vent though). Reinstalled motor. I remembered reading that you had to set the moonroof motor by cycling the vent position (thought I read that somewhere).

I have not tried opening the moonroof. Just using the vent option. See the following video:

Any ideas? I have not touched the moonroof adjustments at all. It sits too low. I have not tried manually opening the roof. The metal bar that the cheesy plastic sunshade guide pushs/pulls against is all that remains in the tracks and it's at the back by the motor. No plastic is up there, it's gone.

 

I then beat the motor with a balled up fist and messed with the button again when all of a sudden the motor started working!

See, sometimes being angry pays off! Glad you got moving again Nick!

Looking at your video it looks like you need to synchronize the motor. I'm guessing the switches/encoding that shuts off the motor automatically is all handled in the motor unit you had dangling. So what you might have to do is take the motor off, manually turn the gear until the glass reaches it's peak height on the hump between vent and and slide positions, synchronize the motor (below), then reinstall the motor.

Note: Based on the position in the end of your video, you need to turn the gear in the aft direction until the glass falls and rises again to reach the proper closed position (it's on a peak). You can get it close before taking the motor off by "bumping" the tilt switch like you were doing. I hope this makes sense.

Motor Synchronization (Timing)

If the sliding roof panel motor (15790) is removed from the vehicle, it must always be checked for synchronization before it is installed. The sliding roof panel motor is synchronized when the motor is cycled through one vent open to vent closed operation.

NOTE: The roof sliding outer glass panel (502A82) should be in the CLOSED position for synchronization.

1. Connect sliding roof panel motor wiring connector to roof panel wiring connector.
2. Operate roof sliding panel switch (15B691) to the vent open position until sliding roof panel motor stops.
3. Operate roof sliding panel switch to the closed position until sliding roof panel motor stops. Motor is now synchronized.
4. Install sliding roof panel motor as described.

NOTE: It may be necessary to rotate sliding roof panel motor slightly to engage drive splines when installing.

I also found some adjustment instructions I'm attaching. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Lee. If I can find a socket that is nearly the right size to slip over the cog to turn it, I will. I don't want to put vice grips on it and ruin the threads. Not sure what else I'd use.

I took my hand originally and pushed on the metal bar at the front of the glass (where the cheezy plastic snaps over) to close the moonroof. Did not use the cog.

 

OK tried cycling the motor as directed, and I think I still have it wrong. Maybe I missed where to stop the motor? I Raised it, then bumped the motor down to an almost closed position. I didn't let it fall down then pop back up into the position though. Was that supposed to happen? Don't think it's 100%.

 

OK tried cycling the motor as directed, and I think I still have it wrong. Maybe I missed where to stop the motor? I Raised it, then bumped the motor down to an almost closed position. I didn't let it fall down then pop back up into the position though. Was that supposed to happen? Don't think it's 100%.

Yes, when you close the vent it's supposed to go down and then back up again. You can see the peak point I was talking about in the track (@1:27) which is the proper closed position to synchronize to.

It sounds like the motor is hitting the end of travel while still being powered. The click you hear is probably the relay shutting off the motor when it gives up. The motor is slowing down because it is overheating due to being in a locked rotor state (high current draw).

 

Wasn't aware that was happening originally, but I know now for the future, I have been edjumacated!

Makes sense, I follow...will retract the roof to that center position tmrw and will see if that fixes it.

 

OK do I have it set at the right point or the wrong point?

Looks like it still needs some fine tuning? I centered it on the mustache I thought, but apparently not well enough.

Thoughts?

 

I think it looks good.

 

It's probably livable as it is but I don't think it's supposed to do the little hop right before and after the slide operates. When you open the slide it's just supposed to drop and slide (no up movement). I would be afraid you'd run into the hard stop on the vent position again and stress the motor. It's up to you whether you want to mess with it more or not.

 

The first day I bought 2001 Sable 3 years ago this happened to me, lol. I know...

I figured the older person I bought it from never used it and it froze up. While it was stuck half way open I sprayed the channels in the back with WD40 and straw. I sprayed the heck out of the track and then I heard a "pop" noise and it shut when i pressed the switch. I use the sun roof on occasion,but that spooked me so I keep it closed most of the time so I don't get caught in a rain or snow storm. Probably caught up from lack of use.

 

I'll tear back into it soon and fix the issue. Quite the trick getting it to seat correctly. I also noticed paint marks on the gear and the body that match up, so I will take a look at it.

I may go rob the tracks and motor out of a 97 SHO at the yard and stash it in another vehicle incase I need backup. I found some broken plastic pieces near the drip channels by the A pillars today. Interesting.