Last night barely tightened down the **** to lock down the moonroof and now it just spins and the mechanism doesn't go up and down. Posted in classifieds to get a new (well, probably used one) but thought I would post here to see if there is a way to fix it or if it is just simply toast. I had always been very careful with it and realize it is fragile. Any suggestions would be fantastic. It's for my 85 and color is grey, in case someone out there has one.

 

I've fixed these before with JB Weld. It really depends on the part that has broken.

 

Here is a picture of it. It appears that it broke off right at the attaching point. Thinking of using super glue, maybe JB weld or something where the 2 points meet. I will hold off a bit to see if anyone else has a better idea. What I Don't want to do is screw it up permanently and make it impossible to take back apart if it is not the correct route to go.

 

I would continue to look for another latch and crank assembly. I've never had any luck fixing them.

 

I broke mine through my own stupidity a few years back and bought a used one here on the forum for $75. I had to post a wanted ad to find it. Just FYI

 

There's a red one on ebay right now at $29.

 

Thanks for the replies. Checked out the one on ebay. Not a buy it now and it's a 7 day auction so we shall see what happens on it. I figured it would be a tough fix, at least to make it last.

 

Could you...



Maybe whack in a thin layer of JB Weld when reassembling?

 

^ That solution would work, but you'd still want an adhesive to eliminate rotation of the two parts independently. It also would depend on which way the base rotates in relation to the top part that broke - if it inherently tightens the fastener or if it tries to loosen itself over time. Either up or down, one way will try to work the fastener loose. I'd use a good adhesive on the joint (like 5-minute epoxy or JB Weld), drill/tap if possible, Loctite the fastener in the base, and let it set over a day to really lock back up.

Otherwise, just find one in a part out here on the forum - shouldn't be too terribly hard to find.

 

epoxy maybe, not sure about jb weld. or some sort of glue for the type of plastic these r made of. i'm sure gorilla glue makes a glue for plastic.

 

What Toruki said ! As I recall, that plastic compound doesn't do well with super glue.

About 25 years ago I fixed mine by drilling and tapping the metal insert, used a short stud (actually a cutoff piece of a bolt), set it with stud grade loctite into the tapped hole. Used a tiny amount of JB weld on the plastic mating surfaces and assembled with the stud portion that extended through the **** capped with a chromed acorn nut set with regular loctite. Its all held fast and worked fine without further attention since.

I might have used a "black chrome" acorn nut if I'd had it at the time for appearance, but really the chrome nut looks fine in the center of the ****. Looks like its always been that way.

 

Thanks for the great suggestions. I ended up finding a red one in great condition. To me it looks like I can swap out the red and grey parts so when I get it will attempt that. Didn't get it on here. I tried and did get one response on one but wanted 118.00 for it which I thought was a bit excessive. And maybe I will experiment on the broken one and keep it for a spare or fix it correctly and give someone a deal on it. We shall see. Again, thanks for the assistance to everyone who chimed in.

 

glad to hear u found one. and yes, if the whole mechanism can be disassembled, just replace what's broken in it.