TIIFC3S

I bought my '88 TII 3 years ago and I've still yet to open the sunroof. When I press the open button, all the motors start working fine and it starts to move but gets stuck about an inch back on the passanger side. I know this is very common for our cars and replacing the whole assembly is one option to solve the problem. I've actually been told the only way to fix the problem is to replace the whole assembly with a functioning one.

I've never taken apart the assembly before so my question is this: Is the sunroof stuck on only one section of the track or is the whole thing junk? I've contemplated pushing the sunroof up and helping it along to see if that just breaks it loose from whatever it's stuck on. But right now my sunroof seals perfect and I don't want to break it creating a bigger problem.

Is my best bet leaving it as is for now and wait til I come across a new assembly? Or would breaking it loose from whatever it's stuck on solve my problem? Thanks in advance for any help.

rotary_bünta

iTrader: (3)

hmmm. good question. mine needs help being opened and closed and only works in hot weather. i need to re-grease the darn thing. maybe thats what you need to do to?

PistonLessRX

iTrader: (4)

Mine was stuck, both sides only moved up and didnt end up going back. I got a new assembly and it works great. I pulled my old roof panel off to use and in the process I looked at the track and it was rusted together and wasnt turning it. It is probabloy best to wait until you get a new assembly.

DBookatay

iTrader: (1)

I'd pull the headliner, to at least see what your dealing with...
Could just need grease, could be dirt or leave stuck in there.
No way of telling untill you look.

nycgps

iTrader: (4)

Mine does the same thing (only up/down, not moving back)

Never looked it at, but probably the same as yours

what new assembly you got? new rails or ?

TIIFC3S

I haven't bought a new assembly yet, but from the couple people I know who have one for sale I think it's the rails, motors, everything. I just don't want to tear apart my interior because it's in great shape.

DBookatay, how hard is it to pull the headliner? Do you have to remove all the plastic panals on the A/B pillars?

Nightstrife

here try this link it may help

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hlight=sunroof

ashleyanne

Yay for write up!! Mine gets stuck too, it'll go up if I assist it, but will only go back if I close it/open it a dozen times. Right now it's opened all the way back, and to be quite honest, I'm a little worried it's going to get stuck that way.

TIIFC3S

Thanks for that great write-up. That should be archived if it isn't already. I think I may try the push method and start cleaning. Fingers crossed...

stenger

I just had a fat guy pull while i pushed the button. Now my sunroof opens all the way back with a little help. Force is a great tool. lol.

I cleaned the tracks the best I could, re-lubbed them, and it works pretty good. It still sticks on the passenger side, but as long as I give it some force while opening it, I can take it all the way back. I am thinking about replacing it with something lighter. In hopes that it'll work better. Would LOVE to get the glass replacement, but apparently, those are pretty rare.

ashleyanne

I have yet to see the glass replacement. I don't know what I want to do with mine yet, but I definitely don't want to keep it stock.

TIIFC3S

Just tried the strong arm approach to no avail. The drivers side was actually stuck really bad. It didn't go back an inch, even with me pushing on it from underneath. The pass side popped right up and started moving back. The whole production made some funky noises I must say. I'm gonna make a last ditch attempt and spray some of the lithium grease into the area that's stuck. If that doesn't work, looks like I'll have to take everything apart.

daviddeep

iTrader: (4)

I've cleaned and relubed my tracks with white lithium grease as well as possible without removing the headliner because I'm afraid of breaking up my perfect interior trim. My roof works great unless I've just washed the car, in which case it needs a slight push to help it open. Seems kind of weird.

daviddeep

iTrader: (4)

The Mazda dealers offered both a glass and a plexiglas drop-in replacement roof back in the 80s through the "Finish Line" catalog. They're pretty rare today and usually cost a fair amount, but they do turn up for sale from time to time.

Here's a thread with a few pictures of what they looked like:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...=glass+sunroof

ashleyanne

That's baaallllleerrr... I want!!!

TIIFC3S

So I'm resurrecting my thread from last May because I finally got around to tearing into my sunroof assembly and hopefully my experience fixing the whole deal can help somebody else.

I didn't have any success with pushing the sunroof up or cleaning and lubricating the tracks as was suggested by others. So I read the thorough thread in post #7 above and started to take it apart last week. Taking all the trim pieces and headliner out isn't too difficult, just make sure to organize all the bolts, nuts, screws, washers, etc that hold it all in as there are a lot of little pieces.

I purchased a sunroof assembly from a guy parting out his FC, and without knowing what the whole assembly looked like at the time, I took his word that it was all correct and was planning on just swapping it in. Well, when I was about to see if it worked in my car, I noticed that not only was the sunroof motor broken, but so were the lifter/slider plastic pieces, and it was missing the wind deflector. Shame on me for trusting someone who was gutting their FC for a V8.

Anyway, so now I had to figure out how to fix mine. After a lot of fiddeling and pulling things apart I discovered what was wrong with my assembly. Overall it was in great shape, except for the cable on the drivers side that pulls back the roof. The cable runs through a little guide pipe, and somehow the cable rusted inside of the pipe and snapped at some point. So everytime I tried to open the sunroof, the passenger side cable pulled as it was still in contact with the motor gear, but the drivers side didn't move as the cable had snapped. Also the reason why pushing it open wouldn't work as the cable rusted solid into the pipe.

Luckily for me, the cable was the only bit not functioning on my sunroof assembly and the cable system was the only bit functioning on my replacement unit. I'm not going to go into too many details here, but all I had to do was swap the good cable for the bad cable. Words of caution though, a lot of screws and little pieces need to come off if you need to do this, so label everything and be careful with the screws. Almost all the screws on both assemblies stripped since they hadn't moved in 23 years. I got lucky and was able to remove them and then replaced all the screws for under $10.

At that point, all I had to do was clean all the old grease out, regrease everything, and reassemble in the same way I took everything apart. Getting it back in was a pain as realigning the assembly is very tedious. But now for the first time since I bought my FC, I have a working sunroof. The FSM section on the sunroof was very helpful during this and shows all the pieces that make it work. FSM 14-55 if you need to check. Good Luck!

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Good info!
I went through a similar busted cable ordeal, my tracks were also rusted through, but I was able to swap in my while replacement unit. Interestingly enough, it was using force that caused it to break I'm the first place (tried to force it open while I forgot there was a delivery sign on my roof

Two lessons to be learned here:
1) don't trust v8 swappers
2) don't deliver food in a 7