electric roof.

[paps78]

hi all
i just tried to drop my electric roof after about 5 months to find the horshoes was struggling and making lots of noise. it was moving though. it also seemed to be slipping. the roof finally dropped but when i came to trying to put it back up. it wouldnt work. opened up the boot and saw this bit on the right. that looked liked it had dropped. does anyone have any input ?
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... b5d353.jpg

[Gert_8]

What, that dropped out like that of its own accord? Normally you would have to use the lever you can see to disengage this motor (make it drop out).

If that is your problem, just push it back into position (Support the motor with one hand, and you may have to move the lever up slightly to be able to do this) and push it back into postion.

If it will not go backm you will have to line up the splines to synch with the roof. To do this, lift the back part of the hood (you might need someone to help you do this) until the motor slots in place at the correct point.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers.

[paps78]

thanks mate
i thought it was this that was causing the problem. does it go straight in? what holds it in place?
if i manually move my roof will i damage it some more or is there some kind of manual overide?

[Gert_8]

If your motor is disengaged - it will actually drop down even further than shown in your pic, you should be able to move your roof up and down quite freely, provided the other motor that raises and closes the horseshoe is also disengaged. That's the one in the center section of the boot.

As I mentioned, the motor needs to be pushed back up, so that you cannot see the cog. You do this by pushing up on the lever to the right and then releasing the lever, once the motor is in place. The lever itself is what secures the motor in the correct position.

If you are lucky, the motor is correctly synchronised and therefore will go back into position. If it has dropped and become misaligned, then you will have to find it's correct "slotting in positon" (matching the splines) by moving the rear part of the hood up. This will be a very slight movement.

Once engagaed, I hope to hear it is fully working again. All the best.

[paps78]

hey mate i managed to push the motor back in and it slotted in nicely.
Unfortunately the roof no longer works. Is there an electrical connection that I might have blown initially when the hood was struggling to work or have i damaged the motors. there is no mechanical sounds when i push the buttons.

[Gert_8]

If the motor has slotted in okay, can you check the roof storage compartment to see whether you have managed to bend or damage any of the lifting rods. A common problem seems to be where the hinge holding the levers breaks (these are under the cover, which you will have to remove to check).

If this hinge has sheered off, then you will need to buy a repair plate. Unfortunately, it a case of going through each known problem step by step, but there is your initial inspection point.

[Gert_8]

Have a read through this - it discusses the plate and hinge I refer to above.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... highlight=

[paps78]

thanks for the link mate.
I thought i would try to se what was the problem this afternoon. so i tried to manually drop my roof. Unfortunately i had the same problem you did which was i couldnt get the rear part of the roof to lift more than 30 degrees, thus i couldnt manually lift my horsheoe to see if the hinge has sheared off. i presume that would be where that sits?? so how do i push the rear part of the roof high enough so that the horse shoe can be opened manually?
i need some clarification please:
1: roof compartment: is this underneath the horseshoe area?
2: microswitch in the roof latch, is the roof latch refferred to the ones at the front that lock the roof to the front screen area? and where is the microswitch refferd to.

[BenHar]

Read "Manual operation" here http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/imag ... etting.pdf

Ben

[paps78]

thanks Ben

[Gert_8]

thanks for the link mate.
I thought i would try to se what was the problem this afternoon. so i tried to manually drop my roof. Unfortunately i had the same problem you did which was i couldnt get the rear part of the roof to lift more than 30 degrees, thus i couldnt manually lift my horsheoe to see if the hinge has sheared off. i presume that would be where that sits?? so how do i push the rear part of the roof high enough so that the horse shoe can be opened manually?
i need some clarification please:
1: roof compartment: is this underneath the horseshoe area?
2: microswitch in the roof latch, is the roof latch refferred to the ones at the front that lock the roof to the front screen area? and where is the microswitch refferd to.

Hi there,

You will need to disengage both the roof motors (central one an the one on the right hands side) both of which are found in the boot.

Clarification: 1. Yes, roof compartment is underneath the horseshoe, where the roof is stored when folded down.
2. Micro switches - there are several, as shown in Ben's posted diagram.

My suspicion is that your hinge has sheered. You can check this by removing the cover and looking underneath the two levers that move the raising and closing rods. Only once you have managed to get access to the storage compartment.

You will see this:

In this pic, you will see that my cab already has a repair plate fitted. However, when my roof stopped working it caused the plate to distort...



By replacing the plate, it allowed the two levers shown in the first image to move freely, without catching, when the motors where engaged, which was only allowing me to move the rear hood up by 30 degrees.

You will have to re-synch the motors, once the above is done - pretty much at the stage I'm at, but if you read my post I am testing the power supplies to the motors and micro switches. Just haven't had the time to sort this, I'm afraid.

I'd be interested to know how you get on, so please post up and feel free to ask any more questions.

Cheers.