VaSteve

The other night I was coming back from VIR (not relevant, but I wanted to mention it ). So anyway, I go to close the Sunroof and I hear a cracking sound. I think I have just stripped the gears.

I find that when closed the left/driver's side was higher than the other. So I went to clarks and followed the directions. I have the "early" sunroof. I used the little tool and cranked the think closed. Then I cranked it even further and was able to push up on the passenger side to remove the roof - but not the driver's side. The arm won't let go! FWIW, I was able to get to this point before I messed with the motor.

The switch now makes the motor create noise, but nothing happens in the roof that I can tell..

Clarks doesn't have a contingency plan for when this happens. I figure I need to remove the cover of the sunroof and get at the arm somehow...right? What is the preferred method when this happens?

formerGMguy

I'm no expert by any means, but it sounds like your looking at a complete disassembly of the sunroof mechanism here. If you have to replace the gears anyway you may as well just crack(?) the roof open. If early cars are like later ones theres a trim piece running from side to side behind the sunroof that has to be removed, then the easiet way to access the gearboxes is to simply slice the vinyl (its covered by the trim piece anyway and this way you won't have to reglue the vinyl to the sunroof, much easier in my opinion). From there you can open the gear boxes and unstick the arm and its a pretty straightforward gear swap. It shouldn't take more than an hour or so.