Sun Roof Repair

This procedure is for the 89-96 thunderbirds. The 97 thunderbird is a different design but they are similar so some things here may work. Just haven’t verified yet. If you have cold feet about your sunroof, you are not alone. The thoughts of tinkering with something that could leave a gaping hole in the top of your roof if you screw something up is almost over whelming. I know it was for me. Finding good information and procedures are scarce (I looked hard) so I decided once and for all, to bite the bullet and completely remove and disassemble several sunroofs to find out how it works, how it goes together, how to install and adjust with plenty of pictures so others would be able to repair and adjust their sunroofs with confidence and without breaking parts.

The complete sunroof assembly can be removed with a single Phillips screwdriver and less than 10 minutes of time. I tell you this because it is SO EASY to remove that there is no excuse trying to fandangle a misaligned sun shield or “halo” with the sunroof in the car. Things are much easier to replace and align with the assembly out of the car. When I bought my 95 SC, the sun shield was in the trunk, and the halo was jammed all the way back into the roof. I spent so much time trying to get the sun shield and halo back into position. I’m talking days and I still was not-successful. The information I found was vague and incomplete. I finally ended up breaking my black halo trying to get it back into the tracks. I pulled it out and threw it into the trunk with the sunshade irritated that as a person who has worked on cars my whole life I couldn’t figure it out. The sunroof to me was a mystery and at that time I was not ready to risk pulling the assembly and not being able to get it back in. Once I pulled the sunroof assembly, I felt embarrassed. It is probably one of the easiest things I have ever done and with access to the complete assembly it, was easy to work on too.

 

 

To remove the assembly:

1. Using the motor, fully open the sunroof to expose the guide rail screws. Remove all the screws except the screws holding the guide rail, lifting rail, and wind deflector together. Wind deflector has already been removed so my screws are missing .

 
2. Close the sunroof half way. You may have to push down on the guide rails to keep sunroof form sticking. Pull the sun shade even with the roof glass
 
3. Remove the sunroof motor access cover. Pry cover down from the front to remove. Try to get your pry tool close to the retaining clips to avoid damaging cover.
4. Remove the motor. Remove the two retaining screws and gently pull down with a rocking motion to separate motor from drive gear. The motor plug is to the left. Unplug motor and remove.
5. Remove the two screws holding the rear of the guide rail to the roof panel
6. Sunroof is ready to be removed. Sunroof will be removed straight forward, towards the front of the car and out of the sunroof opening. Carefully lift the leading edge of guide rail to clear the front of the sunroof opening. The front hoop is made of plastic and is easily broken so don’t use this for lifting or pulling. Lift where the front hoop and guide rail is riveted together. Once the sunroof front hoop has cleared the font lip, slide the assembly forward until the complete roof glass is exposed. The sunroof assembly is light with most of the weight around the glass. It can be removed easily with one person but if your roof is in good condition, I would highly suggest another set of hands to help pull the assembly from the roof. My roof needs repainting so I pulled it by myself. As you pull the assembly from the roof, support the assembly at the roof glass. The rails are thin flimsy metal and would probably bend pretty easy. Common sense goes a long way here.

You should have the complete sunroof assembly out of the car and should look like this.

Remove the sun shield.

Slide the sun shield all the way back. The shield is held to the guide rail by rear clips. Using your fingers, slide the clip toward the center of the shade to release the clip from the guide rail. Once the shield is un-clipped from guide rail, you can maneuver it to remove it from assembly.

Remove the sunroof Halo.

Pull the plastic halo from the leading edge of the glass roof panel. Start at one side and work across until the front of the halo is released from the roof glass.

Once the halo is separated from the glass in front, slide halo all the way to the back of the guide rail. There is a rivet that prevents the guides from sliding off the back of the guide rail. I am quite certain that this rivet is the cause of many broken halos. This rivet is why replacing the halo while the assembly is still in the car virtually impossible. Remove the guide by slightly bending the rail and or halo to get one side off the rail. It doesn’t take much. Once one side is off, the other side comes right off. The halo can now be removed from the sunroof assembly.

To finish disassembly of sunroof assembly, you need to move the glass panel all the way to the vent position. I used a small pair of vice grips lightly clamped to the drive gear to get the glass to the vent position (glass all the way up) . Once glass is in the full vent position, you can easily get to the glass mounting screws (6) attaching glass panel to lifting arms. Remove glass panel and set aside.

Turn sunroof assembly with drive gear facing down. Remove the four screws that remain in the guide rail holding the lifting rail and wind deflector to the guide rail. Remove lift rails and wind deflector and set aside.