Cab roof playing silly buggers....help!

[Mario149]

As is the way with older cars, as soon as you stop using them regularly something goes wrong.

Just got back from a while abroad and as of yesterday the roof on my cab is playing up.....right before we're due to start a long summer road trip....typical.

Symptoms:
1) yesterday when I tried to open the roof, the left locking bolt (that locks the roof to the "windscreen") appeared to not be unlocking. Repeated cycling back and forward did nothing, right bolt would move a few mm then stop, presumably as it "knew" the left wasn't releasing. Thinking it might have got a bit sticky, I gave the leather underside a whack and lo and behold it now unlocked and the roof went back.
2) 20 mins later, I tried to close the roof and when trying to lock the roof closed, only the right bolt was rotating and half locking the rh side, then stopping. Left bolt didn't move at all. Trying to open the roof again, lh bolt stayed still, rh bolt moves a fraction every time you depress the switch until finally the rh side is released. Trying to open the roof further does nothing, trying to close only locks rh partially again. Rinse, repeat etc.
3) Eventually after much tooing and frowing, the lh bolt seems to jump a few mm up (i.e. reset to completely open, meaning it must have been a tad closed previously)....trying to close the roof at this point works, both bolts end the groove and lock.

Anyone had anything similar? Is it a quick fix? Otherwise I'm going to have to try and schedule a visit to an indy at v short notice

 

[Hacki]

I had a similar problem yrs ago - the plug of the roof ECU wasn´t properly in its socket. So that was an easy fix. The little "locking engines" which rotate and lock the roof had to be replaced some yrs ago by the OPCs due to a serious problem. Has that been done on your car? In general, the "guiding bolts" on the left and right of the front roof frame have to be greasy, otherwise the roof might get stuck and the very strong engine might cause broken mechanical parts. Hope that helps, Hacki

 

[colt]

the roof control unit lies behind the glovebox bolted to the bulkhead, best accesed by taking out the glovebox first but not impossible without, open up the unit and look for dry solder joints on all the pins where the wiring loom plugs into the control unit.usually best to refloat all pins on the board with a steady hand and a soldering iron in about half an hour- dont forget you can lock and unlock the front motors with a long flat blade screwdriver in the emergency access holes on the front panel of the folding hood. Christian............