1984 TV Rear Sunroof Repair

[Vectorsprint]

Summer is here. And I would like to fix the sunroof in my '84 LE Vanwagon. If I try to open it, I can hear the motor try, but nothing happens. I can only imagine the cables are seized. I'd like to give it a shot at repair, but the manual's section on the sunroof is pretty brief. So I'd like to see if anyone else has tried this before. Do I need to take out the headliner to get the sunroof interior panel out? Or can that be removed somehow with the headliner in? That's something the repair manual doesn't speak to. And has anyone ever rehabilitated the cables?

Thanks.

[Jan-Willem]

I have not repaired it, I have taken it apart/out when repairing rust in my roof. At that time my headliner was out, but I think... you can access most stuff without removing it. You have to remove the little panel with the switch in it. Then try it by jumping the wire!!! The switch may not be good anymore, all of the switches are prone to corrosion, and this one in particular can easily get wet.
Behind the panel there is a thing where you can open the sunroof manually. you can access the mechanics from the top when opened. And I think you can remove the panel itself when closed, but the decorative inner cover detached. I am looking trough my pictures, when I was doing this, I don't have a really clear overview picture, but there does not seem to be much obscured by the roof liner.

[Vectorsprint]

Jumping the wires did the same thing. I heard the motor start then bog and stop. I think the sunroof is seized. I am unable to find the clips that hold the interior trim panel to the sunroof, but if I can find those and get that trim panel backed off, it looks like getting to the mechanism to lubricate it would not be an issue.

Does anyone have any pictures of where those clips would be located inside the trim panel and have any suggestions for releasing them?

[Vectorsprint]

I was able to get the interior panel off. It's the same as a Supra the same year, just push-clips. I got it back, got the roof panel out, and I'm lubing everything up.

[Vectorsprint]

Sunroof works again, mostly. I need to pull the center panel out and tweak it some, as a previous owner seems to have dropped something on it and bent it slightly, but a liberal application of grease on the tracks and cable lube on the cables has my van an open top vehicle again. Thanks for the assist.