’85 6 sunroof removal and refitting guide

I hope some of you find this useful, read it to save a lot of time! I now have Dave's roof in my car, cheers Dave it all went well in the end!

 

-Ben

 

 

1985 BMW 635 CSI – Sunroof removal and refitting (job date: 15/10/05)

Removal:

Make a note of where screw locations were before dismantling, so that you will know where to put things back.

1. Open sunroof about 10cm (4 inches).

 

2. Unclip the head-lining section and push back into the roof.

 

3. Open the sunroof fully.

 

3. Unscrew the front most bar of the sliding mechanism (7 screws), and the 2 side guide rails. pieces (3 and 2 screws- you’ll see).

 

4. Close sunroof, and then tilt sunroof up, and unscrew the 6 nuts that hold the sunroof to the triangular brackets.

 

You can now take the sunroof out.

 

Refitting (much more time consuming!!!):

Remember that if you are fitting a new sunroof, the alignment may be different to the old one.

The sunroof must be fitted, slid back, and then the 2 side guide rails screwed back. Here’s how I did it;

 

Note you can not install the side brackets before you install the sunroof. You must install the sunroof, slide it back then screw in the side guide rails. The problem is that if you install the sunroof, the regulator cables (the bits that attach to the motor and pull the sunroof open and closed via the 2 triangle brackets) prevent the sunroof opening fully, as they are lacking a guide rail (because you have removed them to get the roof out in the first place)! So here is what I did, and it worked great. Clean off all the old grease and put new Vaseline in its place, so that everything will work nicely too.

 

1. Fabricate 2 metal pieces that can act as a temporary guide rail. I used an old cracker tin lid, and made 2 strips about 2cm by 10cm (1 by 4 inch approx). The size is not important. These are then screwed to the sides where the guide rails will go soon. I made the pieces of lid long enough to cover 2 of the 3 screws where the guide rail will normally go. Their purpose is to prevent the regulator cable lifting up and preventing the sunroof from opening.

 

2. Drill 2 holes in the bits of tin lid and fix them so that the 2 screws can fit. These pieces must cover the regulator cable, so as to allow the roof to slide open when it is fitted.

 

 

3. Attach the sunroof using 2 of the 3 nuts on the triangular brackets – not too tight as it will need adjusting later.

 

4. Fix the head lining piece back to the sunroof properly, so as to allow its correct movement.

 

5. Slide the sunroof all the way back until it is fully open.

 

6. Remove the screwed down bits of biscuit tin lid that acted as our temporary guide rails, and replace with the actual guide rail pieces.

 

7. Close the roof. It may not close like it should immediately, so you will have to play around with the adjustments (and the head lining will have to come down again). These are the 2 rear most screws on the side guide rails (the ones that are not counter-sunk), these alter the closure position (you will see what I mean when you do this). The nuts on the triangular brackets allow for some left-right adjustment, while the front most Philip’s screw on either side (anodised yellow) allow for up-down movement (located at right angles to the triangular brackets, and are visible only when the sunroof is tilted up.

 

8. Finally open the roof fully, clean all the top facings for tidiness and make sure that everything is OK, and all screws are tight.

 

Also; try and not get your head caught in the gap between the roof and sunroof as your assistant fiddles with the buttons and closes it!

 

It took me all day, but if I thought about the temporary guide rails earlier, I could have done it in 2 hours easily. The temporary guide rails are the key to success.

Edited by phb10186

Excellent article Ben!

I must re-visit my CD, as I'm sure I didn't read anything about old tin 'guide-rails'  - wonder how 'they' did it?!

Now you've done the text, I'm sure none of us will object to you adding pics as well.

I take it that the problems you had prior to changing the roof are now gone, having used vaseline & crackers......

I dont know how to add pics! I dont know how BMW did it, but the CD instructions are terrible, and very uncomprehensive - But the pics there will do.

 

I reckon that BM used some sort of temporary guide rail too, as I cant see how else to do it. Bear in m ind that the cars have accumulated 20 years of olg greece now, and everything is older and harder.

The temporary rails I made up were the most primitive thing - there was no shape or measuring to them at all. But I have to say that the sunroof mechanism is pretty badly designed in my oppinion, it could have half the parts and still work.

Yup, all previous problems sorted out, slides like new.

Edited by phb10186