I replaced the sunroof cables on my 88 930 coupe over the weekend and thought some of my newbie experiences might be helpful for others who's thinking about doing the same project. The Pelican article, "Sunroof Repair", is a great read if you're planning to replace yours as well. For me, the total time from start to finish was about 5 hours with two beer breaks.
Since my sunroof was stuck in the closed position (cables broken), I used a stiff putty knife to "gently" pop
the spring clips (there's 6 or 7 of them spaced about 2 inches apart) holding the headliner to the roof. Be careful to not insert the knife too deep or you'll gouge the paint when prying the headliner off. Once the headliner has been detached, make a note of the channels that the headliner slides in and must fit into when reassembling (I didn't :/). Here's a pic:
The bolts the hold the roof to the mechanism are pictured below. Anyone know what the arm mechanism is for?
Since both of my cables sheared off from the guides and the shredded tips not visible in the cable guide tubes, I had to push the cable back out from the rear. Yoga training would've been handy here. I could've removed the cable from the rear of the guide tubes, but since the cables were covered in grease (more on this below), I didn't want to risk damaging the headliner. Once pushed back out, the tips of the cables should be fairly visible from front of the guide tubes. Using a grabber tool (its real name escapes me at the moment, pictured below), I grabbed the tips of the cables and eased them out.
The detached cable:
The tool that I used:
A few years ago, the PO had a local wrench grease up the sunroof mechanism which was presumably sticking at the time. The wrench dumped a truckload of grease on the channels, cable guides, and other choice areas. Whatever part that moved in the sunroof mechanism there was a big blob of grease to go with it. My guess is that the PO didn't use the sunroof often enough and the grease just made the situation worse and caused the roof to jam and snap both cables. I cleaned the channels throughly using just common dish soap, a sponge, and q-tips.
The new guides from Pelican are, as noted, the newer 964 style guides. I used a metal file and a Dremel tool to file the guides down to fit the older style channel. Unwinding the felt from the cables is an exercise in patience
I'd thought about just burning it off using a blow torch but the heat stress is probably not too healthy for the cable.
Be sure to fit the headliner back into its groove and the rear guide stops back into its channel when reinstalling the aluminum guide channels. Clear the rear drain holes of any visible blockage while you're at it. Move the guide back and forth in the channel to make sure there's no binding.
Reinstalling the roof: Make sure the guides are resting against the forward stops and the brackets are turned upward before installing the roof. Just common sense really, but easy to forget once the beer kicks in...
That's it. Pretty simple job really. Snaking the new cables back into the guide tubes was probably the hardest part of the whole exercise. The passenger side cable went in easily, but the driver's side cable was much tougher due to the shape of the guide tube at the rear of the roof. I just used the grabber tool mentioned previously to help push the cable into the tube.
Now if only the Seattle weather would cooperate so I can go and enjoy the sunroof today
-Wade
'88 930 Slant Coupe