Sunroof cable frozen in guide tube - help!!!!

[Hockey fan]

Hello all,

Our project today replacing sunroof cables has gone fairly smooth but we've hit an ugly patch. We have the headliner out, sunroof panel out, all guide pieces out, and one of the original cables out.

The problem is the second cable. It seems to be literally rusted "frozen" inside the guide tube. We've tried grabbing it with vise grips and pulling - no luck. We've also tried from the back seat of the car by putting a flat screwdriver into the coils of the cable and pushing it out but also no luck. We did manage to take a chunck of paint out of the roof of the car.

Darkness nears, and looking for any advice.

Thanks,

Jeff

[rstoll]

Same problem when I changed mine last year. Inject some WD40 or liquid wrench down the tube. Let it soak in for a while. Put the vice grips back on and twist. Hopefully it will let go like mine did. Clean the tube out as well as you can before putting new cable in.

[Hockey fan]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the help. It's feels like it's welded itself in there. It looks like the drain hadn't been working so the water ran into the tube. Any thoughts on how to get back in the roof cavity and spray wd-40 into the tube?

Again thanks for your help.

Jeff

[rstoll]

Seems like I fashioned a long spray nozzle to reach the tube and sprayed the WD40 into the top of the tube. If you have enough of the cable at the top, liquid wrench may wick down the cable. Slow and easy is the key here. Don't twist the cable off. You may want to let it soak overnight.

[Hockey fan]

Hi Robert,

Sounds like a great plan. We'll squirt some pb blaster in there tomorrow and let it soak for a day or so. Slow and easy does sound like the way to go. If that cable snapped off in the tube it would be a complete train wreck. I'm not sure what you would do then.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[john walker's workshop]

if i remember right, those curved tubes can be removed thru the zipper hole. better to mess with it on the bench.

[KevinP73]

John Walker is correct. Those tubes your trying to remove the cable from will come out thru the zipper.

[Hockey fan]

John & Kevin,

Thanks for the heads up. We'll see if the pb blaster loosens it up overnight. If not we'll pull the tubes out and go at it that way. Probably be easy to clean them if they're out of the car. My girlfriend insisted we should remove the tubes, but I didn't believe her when she said "hey, let's just unbolt these and pull out the tubes." My reply was "no way do those come out." Guess who just saw your replies!-)

Thanks again for all the help.

Jeff

[manonmasi]

I know it is an old post, Robert in your first post you said to use a vice grip and twist, later you said don't twist off, I am assuming you mean after soaking for a while then twist? Thanks.

[porsche930dude]

dont twist them. pull back and forth from either end if you can to work it loose. pb-blaster works better

[manonmasi]

I did use Pb - blaster and can only pull from the one end . Still does not move. Is it possible to remove the guide tube through the zipper as suggested in a previous post?