Sunroof Electrics

Sometime in the not too distant future I intend to replace the
headlining in my '87 740. I'm wondering if, at the same time, it is
practical to upgrade the manual sunroof to electric.

I'd have to hunt around the breakers for an electric motor, etc, but
I'm wondering if the wiring is already in place behind the headlining.
Also, will the electric motor easily link to the actuating mechanism
of a manual sunroof?

Anybody any experience of this?
--

Stewart Hargrave


For email, replace 'SpamOnlyToHere' with my name

 

The sunroof is easily upgraded to electric any time. Over here, Volvo
sold a kit that did just that, consisting of a motor, wiring and a
switch. The wire was not in the couple of ones I installed the kit in.
All that needs to be done is removing your existing crank and the gear
it attaches to, then bolt the motor into place. Run the wiring, add the
switch and your done. (Just make sure you start with the sunroof in the
closed position, and make sure the motor is also in the closed
position. Unlike with power windows, the sunroof motor needs to be
indexed.)

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

The sunroof is easily upgraded to electric any time. Over here, Volvo
sold a kit that did just that, consisting of a motor, wiring and a
switch. The wire was not in the couple of ones I installed the kit in.
All that needs to be done is removing your existing crank and the gear
it attaches to, then bolt the motor into place. Run the wiring, add the
switch and your done. (Just make sure you start with the sunroof in the
closed position, and make sure the motor is also in the closed
position. Unlike with power windows, the sunroof motor needs to be
indexed.)

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

I've not heard of an aftermarket kit in the UK. I'm wondering if a
window motor could be made to fit easily. Any idea? It's a long time
since I had my door panel off, and I can't remember what sort of
output drive the window motor has. Possibly a window motor would be
geared too high for the sunroof, as it works through a lifting
mechanism.

--

Stewart Hargrave


For email, replace 'SpamOnlyToHere' with my name

 

The kit was actually a genuine Volvo accessory.

No a window motor won't be easy to make work. It's also not a good idea
because the sunroof mechanism does not have robust mechanical stops like
the power windows do. Because of this the sunroof motor has some gears
and microswitches to stop it after a certain number of turns. You'd
eventually run the motor too long and bend and/or break something in the
sunroof mechanism.

With the value of used cars in the UK, you should be able to buy a whole
power sunroof equipped car for less than the cost of the motor.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)