Roof motor

[Davz]

I am in the process of relocating the roof motor into the boot due to the inevitable water corrosion.
I have had the motor soaking in diesel and have now cleaned it up with gt85.
I have attached a 12v power supply, the motor turned about 2 turns and stopped.
I can now get nothing from it, the shaft spins freely so it is not seized. Is this kaput?
I'm going to put my multimeter on it and check the commutator, that is when I get a battery for the multimeter, I left it switched on a flattened the battery....doh!

 

[Davz]

For anyone else doing the roof motor relocation, I have managed to get my roof motor started again. I had some advice to gently tap it with a hammer whilst applying 12v and low and behold it sprung back to life. The tap frees the brushes to contact the commutator. I then ran it for 5 mins at a medium speed and this has cleaned the commutator and is now back to full power.
All I have to do is reassemble with some trolley jack oil in the hydraulic system and cable tie it in the boot and back to a fully working roof!

 

[t-tony]

Nice one Dave, I can post a picture of the position my pumps sits in if it helps you?

Tony.

 

[Davz]

Tony that would be brill if you wouldn't mind. I have the motor connected back to the oil resevoir (now filled with jack oil) and zipp tied it to a bracket I found behind the carpet. Thinking of making a panel covered with carpet to hide the motor.

 

[t-tony]

I think you've got the right idea mate, but here's a couple of pictures from my car this morning.

Looks pretty neat.

Tony.

 

[Davz]

Thanks Tony, did you zip tie using the electrical block which is bolted to the inner wheel arch? Currently I have zipped it to the bracket which is covered with a round grommet, you can just see half of it. This is only temp as I haven't put the parcel shelf hinge in yet and was going to see how this worked when that is back in place.

 

[t-tony]

I think that was where it was "tied" to mate. In all honesty I didn't do it myself.

Tony.

 

[Davz]

For anyone else having a go at this, behind the carpet in the recess is a bolt and bracket, this is an ideal place to zip tie the roof motor to, Just need to make a small slit with a craft knife for the zip to run through.
Tony once again many thanks for your support.

 

[FRANKIE]

I never had a close look at the motor for the top. I had the 1.9 which didn't have a motor. The ///M I have now has an electric roof and I suspect I'll be changing the location of the motor sometime in the future. What concerns me is that I've had to work on several motors in the past that needed cleaning or reconditioning to work properly. In a few cases, the brushes didn't move freely. I had a reciprocating saw made by Bosch that drove me nuts for a while. It would stop in the middle of operating and I had to wack it to get the brushes to move. I finally had to take it apart and clean the channels where the spring loaded brushes traveled and even slightly sand the sides of the brushes to allow them to move freely in their channels. That apparently did the trick as they never stuck again. I just hope there was no corrosion build up in the channels of the brushes of your motor to allow it to work sporadically that you might have to smack it on occasion when operating the roof.................Frankie

 

[Davz]

Soaking the motor in diesel overnight and a liberal dousing in gt85 has done the trick, the commutator is clean as a whistle now that it has been run and is working superbly, never known the roof rise so fast.

 

[t-tony]

These roof motors, like window lift motors are virtually indestructible Dave. Years ago we tried to damage one to send it back under warranty to a manufacturer but we could not stop it working. When I had issues with my roof motor I had reason to watch the motor which drives the locking catches on the windscreen head rail, It's amazing how fast they spin so the gearing is very low.

Tony.