96 4Runner 320,357 miles

Yesterday was 73 degrees and I managed to get my work done at 2:30 (I start at 6am, usually finish work by 4:30- as late as 5:45) so bopped over to the truck, hopped in, and tried opening the sunroof.
Nothing at all sliding open.
Makes a single noise trying to tilt up and another one trying to tilt back down.
No movement at all. Tried helping it along by pushing at the same time I hit the tilt button.
Not budging. Nope. Nada.

Today I pulled the everything. Headliner, which means most body panels, rear view, visors, oh-heck handles, upper seat-belt mount bolt, garage door opener holder, both courtesy lights...
and the entire sunroof assembly.

I found the problem, it wasn't a simple bad motor. I unbolted and tried to remove the motor...


but it wouldn't budge for anything, so I pulled the entire assembly. A bit more prying and it finally popped apart.
Uh-oh...


That gear worm-drives the sunroof cables. It fits into this hole, the cable wraps are barely visible in all the gunk-


The left cable moved back and forth a few millimeters, the right side would not budge for anything. I pulled it all apart, what a very mucky, rusty mess.






It took a tug of war to get the right side cable out, it was stuck pretty solid.
The plastic cable cover is falling apart too.
The rubber gasket around the sunroof glass is also falling apart.
I have to assume the muck is years of build-up. I don't like mudding and do grease what moving stuff I can get to about once a year.
The sunroof started acting up maybe a few months ago, and I greased it then, too, but that apparently was not the situation.
Bleh.
Might be time for a junkyard run.

 

Wow Hab! That is the way to do, pull it all and go through it all at once.
I have really wanted an electric sunroof in my 94 but seeing the crap you had to deal with i am glad i don't have one!

 

Just keep picturing that mess every time you get a case of the sun roofies, I certainly wasn't prepared for what I found!

We looked at the open junkyards today, no dice. There were two at Riverside Salvage last weekend, but they were closed today.
I'd be tempted to bolt the original back in and prop stuff in the rails so it doesn't sink down and allow leaking plus use some rtv maybe for the failing gasket, but I do use mostly the tilt option whenever it's nice.

 

Those pictures look HORRIBLE!!
I don't know if it's entirely corrosion, or a sealant of some kind, or a mixture of the two, it looks terrible. Whatever it is, hope you have a fun time cleaning it out
AND replacing it. I am sure there's some kind of sealant that's supposed to go in there. I can't imagine they'd rely exclusively on rubber gaskets, or whatever. Not on the roof, for mercy sake.

I DO hope whatever you do to it, you do your usual good job. I can think tht finding part might be a bit rough...

Good luck to you!
Pat☺

 

Thanks Pat, gonna give it my best shot.

 

96 4Runner 320,xxx miles

Didn't find much sunroof-wise at the junkyard, did come to the realization that if it wasn't a garaged pavement princess I wasn't going to find anything but boogered cables.
NOT the stuff we generally see in the junkyards around here.
We did find a battered 300xxx mile 4Runner at one of the yards. No brakes written on the windshield, husband quickly noticed that the pad keepers were not keeping the pads because somebody installed them UPSIDE DOWN.
How you don't notice the curved shape of the pad should fit with the curved shape of the rotor...

Anywho...
The sunroof had been siliconed in place, the gasket around the glass looking quite crispy.
No matter, I didn't need that. The very rusty, stuck tubes and cables were a no-go too. Somebody had already pulled the sunroof motor so we could see right off that the cables would be gummed up. The tubes look way rustier than mine.
The support pieces and some other bits I wanted, those looked better than what I have, so for $10 I grabbed parts of the sunroof frame.
I bit the bullet and ordered the cables (Merry Christmas to meeee!) from Serra Toyota of Decatur, Alabama because they had the best price + code FREESHIP.
6322435030 $113.28 Sunroof Cable (Left)
6322335030 $113.28 Sunroof Cable (Right)

The plan is to clean out and re-grease my tubes, and cobble together the best version of sunroof frame using the junkyard and the 96's parts. I may still have to deal with the glass gasketing, but hoping if it's able to come fully into place that it behaves itself leak-wise.
I'll try to make a coherent write-up on pulling those tubes and cables, too.

PS. The plastic cover for the sunroof bolts (one each side) is plenty brittle. One of the tabs on mine broke, the junkyard truck's crumbled like the wiring cover that sits on top of the engine. These are no longer available, but I'm not sweating the little stuff. At least, not yet.

 

96 4Runner, still 320,xxx miles

F-f-f-f-f-f-reeeezzzing cold fingers! Not even below freezing, but the north wind was rudely cold.

Sunroof re-assembled. the cables come with the whole mechanism that slides onto the rails. The glass is just set in there for now, I still have a bit more to do. It was cold and dark and I got hungry. And cold.
It was a lot easier to put together than it was to take apart with frozen cables. It still took a bit of puzzling to get the mechanisms all back together, the cable assembly, the front stop, the air dam, the tube assembly....all the things.

 

96 4Runner 320, too tired to go out and look.

Sunroof is in and adjusted and the truck is 98% buttoned back up.

To take out the head liner you need to pull the upper front seat belt bolts and every sill and panel except the part on the a-pillar. You do have to pull the part that's over the front doors, and I pulled the a-pillar oh hecks as well as the other 3 oh heck handles too. There is also a flexible trim piece around the hole for the sunroof that has to go, too. It just pulls off.
Besides all that both overhead lights, the sunroof controls, the rear-view mirror, the visors and the visor keepers have to come off too.

The 4 sunroof drain tubes have to come off. The sunroof motor needs to be unplugged.
The plastic trim on the right and left side of the sunroof have to be gently popped off (and will want to break, and is no longer available). Under these are the 4 nuts that holds the sunroof to the sunroof frame. Remove and push the sunroof out and put somewhere safe.
There are 8 bolts along each side of the frame, and two nuts up front. On the right side near the b-pillar there is a stud with a keeper to help hold the frame up for install. I bent the tines to get it to slip off. Undo and pull the frame out.

My cables would NOT budge. I pretty much tore the whole thing apart to get the tubes out after soaking them in penetrant did nothing. The bracket that moves the glass was unfortunately stuck over one of the 3 screws on each side that you have to unscrew to slide the thing off.

A trip to a number of junkyards revealed hardly any 4Runners and all stuck cables. I finally gave up and got a frame out of a 4Runner that was not all rusty as mine had become from the leaking. It also had (surprise!) stuck cables- and somebody had opted to silicone the crap out of the sunroof. Luckily I didn't need that stuff. They charged me $10 for the framework, no complaints. While I was taking it apart I looked at how everything fit together.

I cleaned out my original tubes and put them on the new cables. Once it was sorted I installed the sunroof frame and aligned the brackets for the glass using the marks. I plugged in and tested the motor until I had it set to closed and installed it. After testing everything until I was satisfied the glass went in and was secured with the 4 nuts.
After that I figured out where the glass needed to sit in the roof, then tightened each bolt with the torx t-25 head on the brackets that hold the glass to the sliding brackets after propping the glass into position.

The other thing I did was to silicone a crack in the plastic glass surround- it commonly splits at the front center.

 

Not a how-to, but a pictorial. I learned a lot, but one time of fiddling around makes me not an expert. I can't even play one on tv.

One of the new cable assemblies. Toyota Part numbers 6322435030 left and 6322335030 right


with the cables each in two housings. You'll want to put the correct housings on each cable, in the correct order.


Here is the assembly slid into the track along with the second piece that has the screw holes for the cable housing end. This requires making sure the post and the flat spring with the white plastic end go into the track, there are cut-out spaces for them to drop into. There are actually 2 posts, the more forward post is not supposed to fit into the rail- it actuates the air dam, allows it to raise and lowers it when the sunroof is closed.



Here is that second piece almost in place (the plastic end on the far right). It kind of 'keys' into place, there are a couple of holes in the bottom of the track it fits into, and cut-outs to enable you to slide it into place.


This is the underside of the track, the plastic part at the bottom is the end of the second piece. You can see the two holes I just mentioned, and also where the cable housing ends up.

 

Another view, the piece in the rail cut-out is the end of the second piece. It fits down in the track and moves backward and down so it can latch into the bottom of the track.


Once both sides are done I put the sunroof motor drive housing on the cables. Kinda like so. You should have taken pics before you took the lines apart to make sure they are in the correct orientation. I think I did end up moving the left side (right hand in pic) to make it fit correctly. This is the underside of the frame.


Next comes the drip tray. It keys into and sits on top of the rails


Here it is sitting in place


Using the two holes at the end of the rail/ in the second piece screw the cable housing into place on both sides. You can see the one screw with the rusty head, the other is a little above it. You may have to slide the cable assembly back to access the holes.


Here's another pic of the assembly so far, cable assembly pulled back and with one screw in.


Add the rear drip panel (the one that sits above the cabin light at the back of the glass

And now for the wind deflector, it fits into place with one screw on each side. Some how I didn't get this pic. The screw hole is the third one behind the 2 for the cable housing.

There are alignment marks on top of the frame rails. This pic is of my old one, it looks like they had it just behind the center mark. You should start out at center and go from there.


The metal piece sitting on top of the frame rail and to the left of the alignment marks is showing the ridge you'll be using with the alignment marks. The piece sits under the assembly so you'll see that ridge through the window where the marks are. Move the assembly backwards or forwards to align on the center mark as your base.


Once you're all set up stick it back into the truck.

I spent a lot of time making sure the motor thought the sunroof was closed, then installed and tested without the glass in place.
I looked over the gasket and plastic surround on the glass before install, and repaired this crack


After I set the glass in and secured it with a nut at each corner


On each of the 4 brackets for the glass there is a phillips head and a t-25 torx head. Here it's helpful to have a friend, husband, wife, nextdoor neighbor, innocent bystander...someone...to check the glass gasket as you push the glass upwards. I ended up tightening my torx bolts at max height.

Reinstall the 4 sunroof drains.

Once everything is done and tested, tested, tested, check to make sure it works properly with a bucket of water. No leaks = good.

Time to add the nut coverings. These break. They are no longer available. Be careful! One side of one of my clips broke when I pulled it off. The one on the junkyard 4Runner disintegrated. Here is a picture with the 4 clips, two doubles at the ends and two singles in between.


They fit on either side like so



If you have access to the FSM it is in Body Electrical section BE and also Body section BO.

 

From the fsm... described for an '02 and not exactly like my 96-
#2&3 I didn't have rail covers ...the side garnishes are delicate....#6 my glass sub-assembly had 4 studs that held it to the bracket with nuts....#7 I did not have as many bolts, nuts, and brackets to remove as described...#8 mine was very very stuck....#9 one on each end of the rail, plastic block w/tiny screw.

1. Remove roof headlining assy
2. Remove sliding roof guide rail cover LH
a. Using a screwdriver, pry out the rail cover
HINT: Tape the screwdriver tip before use
3. Remove sliding roof guide rail cover RH
HINT: Use the same procedures described above for the LH side
4. Remove sliding roof side garnish LH
a. Using screwdriver, pry out the garnish
HINT: Tape the screwdriver tip before use
5. Remove sliding roof side garnish RH
HINT: Use the same procedures described above for the LH side
6. Remove sliding roof glass sub-assy
a. Using a torx wrench (T25), remove the 4 screws
b. Pull the glass upward to remove it
7. Remove the sliding roof housing sub-assy
a. Disconnect the 4 drain hoses from the housing
b. Remove the 8 bolts and 4 brackets
c. Remove the 6 nuts and housing sub-assy.
8. Remove sliding roof drive gear sub-assy
a. Disconnect the sliding roof motor switch connector
b Remove the 2 bolts and the drive gear sub-assy
9. Remove sliding roof sunshade stopper
HINT: Take the screwdriver tip before use
10. Remove sunshade trim sub-assy
11. Remove sunshade trim knob
a. Remove the 2 screws and trim knob

 

Cont....#12 plastic that runs across the back just above the wide metal brace, mine had catches that held it in place....#13 were it only that simple. Not wd40, not b'laster, it would not come out for me- good luck! Also, I had to pull mine forwards after removing the screws for the wind deflector and tubes....#15 whaaaa? They skip the whole part about the tube. it's the 1st 2 phillips screws on each rail at the front. The 3rd one back is the wind deflector. They must live in a perfect dirt-free world with no clogged tubes...#17 pic of matchmarks above....#18 + basically, if you uninstalled it you should reinstall it...#25 my glass installed with studs and nuts, but the brackets were there to set the height of the glass, T25 and not the phillips head on each bracket...#25 I set the motor gear before re-installing it. I have seen the reset function described for newer 3rd gens, google if needed....#26 while crossing fingers, toes, and not having forgot to re-attach the sunroof drains!

12. Remove roof drip channel rear
a slide the drip channel backward and remove it
13. Remove sliding roof drive cable sub-assy
a using the screwdriver, slide the drive cable backward and remove it.
HINT: Tape the screwdriver tip before use
14. Remove roof wind deflector panel sub-assy
15. Install Roof wind deflector panel sub-assy
16. Install sliding roof drive cable sub-assy
17. Adjust fully closed position
a. Using a screwdriver, slide the drive cable of the sliding roof to align the matchmarks.
HINT: Tape the screwdriver tip before use
18. Install roof drip channel rear
19. Install sunshade trim knob
a. Install the trim knob with the 2 screws
20. Install sunshade trim sub-assy
21. Install sliding roof sunshade stoppers
22. Install sliding roof housing sub-assy
a. Install the housing sub-assy with the 6 nuts
b. Install the 4 brackets with the 8 bolts.
c. Connect the 4 drain hoses
23. Install sliding roof drive gear sub-assy
a. Install the drive gear with he 2 bolts. Torque 5.4 N.m (55 kgf.cm, 48 in.lbf)
b. Connect the sliding roof motor switch connector
24. Adjust sliding roof glass sub-assy
a Check the difference in level between the sliding roof (weatherstrip) and roof panel
Dimension (circumference): 0 +/- 2.0mm
b. Check the difference in level between the sliding roof (glass) and roof panel front end and rear end.
NOTICE: The clearance should be even all around.
25. Install sliding roof glass sub-assy
a. Using a torx wrench T25, loosen a screw to adjust the sliding roof panel position. When the adjustment has been done, tighten the screw there. Torque 4.0 N-m 40 kgf-cm, 35 in. lbf)
b. Reset the sliding roof drive gear
c. Check the sliding roof operation function
HINT: If the jam protection function is not activated, reset the sliding roof drive gear again.
26. Check for water leaks
a. Adjusting the sliding roof, check that there is no water leak. If a leak is found, readjust the sliding roof.
27. Install roof headlining assembly

 

96 4Runner 320,323 miles

It rained a fair amount today, but only outside the truck.

 

Yaay!
Another long, complicated, but not physically demanding job. I think...was it? LOOKED that way, anywho

Thanks for all the great pictures. IF I had a sun/moon roof on any of mine, it would have been a huge help.

Keep rockin that truck!
Pat☺

 

Thanks!
The glass is the heaviest part so no, not too physically demanding. The framework and headliner were awkward, but do-able, especially with an extra husband hand....well, somebody's hand.

Will do!

 

Wow! I gotta say once agaReplyin I'm impressed. I think I might have just sealed the sunroof and had an immobile window. This has been bookmarked for when/if needed. You should get some kind of award.

 

Awesome write up on the sunroof. It's the first I've seen. I hope it's indexed somewhere so it's discoverable from Google. Stay dry!

 

As far as good indices go, check out post #2

 

Thanks JBurt. I think I have a Crazy Old Lady award around here somewhere...

A couple of rainy days later so far so good! Thank you!

Oh dang, I need to update that big-time, it stops at post 3945. Got some cold (for us) weather coming with ice and maybe snow, looks like I'll have something to do while keeping warm and indoors.

Went to a couple of junkyards today, but for my husband this time.
He's figured out that
3rd gen 4Runner spindles (or knuckles) 1996-2002
are also in some years of Sequoias 2001-2004
and Tundras 2000-2004
as well as Tacomas 1995-2004.
We pulled a set off an '03 Sequoia for an upcoming project of his.

Hope everyone's holidays have been wonderful, happy new year's eve eve!

 

Yeah, I got some work to do for Christmas! A set of manual hubs and a bunch of new parts (seals, bearings, ABS tone rings, etc) to go with.

Got a pair of ABS steering knuckles fromt he junkyard so I could reassemble an ABS-equipped manual 'front corner' over the winter and more quickly put them on in the spring.

Vs. pulling mine apart and then having all the presswork done while it's out of commission.