help, 129 roof stuck open

[nick.ged]

my poor mate has just niped to the shops in his (slow) r129. had the roof down, as you do. got home, roof refuses to close, he is in bits.

what should we (I) look for to get it closed for now, and fix it so it doesnt happen again?

 

[moakesr]

There are many potential reasons why it won't close!

For now, you need to get the owners manual for the car and find the roof spanner from the toolkit and follow the procedure to manually close the roof.

What happens from that point is a matter of budget and or time.

 

[nick.ged]

Right, just had a quick look, when operating the switch, the light comes on, and there is an audible click, but no movement.
He can’t find the tool kit, or the handbook
... any pointers will be appreciated, need to close it, it lives on his drive, next to a busy road, near an undesirable estate of thieving bstds

 

[nick.ged]

he thinks it might have something to do with the passenger side window not closing properly?

i recon its chaffed wires in the door jam, any sl gurus with advice, chime in now.

 

[BlackC55]

Does the window work?

 

[BTB 500]

Window problem is a possibility as the first part of the sequence is to slightly drop both windows.

If he can get it to a dealers they should be able to help raise the roof manually. And will be able to order a handbook

 

[nick.ged]

well, ive found one problem, the fuse 9 in the boot fuse box was blackend and corroded. i put a new fuse in, lifted the roof manually, and after a lot of messing around, got the roof to open and close on the swich.


the passenger window is faulty, from window fully down, it lifts up uneavenly and sticks before it reaches the lower park position, we had to keep pulling it backwards from the rear top corner. the rivits in the door that hold the mechanism have worked loose and there is about 10mm of play as the window operates, is this a common fault?

the roofs locking mechanisms were all very dry also, so i sprayed them with wd40, and put some copper ease grease on the pins and catches.

the roof was very sticky in its operation, but after about twenty open and shut cycles, it eased off greatly and the roof movement became more smooth and noticably quicker.

however, after about twenty more cycles, it stopped working! it would unclip at the back, and lift the back part of the roof up, then raise the cover , but then not unclip at the front... the button started to flash also.

we had the engine running throughout, but i suspect it has a faulty battery.

is the mechanism hydralic, could it have overheated or lost pressure?

battery is now on charge, roof closed.

 

[nick.ged]

also, when the roof is up, and windows closed, the operation of the swich causes both widows to fully open before the roof moves, is this correct, bills post above indicates, as i would expect (never had or been around sl's before) for them to drop to the first park position, then the roof to open and stow in the back, then the windows to go back to fully raised?

 

[moakesr]

On my 1991 500SL, the windows drop completely before the roof mechanism operates. Once the roof has completed operation, the windows close again.

 

[nick.ged]

cheers richard, he has just confirmed that is what used to happen befor the rivits came loose.