A common problem with power windows of any kind has to do with the cable. The general arrangement is that there's one cable to pull it open and another going in the other direction to pull it closed - the manufacturer's don't use push/pull cables due to cost. The problems that I've seen are either a broken cable or a slipped & jammed cable. The slipped & jammed sounds like what you have if the sunroof will move back & forth even a bit. You need to open up the access to the workings of the sunroof to get to the track, electric motor, and cable/pulley system & dislodge the jamb & then you can manually push the sunroof closed. You'll be able to see exactly what you'll need to replace (most likely the cable and a pulley or two). Check with your local auto salvage yard to see if they have a truck of your vintage and "learn" how to get to the workings & if the parts aren't too expensive, I'd take the tracks, pulleys, and cables (motor also if it's cheap enough, but yours appears to work - it's a bit of a trick to take the cable off the motor).

 

I took a look last night and the sunroof is definitely off the track. It's wedging the drivers side into the roof metal where the passenger side has too much room betepween the window and metal.

I looked all over the darn thing and can't find any screws or clips or anything that might help me dislodge the darn thing. I'm scared I'll have to remove the entire headliner to get to this stuff. Ugghhh...only if it was stuck all the way open or closed.

 

The damn repair manual, lists all of about 2 sentences about a sunroof, and that is basically saying its an option...

 

Agreed lightning!

It's still broken :-( I haven't done anything about it either. Haven't found any material online to fix it :-(

I'll keep posting in here once I fix it and let you know how it went.

 

If you can't see any screws, snaps, etc., on the molding surrounding the opening from the inside, it may need a special tool or it's just held in with clips that are part of the molding - the plastic or metal that holds the upholstery in place needed to be put in after the upholstery, so it would also need to come out readily for maintenance. Here are some various places to potentially get some helpful information on how to get that trim/molding off so that you can get to the workings:

• Auto salvage yard has people that have learned how to remove all money making pieces without breaking them,
• Dealership parts counter has exploded views on just about everything,
• Auto glass shops would have manuals on many of these setups and people with some experience getting into the "workings".

I would stop by and have a chat with people in some of these establishments when they aren't busy - someone from that group should be able to point you in the right direction.


Just some thoughts on the sun-roof installation.... Without a sunroof, there's nothing on the inside of the roof other than a bit of insulation and the fabric that covers everything. It wouldn't surprise me if the sunroof was installed as a module and you needed to pull the fabric back to get to it, BUT, you still need to be able to remove all the trim first, so this means that it was installed last, so it must come off - you just need to find out how from someone that's done that. If you do need to drop the fabric from the room, you may need to remove a lot of the trim all around the inside, but again someone with experience can tell you that.


I also haven't seen any manuals or explanations on repairing dakota sunroofs.

 

Alfons, thx for the advice. I'll definitely ask people in those positions. I do have good news though. I was able to 'assist' the sunroof closed by pushing up on the glass and pulling it shut. It 'popped' back into place :-/. At least now it's closed, but definitely still broken.

I like to use the sunroof, so I'll definitely be fixing it!