Roof will not raise

[HALLEYBILL]

Hi,

We haven't had one of these for a while (at least 5 days!) so I thought that I would get the ball rolling again.

I have owned a 1997 Ford Freeda for about six and a half years which I bought from that nice man at JAL in Worcester. I tend to do all my own repairs and have always won until this little problem came up.

I tried to raise the roof last week and got all the usual bleeps and flashing lights but no movement of the roof. I poked about a bit and could see nothing obvious so checked out the forum for help in unravelling the mysteries of the roof operation. I tried most of the ideas as suggested and have hit a stumbling block in raising the roof manually to get at the motors and winding gear.

So far, if I short out the square 4 pin plug at the back ( with the engine running) I can hear a least one motor whirring either in reverse, or reshorting the plug differently I can hear it run the other way, for a short period of time. I have opened the tent zips and got to the rollers which are seated in a ramp and both sides are free when levered with a screwdriver. I was going to take the tent out completely but couldn't undo the phillips screws to release it!

Next, I undid the 6Nr 10mm bolts that clamp the frame to something or other hoping to raise the roof manually as suggested elsewhere. I made a 4x2 frame to go inside the van and tried lifting with a trollyjack, but no movement.

Referring to the manual, always a last resort, I see that there are another 6Nr 10mm bolts that live the other side of the black metal frame. So, the million dollar question, has anyone got any ideas how you access these if they need to be undone to lift the roof.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Bill

[g8dhe]

I thought there were some notes on Allans site http://www.allansplymouth.co.uk/ that described removing the 4 nuts under the roof lining at the rear of the van, then wedging the AFT up to gain access to the motors but I can't find them at the moment!

[HALLEYBILL]

Yes, I noticed that reference on his website. It makes reference to the "motors can be removed without raising the roof".

If he wasn't so far away I would book it in for him to sort out. I am near Cambridge. The other guy in Bury is closer but even that is a fair trot - at the moment!

I have looked at taking the rear hinges off but require a 12mm socket of an extraordinary length to undo the nuts, and have also read of warnings about cracking the roof with this method!

[teenmal]

I think you will have to remove the head/roof lining at the rear of the vehicle to gain access to the runners and or motors, then disconnect either to manually raise the roof.

Or a big Tin Opener.

Good Luck.

[mikeonb4c]

I think you will have to remove the head/roof lining at the rear of the vehicle to gain access to the runners and or motors, then disconnect either to manually raise the roof.

Or a big Tin Opener.

Good Luck.

Nooooo! Phone Adrian at Japan Direct and ask for advice. He's fixed mine 3 times without removing the headlining.

[Simon Jones]

Plenty of info on the forum via the search facility includeing this:

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=61581

[teenmal]

I think you will have to remove the head/roof lining at the rear of the vehicle to gain access to the runners and or motors, then disconnect either to manually raise the roof.

Or a big Tin Opener.

Good Luck.

Nooooo! Phone Adrian at Japan Direct and ask for advice. He's fixed mine 3 times without removing the headlining.

Yep, looks like he has had plenty of practice ..

[mikeonb4c]

Yup, he's done a fair number of roofs. The eventual fix for mine seems to have been 2 new motors.

[tallbongo]

Hi,



Referring to the manual, always a last resort, I see that there are another 6Nr 10mm bolts that live the other side of the black metal frame. So, the million dollar question, has anyone got any ideas how you access these if they need to be undone to lift the roof.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Bill

My suggestion is don't.

... at least only do this as a very last resort.

My roof seized up yesterday at the Glencoe meet. The root cause was the motor housing had dropped causing the worm drives to get all tangled up. Thanks to some help from other forum members I managed to get the roof back down and home, but it's still not fully fixed because I undid those very six bolts you are referring to. When you undo them, the gas strut fully extends and it is a complete *%%$%* to recompress, being very strong and having limited clearance top and bottom while refitting. It's already bent a makeshift sash clamp I built to do the job.

Anyway, onto the useful bit...

I assume the 6 bolts you have undone are those on the inside of the runner. If so at the rear of this black runner there are two brass bolts (again 10mm) holding a bracket that connects the inside part to the outside. Undo these and you should be able to remove the inner half of the runner, access the rollers and pop them out of the outer runner (there are several points where they can drop out the bottom as in operation they are always against the upper of the runner). You should then be able to manually lift the roof.

Note it is extremely heavy. I used the scissor jack and spreader plate to get it going and tried 4x4 wooden posts to hold it. The latter popped out under the weight of the roof and smacked me a beauty in the face (very lucky it wasn't worse). I ended up using a pair of 2 ton ramps to prop up the roof in the end.

[tallbongo]

Been working on my roof again and realised that my above suggestion is only valid if you can get out the 3 5mm allen bolts on the outside of the 2 part arm mechanism. Otherwise you won't be able to slide the mechanism out of the roller as the worm drive will stop it moving.

[HALLEYBILL]

Tallbongo

Thanks for your lead, yes I have undone the 6Nr (10mm) black bolts that are on the inside of the runner.

I'll give your suggestion a go tomorrow and let you know how I get on. I made up a 4x2 frame to go inside the vehicle and will be using a trolley jack to get the roof moving up, then chocking with 4x4 as I raise it a bit at a time.

The motor housing falling off and jamming the worm drive sounds like a distinct possibility.

[HALLEYBILL]

So, tis done and the roof is working again.

As I suspected the winding gear of one motor was rusted solid, strangely enough the side with the kitchen conversion fitted! The other side was clean as a whistle. I eventually got access to the three allen screws holding the motor by cutting an access hatch in the roof tent and was lucky to pick the correct side first time for the defunct motor.

Once I had the seized motor off I was able to raise the roof using the remaining good motor and get at everything. I stripped the motor and winding gear (easy peasy now the roof was up) gave it all a service then replaced the motor and all is now working fine. Just remains to repair the small tear in the rear of the roof tent.

Thanks for your suggestions and leads.

[tallbongo]

Glad to hear you have sorted it. I've just got my roof working properly again tonight and will start a new thread with details as I basically stripped the whole thing (unnecessarily )