AFT roof maintenace advice

[Gandalf The White]

Hi everybody

I've not had the roof up for a few months. Came to put it up this morning and to my horror it was stuck down. I did the sliding a card round the seals trick and banged and pushed on the back a bit and hey presto I got it up. Obviously, I'm keen to avoid a repeat of this from happening, so can anybody please advice where I should be oiling, lubricating, spraying and what stuff to use.

Many thanks in advance

[g8dhe]

Right first put it up/down at least once a month if possible at least that's my mantra summer or winter!
Clean the gas strut rams (lower section) with a clean dry cloth once in a while, no oil needed, they have there own oil inside the body and given it needs to be a gas tight seal you don't want to contaminate there oil.
Make sure that the tracks that the bogies (sliders) run on is clean and grease free, maybe oil/grease the bearings of the little wheels that run in the tracks, but don't put anything in the tracks - any grease collects the dust and dirt, the wheels then skid and make for real problems!
Make sure that the two little plastic protectors are stuck in place at the front corners of the metal roof, these help stop the rubber seal sticking to the top of the metal roof and paint see here 56-787A (tape protectors) http://www.lushprojects.com/bongopartsm ... f02.html#6

[Gandalf The White]

That's great advice thank you. I've been reading through some older forum posts and some have used lithium based spray or grease, as this doesn't attract any dust and dirt. Also what about the motors, some folks have removed the covers and sprayed contact cleaner, any thoughts? I've also tried to find the roof motor repair factsheet in the members section, but when I click on the link its not available

[g8dhe]

If the motors are fully raising the roof, then don't play with them. A common problem is that the gas struts loose pressure after 20+ years and have a problem taking the weight for the last few inches needing a gentle help, these can be replaced http://www.sgs-engineering.com/car-boot ... azda/bongo Over the years I have down the Main roof and the inner roof ones, details here read all the pages! viewtopic.php?t=68281

The motors can be refurbished there is an excellent Factsheet available in the Club area on dropping them out and cleaning them.

[WesternWanderer]

I had the same issue a while back with the Bongo laid up for a number of months.

Funniest thing in the end, once I turned on the fan to its highest setting the motors to raise the roof worked.

Now I raise and lower the roof a couple of times a month when not in use so as not to have any future issues.

[Doone]

The majority of failed roof motors we see, are rusted and seized. There's a post here that will help, should you ever fancy refurbishing yours: https://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/vie ... hp?t=65325