# 2006 Hymer B544 stiff roof light handle



## samsung (Jan 24, 2009)

The roof light handle seems to be going stiffer. In the past I have lubricated the mechanics above the roof which seams to help. A fellow Hymer owner tells me it's the shaft which goes through the roof which has the winding handle attached which is the problem. He says you need to remove the internal winder handle and knock the shaft upwards to release it and clean and lubricate the shaft and refit. Has anyone any knowledge of this or the reason the roof goes tighter to raise and lower. I have broken a winder handle once before when the roof light got stiff and I was careless using the winder.
Thanks
Samsung


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## vicdicdoc (May 14, 2005)

- or it may be the angled toothed gearing in the raising mechanism, that's what caused mine to become stiff but a touch of maintenance cured it


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

Almost certainly a dry gearbox ABOVE the winding handle. I had it happen on a number of MH's The problem being that the rooflight is opened by two opposing cables that the winding handle pushes in and out. These cables rub against the PLASTIC side of the gearbox and, if not kept lubricated well, the plastic wears away. The gears then dont engage correctly and you end up having to fit a new gearbox. (Delivery can be a lengthy process as well)

You need to carry out a bit of maintenance ASAP because if you dont you will be looking for a new (rooflight) gearbox. It will only get worse and result in failure if you dont.

Sounds like you have had the gearbox apart before so I wont go into how to do it!!!

Andy


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## lgbzone (Oct 8, 2008)

Hi Samsung

Our van (2002) is probably a little older than yours but i suspect the same, or similar mechanism, at least that's what i'm assuming. as i'm sure you are aware; the shaft from the handle through the roof has a cog on the end of it, this mates with another cog on a threaded bar that sits at 90 degrees to the first cog, when the handle is wound the threaded bar is driven forwards and backwards raising and lowering the rooflight. when ours went stiff, we also broke a handle, i cleaned all the crud out of this mechanism and scrubbed both cogs and the threaded bar with a very stiff plastic brush thing, then applied wd40 and ran it through a few times to clean it further, then applied a good lubricant and ran it through to lubricate it and it hasn't given us a problem since.

although i didn't do it; i suspect that removing the vertical shaft and cleaning and lubricating that would also help as it likely has some form of bushing, so i suppose both contribute to the issue and cleaning/lubricating both is the ideal, having said that i'd be mindful that the vertical shaft should (hopefully) be watertight. as to why it happens; i suspect a combination of crud building up, lack of lubricant over time and the surface of the components decaying.

Hope this helps

Lee


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