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Sometimes its better to be lucky than good...


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Okay, so I've been putting off repairing the infamous "stuck roof vent" problem that's plagued my C model since the upholstery was redone.  It's been stuck in the open position for at least 4 years and I've just been putting it off.  Well, I finally decided to take the project so I set aside a full day of wrangling headliners and trim parts and finding the necessary hardware to repair whatever I found to be froze up.  I rounded up all the tools I thought I might need, put some music on the stereo, and had a yeti mug full of ice water and started at what was to be a while of sweating in my cockpit.  I started by beginning to remove the trim that surrounds the front overhead vents and cockpit lights along with the vent control knob.  I removed the 4 small screws that hold it in place and inserted the small allen wrench to remove the vent knob.  I decided to just try to move the knob a bit to get to an easy position to loosen the allen nut when, much to my amazement, it rotated freely and the roof vent closed completely.  I repeated opening and closing it several times with a stupid grin on my face.  As it turned out the back left screw was about 1/8" too long and was engaging the gears of the vent mechanism and had locked it in place.  Total hardware needed to repair vent-shorter screw.  Time of repair-15 minutes.  Sometimes I'd rather be lucky than good.

Don

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I had the same problem with my M20C about 5 years ago. I called Don Maxwell to order a whole new mechanism. He told me to check the trim screws holding it in place to see if any were to long. Bingo, one screw was to long same as yours. Problem fixed. I think this must be a common problem with those roof vent mechanisms.

 

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On 4/27/2019 at 6:32 PM, Hank said:

I have both eyes, both hands and no earrings, so my enjoyment of rum shouldn't endanger my neck being stretched. 

I heard that pirates wore eye patches so that when they’d go below on a ship that they could have one eye already acclimated and not be blinded from their eyes adjusting. 

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1 hour ago, FloridaMan said:

I heard that pirates wore eye patches so that when they’d go below on a ship that they could have one eye already acclimated and not be blinded from their eyes adjusting. 

I've heard that too

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