1998-2001 Mountaineer Inadequate Roof Rack Fix

[Craigerz]

How hard was it to undo the tracks from your truck. I never took mine off but have recently developed a roof leak from somewhere. Like pretty bad. I dunno if its the sunroof, or since this is really the first rains since I put on the x bars, maybe I wrenched it too tight and something came loose under there. I'd like to take them off and re caulk the screw holes to see if it fixes it, and if not some piece of mind.

 

[koda2000]

The roof rack is probably not the source of you leak.

If your leak is showing up in the cargo area, your leak could be from the rear side windows. As a test, take a piece of electrical tape and place it over the top edge of the rear side window(s) right where the plastic seal meets the painted part of the roof to see if it stops the leak.

The rear side windows are held in place by a series of 10mm nuts on studs. With age they tend to loosen up and then the window can leak. I had this happen on 2 of my vehicles. You can pop the rear interior trim off and tighten the nuts (be careful not to over tighten them) to stop them from leaking.

If your leak is in the area of the sun roof, one or more of the 4 drains may be clogged. Sometimes they can even pull off from the sun roof's drainage tray and sometimes there can just be a lot of trash in the drainage tray.

 

[Craigerz]

Well my driveway is a pretty steep incline. So it all runs downhill and is hard to detect. The first time WAS from the sunroof because I left the back of the sunroof raised and that was the part pointing up hill So it dried out and next time it rained it leaked again. Its hard to tell if its running or just soaking uphill through the headliner.

Is it hard to check the drainage tray?

 

[CDW6212R]

Well my driveway is a pretty steep incline. So it all runs downhill and is hard to detect. The first time WAS from the sunroof because I left the back of the sunroof raised and that was the part pointing up hill So it dried out and next time it rained it leaked again. Its hard to tell if its running or just soaking uphill through the headliner.

Is it hard to check the drainage tray?

I've done that a couple of times and had rain wet the seats a little. That could be a good way for debris to get into the sunroof drain pan, and clog the drain(s). I'd carefully use a waterhose to gently put water into the sunroof pan(open the roof fully). See if all four drains work, which you should see well at the four outlets under the truck. They will either properly, or you'll see the headliner getting soaked fast. Go slow with the water, have a second person watching the headliner first.

 

[Turdle]

I got to browsing again for some obsolete parts like the hatch weatherstrip, and came back to the racks.

How's this for a nice rack? I like the large pipe design, and there is an 18" extension available for $60;
https://www.amazon.com/59504-V-Tex-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DNE58AS43WGHJX8EKEGN

I like that one.
What I ended up with was a Curt rack with extension. U bolts hold it down to 2 of the cross bars, it rests on the center 2 bars. Spare was on rear 2 bars.
Powertank bracket fit the unused Curt crossbar brackets like they were made for it.

 

[Turdle]

How hard was it to undo the tracks from your truck. I never took mine off but have recently developed a roof leak from somewhere. Like pretty bad. I dunno if its the sunroof, or since this is really the first rains since I put on the x bars, maybe I wrenched it too tight and something came loose under there. I'd like to take them off and re caulk the screw holes to see if it fixes it, and if not some piece of mind.

I also doubt that is where the leak originates, Unless it has been removed before.
If you do need to remove it to check, What I found easy was a Large phillips screwdriver bit, driven by a 1/4" drive ratchet and extension with 1/4" socket. some racks are attached with Torx screws, in this case substitute a torx bit for phillips screwdriver bit.
Be sure to push down while backing the screw out.

 

[Craigerz]

Is there a seal around the sun roof? If that starts to leak should the water just drain out of the drain pan if its not clogged up?

Nice rack btw, I have an off road trailer that I built, and that's where my spare tire it. The trailer has the same bolt pattern, rims and tire size as the truck.

People have told me to put the spare tire up on the rack, but I couldn't imagine wrestling that f*&king thing up there.