Highlander sunroof is tilted open, won't budge

[dalewalt]

Please help me get on my mother-in-laws good side!

She has a 2003 Highlander with the sunroof stuck in the tilted open position. It had apparently been open for quite a while, as there were a lot of leaves and twigs in and around the sunroof tracks. She never noticed as she doesn't drive much anymore

I pulled the sunroof glass off and cleaned out all of the twigs and leaves in the tracks. After shop-vac'ing what I could, I then used compressed air to blow out even more dirt and gunk. But when I hit the Tilt or Slide switch, the sunroof stays in the tilt open position. When I hit Tilt, I do hear a very quiet 'clunking' sound (one clunk) when I initially press Tilt, but no movement. It sounds like the motor briefly tries to engage. I've tried manually moving the tracks, but they won't budge

I also tried resetting the system (her car battery was dead), by pressing and holding the Tilt switch for about 15 seconds... but still no movement.

I pulled the sunroof motor off, and when pressing either Tilt or Slide the gear does spin (and it seems to spin for long enough to fully open or close the sunroof)

Does anybody have any ideas on what could be causing this?