down meaning closed or down meaning open? If your top is open you can unhook the tranmissions via intructions in your owners manual.
If the top is stuck in the closed position, you have a couple of options. If you can pull the clamshell up just a couple of inches, you should be able to disconnect the black ball joints on the non ball joint side. Or you can reach the ball joints from the inside, feeling with your fingers. I haven't tried the second method, and it sounds hard but doable.
I outlined the first procedure in my post on renntech.org
http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=662
My situation was different because i could open one side a bit and then just pull on the other side, but after doing it i figured I could probably do it with just a couple of inches instead of the 5 or so inches i had to work with.
good luck,
Larez2