Convertible top vibrating?

[Viper5]

So I was working on my car today and I had the back compartment not secured in. I went to put my top down forgetting this fact, and then I realized that it was taking a while to close so I stopped it and turned around. It was at that point that I noticed the compartment. I put the top back up and put the compartment in.

Now when I put the top up or down, it will vibrate quite a bit when it reaches around the center point on the track for a couple seconds. Something else that is weird is when I put the top up until the light goes out, sometimes when I close the connection, it won't grab it all the way and slip out. I then have to open and close the connection until it fully grabs. What did I do and what can I do to fix this? Thanks.

[schoir]

Originally Posted by Viper5

So I was working on my car today and I had the back compartment not secured in. I went to put my top down forgetting this fact, and then I realized that it was taking a while to close so I stopped it and turned around. It was at that point that I noticed the compartment. I put the top back up and put the compartment in.

Now when I put the top up or down, it will vibrate quite a bit when it reaches around the center point on the track for a couple seconds. Something else that is weird is when I put the top up until the light goes out, sometimes when I close the connection, it won't grab it all the way and slip out. I then have to open and close the connection until it fully grabs. What did I do and what can I do to fix this? Thanks.

Viper:
The symptoms you describe sound like they may be the result of one of your plastic ball cups breaking apart or falling off the steel ball at the base of one of the B-Pillars.

Take a look at the forward end of the pushrod located at the front of the V-lever (not the black "hydraulic" push rod) of the top transmissions, and I'll bet you'll find what I have described above.

The top can operate with only one of the plastic ball cups attached, but with some difficulty. That will also cause the top not to be squarely aligned with the top of the windshield frame, thereby possibly causing the second symptom that you described.

Regards, Maurice.

[Viper5]

I've had a lot of weird things go on at once so I don't know what caused what. Yesterday I reported that my top was vibrating. I put some WD-4 on the track and it seemed to fix it. When this happened, I already had the two flap things removed from each side to see if that was messing up the motion in anyway (which it wasn't). After spraying, I put the flaps back on and then the motor would go about 1mm every second in either direction. Then I was pretty mad thinking that it was completely broken. I tried starting my car since I hadn't done it in a while, and the battery was dead. Now I'm charging it up. Don't know if the battery had anything to do with the motor or vibrating (I say vibrating cuz the motor could have been weak) but hopefully when this baby is charged up, all this will be behind me.