'97 986 Boxster - broken roof / soft top.

[pothole]

Hi guys


It's an inauspicious way to introduce myself to the forum, but I have a recently purchased '97 Boxster which lunched part of its soft top mechanism about a week after purchase. For those who are familiar with the mechanism, I have posted pictures of the damage below.


The transmission broke on both sides - snapped arm on one, snapped ball joint on the other (pls excuse poor quality cameraphone images):



Also, where the left hand pushrod connects at the white cup end, it appears to be damaged: (damage is not terribly obvious in this image, but you can see it's sort of pulling itself out slightly):


The other side looks OK (ironically as it's the original red push rod end):


Oh, and I also noticed that there's a support cable/rod with a ball joint on each end apparently missing on the right hand side of the roof (doesn't appear to be lying around in the drainage treay under the clamshell anywhere). The cable/support rod I am talking about can be seen on the lower right hand side of this image, it's missing on one side:


That's as much as I can determine right now. I'm not sure what to do next. I'm worried about paying someone to spend hours learning how to repair it. If I can't effect a repair myself, I'd certainly like to put the thing into a repair shop with a clear idea of what needs to be done.

Many thanks for any insight or guidance.

[Mark_T]

I'm just in the middle of replacing my MY99 canvas top, so I'm pretty familiar with those pictures of parts you've posted, and if you're reasonably handy, you should be able to order the parts and fix it yourself.

The reason I'm halfway through is because I found the plastic head snapped off the push rod when I peeled the canvas back, and now I'm waiting for the parts so that I can fix it and get the top back together.

You should read Mike Focke's guide to top replacement. It has lots of great pictures and if you read through the procedure, it will give an understanding of how the whole thing works. How to make the repair will become obvious.

For some different pics and a slightly different slant on the job, check out the Pelican Parts tech article on top replacement. Then order as many of the parts as you can from them and save yourself some cash.

It will help if you can find a parts catalog for your car online somewhere so that you know the part numbers of what you want to order. Don't forget to get two new rubber pivot bushings for the pushrod linkages. (Part #986-561-881-00-M100) You'll probably need new clamping rails (986.561.560.1 & 986.561.559.01) and four plastic retaining pins for them (986.561.597.00). This whole lot comes to about $40. I don't know about that pivot arm that's broken as mine was all right, but replacing the push rod will run you about $70 a side for the genuine Porsche part.

Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!

[pothole]

Hi Mark

Thanks - I have indeed had a look at that guide you mention. I'm also leaning towards attempting a repair myself, too. Most of the damage looks straight forward to repair. The part that concerns me is the left hand push rod connection - where the white cup attaches, the steel ball fixture looks like it is bending / pulling out, again I'm talking about this image:

[Mark_T]

On my car that ball fixture is secured by a nut from the back side of the backet. Is the nut missing or loose on yours, causing the ball to appear pulled out? The ball itself looks like an easily-replaced part.

[pothole]

Good question - how do you get a view of the other side of the bracket? From inside the car?

I've had a look at the Pelican parts repair guide and am now feeling reasonably hopeful that I at least have a chance of carrying out the repair myself. There is hope!

[Mark_T]

Um, I just realized that you don't have the canvas off, do you? I do, and I'm looking down at it from up top, with the roof in a 70% raised position. From this point, access to it is dead easy. I'm thinking you might have to peel up the back half of your top to get at it. I'm not sure though - I never tried to get at these parts with the top on because I didn't know it was broken until I took it off. Suprisingly, the top worked just fine with only one pushrod connected.

[pothole]

Yup, as you say, canvas is on. I'll have a closer look tomorrow and see whether I can get access to it. Maybe it's as simple as having worked a little loose. That would be nice!

[Mark_T]

Try service mode for starters - see if you can get access from up top that way. Try and set your roof at about the 75% raised point. It might not want to stay in place with the linkages broken so you'll have to tie the hook to the steering wheel or something (not the mirror )

[pothole]

Will do. Fingers crossed.

[schoir]

Pothole:

The black flexible cable that you describe is called a "tension cable" by Porsche, and is easily replaceable so long as the attachment points under the rear main bow and at the lower end where it presses on to a steel ball have not broken off.

Its purpose is to keep the rear main bow pulled down, under tension, when the top is closed and latched.

There is a means of adjustment, which is a 14mm bolt that is visible in the area where the tension rope is pressed on to the steel ball at the tension rope's lower end. Turning the 14mm CW will reduce the tension and vice versa for CCW, IIRC. The one you describe as "missing" may have broken off if it was under too much tension.

The more potentially expensive problem (and I mean REALLY expensive), is the point at which the steel ball to which the front pushrod's plastic ball cup attaches. That steel ball has a threaded rod inboard of it, onto which a thin nut is screwed on, onto a lug at the base of the B-Pillar. If that lug breaks, the replacement part costs over $2000. The old one normally cannot be welded on or repaired easily (or at all) as the frame material is magnesium.

If you place the top in the service position and operate the top manually (after disconnecting the two plastic ball cups), you can get access to that thin nut so as to tighten it. The threaded rod inboard of the steel ball has two "shoulders" that allow you to hold it/turn it with a thin open end wrench. It would be a good idea to coat the threads with some Loctite to prevent it from loosening up in the future.

If you need plastic ball cups and don't want to pay Porsche its extortion money for complete pushrods, send me a PM and I'll send you the info on a guy who has had the plastic ball cups manufactured.

You also have to determine what caused the V-lever to break. The electric motor is powerful enough to bend it and break it, but something must have gotten jammed to cause that kind of damage.

Since you have a '97, be sure to check the mounting bracket/sheet metal under (outboard of) the transmission on that side, to make sure it has not sheared away or gotten bent out of shape. This point was reinforced on later Boxsters, but if yours are bent out of shape, the V-Lever will not be situated in a completely vertical plane and will cause you further difficulties. Examine the inboard face of the transmission (after removing the V-lever and thin black plastic plate) to determine whether it is completely vertical.

BTW, the convertible top will operate with only one front pushrod/plastic ball cup intact and attached, but it will lurch forward/lag behind depending on its direction of travel.

While you are checking everything out, check for any rips or tears in the foam drain trays. These are easily damaged by "dangling pushrods" and will then allow rain or wash water to intrude into the cabin. The water will then promptly find its way to the Central Alarm Computer under the driver's seat and again potentially cost you big $$$.

You should not have to pay anybody to effectuate this repair if you are reasonably DIY inclined.

Regards, Maurice.

[pothole]

Thanks Maurice, was hoping I would grab your attention here or on Renntech.

Yes, the steel ball going into the pushrod is my major worry, although you now have me concerned about the transmission mounts, too. At a glance, I think they're OK and that the arm(s) snapped before they could be bent, but not 100% clear.

I'll try to get the roof into the "service position" - not sure how easy that is going to be, when the roof broke it mostly stopped becoming responsive, it would only move a short distance between two points when pressing the roof button. Perhaps I will need to disconnect the push rods first.

The one good piece of news is that the foam drainage tray looks to be OK.

[pothole]

Originally Posted by schoir

BTW, the convertible top will operate with only one front pushrod/plastic ball cup intact and attached, but it will lurch forward/lag behind depending on its direction of travel.

Oh, Maurice, I meant to ask - does this mean I could run the run the roof, at least for a while, without replacing the expensive B-pillar part should it be broken?

Thanks

[schoir]

Originally Posted by pothole

Thanks Maurice, was hoping I would grab your attention here or on Renntech.

Yes, the steel ball going into the pushrod is my major worry, although you now have me concerned about the transmission mounts, too. At a glance, I think they're OK and that the arm(s) snapped before they could be bent, but not 100% clear.

I'll try to get the roof into the "service position" - not sure how easy that is going to be, when the roof broke it mostly stopped becoming responsive, it would only move a short distance between two points when pressing the roof button. Perhaps I will need to disconnect the push rods first.

The one good piece of news is that the foam drainage tray looks to be OK.

Don't use the electric switch to operate the top to get it in the service position.

Disconnect the two front pushrods by either popping off the two plastic ball cups (in your case, one red, one white) or unscrewing the 10mm bolt with fat washer that fastens the two metal sections of the pushrods. If the latter, make sure to mark the point at which they are joined with nail polish or White-out so that you can reassemble them with the same overall length.

Again, remember that these are apart when you are working on the top to avoid ripping or tearing the foam drain trays.

Once you have done that, you will be able to move the frame part of the convertible top freely through its range so that you can try to get the best access to that thin nut at the base of the B-Pillar.

Note that if you haven't already done so, pull of the other tension cable from its steel ball (on the opposite side of the one you said is already broken), as that will allow you to pull up the rear main bow as well.

If you really can get that thin nut properly tightened, you may have to remove the entire top and frame. That process can be done in less than an hour. Take another look at the write-up on Mike Focke's website. There are two separate DIY's that deal with the entire top and frame removal.

Regards, Maurice.

[pothole]

Good news - the ball joint and lug that hook up to the white cup on the push rod were fine. It was just the inner nut on the ball joint that was the problem - it wa entirely missing, worked loose following a repair, I imagine. That's one potential nasty off the list. And I can at least get the roof up and down now manually.

By the way, looks easy enough to get wrench access to the ball joint / nut with the top fully lowered.

So far, so good.

[schoir]

Sounds good! You are making progress, so keep it up!

Regards, Maurice.

[RandallNeighbour]

Pothole, also inspect your transmission cables. They go around from the center near the third brake lamp where the motor is located toward the sides where the transmissions are located.

Rub off all the grime from both sides and you should see a diamond pattern on the cables, which is reinforcement below the surface of the plastic sheath.

If you don't see the diamond pattern, those are original cables and this could have caused your issue. The plastic sheath on the originals stretched with age and heat and effectively "unplugged" the cable from the transmission making the top open or close on one side and not the other.

Now if the cables have diamond patterns, a loose bolt could have torqued things up and messed up the mechanism. I have not inspected the bolts in my top mechanism in a long long time. I think I shall put that on the list for this weekend.

Hope you get it sorted out soon. Summer's here!

[pothole]

Yes - I think I still have the original drive cables on my car - have yet to investigate whether one of them unplugged as you say but it's one of the more likely culprits.