Soft Top Mechanism Just Failed

[BFeller]

Originally Posted by BFeller

It is completely apart. I had to pull the little clips on black metal arms. I used a cotter pin removal tool to manipulate the clips into a position that allowed for removal. It only took two cut fingers before I put on the mechanics glove to spare the other eight.

The motor is running, the transmissions arms rotate forward and backwards. It does look like the pivot arm that attaches to the top, the one with the replaced ball socket, is slightly twisted. I can't say whether it happened when the bolt came out, or if it was from the previous owners incident. It is a subtle twist, in a part that already has some twist. I will order a replacement. I want to check the microswitches to make sure everything is shutting off when it should. It appears, that maybe the one that shuts motor off when the clam shell closes, failed and allowed the motor to beyond a safe limit. I need to figure that out. I think that would be the function of the switch/lever on the top of the motor.

The short update is everything is back to together and working perfectly.

I read everything that could be found, the vast majority of it from schoir on this forum and renntech.

The long update is that the pivot arm that came apart was replaced with a part from Pelican. I did not want to reinstall the one with the slight bend. The new one had a plastic blue end. The one that was being replaced had the plastic white end. Oddly enough the one on other side had a metal pivot. After everything that I read concerning the top assembly those pivoting ends would appear to be the weak link. A sacrificial link - like a fuse. So I decided to use one of the two plastic ends and replace the metal one. If the system were to get bound up, that piece is fairly cheap. Finally - All of my reading lead to understanding why the motor did not shut off when testing the operation of the clam shell. The micro switch in the b pillar was not going to send a signal - since the pivot arms to move the top were not connected, and with the top in service position.