Removal of Convert Top Clips - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

por356c · 05-10-2016, 05:27 AM

Hello all - I am a new 2002 Boxster owner and I recently removed all of the panels to take a look at my engine. No big deal except those annoying clips that are attached to the cables were hard to get off and back on. In fact one was damaged when I first looked at it. Is there a trick to removal of those clips? Are they even necessary, since the cable sockets snaps very snugly to the ball socket? I am not one for changing away from what the factory designed, but this was a real hassle. Any comments?suggestions? Also, anyone know where you can find them? Pelican seems confused and my Porsche dealership is really confused.

Thanks for the help.

CrisZenithBlue · 05-10-2016, 11:44 AM

are you talking about the little wire clips that go through the round socket? I believe those are only on the part of the cable that's attached to the top itself and that's not where the part of the cable you want to pop out therefore you should not be touching those.

when you want to pop the cables of the top to lift the back end up you should pop the ones at the bottom, the ones that attach to the chassis not the sides that attach to the top itself. to do so you just gently press down on the top to create some slack and grabbing the cable by the lower base you just pull towards the side of the car. mine come off easily when i realized how to pop them open.

same trick to pop them back in.

i do admit i used to try and pop the upper side of the cable, attached to the top and it was an inexplicable pain in the a$$.

also, i think you can totally live without the little clips, they wont pop out on their own.

NewArt · 05-10-2016, 01:32 PM

The caps on the bottom of the cables just snap on and off of the ball connectors. A tool that I have used for this and just about every other job that I have done on the car, is a panel fastener removal tool: looks like a flattened two prong screwdriver.

dghii · 05-10-2016, 02:27 PM

Mine just release and install without using any tool. Just have to tilt to cable. It will not pull straight off.

por356c · 05-10-2016, 04:30 PM

Thanks for the responses so far. I must say that popping the cables off down by the frame makes a lot of sense - pretty obvious now that you mention it. What mis-lead me was a YouTube video that very specifically address the removal of the cables up by the top and shows the clips, but doesn't show you how to pop them off. The video oversimplifies the task by casually saying to use needle-nose pliers, but it's really hard. You can't see the clips very well and we tore up our fingers pretty bad. Appreciate the help!