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Originally Posted by Paulsingh
Right, I'm going to try and have another look at this today.
I've checked and it seems the two load noises were the two spool arms on either side of the top.
The red plastic screw on female ball joints have broken on the spool arms. I'm assuming the top was out of line?
Anyone had this problem?
Any advice on a fix would be great.
Thanks in advance
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Lots of cars had this issue. The top cables have ball clips made of plastic to specifically break to prevent damage to the frame and the clamshell if the top goes out of alignment. This is a Fail-Safe mechanism.
The top can go out of alignment several ways. The most common is that the plastic shielding on the top transmission cables will shrink from age causing the cable inside to pull away from, or disengage the transmission. Meanwhile, you operate the top and the transmission 'skips' past the now slightly retracted cable and one side of the frame gets skewed slightly out of sync. The cable sets back into place and the top seems to work, but it is out of sync, causing the cable ball ends to break.
The fix is to replace the top cables and the transmission cables. The trick is to get everything synchronized again. This involves running the motor to it's stop (fully lowered, or raised) and then attaching each new transmission cable in the exact same orientation so both sides now operate in unison and perfect sync.
The procedure is well described in the Bentley Manual, which is an absolute must if you own one of these cars.
Cheers!