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Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour
[sorry for this very long post...] A picture is indeed worth a thousand words, and I have no pictures, so it's a wordy explanation for sure]
HIFI, as I read Grizzly's post (which I completely agree with) it occurred to me that the location of these cables and rods are probably a complete mystery to you as they were to me when I bought my car, and I had the car right in front of me.
You can find some close up pictures on the web of the parts on the car themselves, but that still may not help you find them!
Here's some verbal direction that might help you.
If you were to open the top half way, the rear end of the clam shell cover would be sticking up in the air. Just in front of the third brake light is where the motor for the top is located. There's a plastic latch there that tells the motor when to cut off and the motor is directly under it.
There are two cables that fit into each side of the motor and go around the outside edge of the top storage area to the sides of the car where they are attached to the "transmission". The old ones look like the same kind of cable casing on your cable TV, and the new improved ones look the same size, but have a criss cross pattern of reinforcement inside them to keep them from stretching when it gets hot.
The cable sheath contains a steel wire that has a square pin on both ends. The pins go into the motor and the transmission and use a twisting action to make things happen. The reason the old cables failed was that the plastic stretched when it got hot but the steel wire didn't, and the streching caused the cable to disengage.
The problem, of course, is that both cables don't stretch and disengage simultaneously, and that's where the expensive repairs make their grand entrance. One side of the top works while the other side doesn't and the clamshell gets bent, the top gets all twisted up, and it's a major pain to remove it all, straighten the parts, and most importantly, time the new transmissions to work together to raise and lower the left and right sides of the top simultaneously.
So, to see these cables, raise the top half way and stick your head down by the back of the top storage area (also the engine compartment) and look along the outside rim of the area toward the back of the car.
The rods of which Grizzly speaks can also be hard to find if you don't know where to look. Best thing to do here is to raise the top half way, then look for a cable that holds the base of the top to the car on each side. It's about 8 inches long and has a ball joint on the bottom that pulls straight out... might be tough to pull on to get it loose, but it needs to be done.
After you get both free, grab the base of the top and bring it upward as if you are going to work on the engine. Now look toward the cabin of the car and you'll see a rod that has a white plastic ball joint on one end and is about 8 inches long. This is the rod that Grizzly is talking about. It's below the top, so you have to look under what you've raised to see it.
I must say though that there is some speculation as to whether replacing these rods with aftermarket steel ones is a good idea. They tend to crack and break under stress— stress caused by a failed transmission, a bad or dislodged transmission cable, etc. So, a steel one would keep everything going in the wrong direction and may cause far more damage than the cost of replacing a rod. Plus, Porsche has improved the part and made it out of sturdier plastic from what I read on the PCA web site.
I have the plastic ball joint-type rods and they're working fine right now. I did inspect mine when I learned about the cracking issues, and found one of them had lost the nut and was rattling around there freely. I replaced the nut, eliminated a nasty rattle, and had a lot more peace of mind that my top wasn't going to fall apart on me and cost me two grand to fix. My rods are indeed the upgraded ones though and not the originals that came with my 1997 model car.
If it was warmer outside, I'd do another top inspection this weekend. Typing out all this has made me wonder if my top components are all intact and bolted down tightly. I have come to the conclusion that if you have some annoying rattles in your top when it's closed, that's the top telling you to inspect it because something's about to come loose or is already broken.
I hope this long explanation helps.
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