The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[peterbrown77]

The Good:

I replaced the broken driver's side convertible top flexible shaft/power cable on my 2001 S. It was broken when I bought it, and when the cable broke whomever was raising/lowering the top held down on the button (of course) and also wiped out the link on the driver's side as well with the red plastic ball socket on it. I've replaced both now and everything is in working order.

The Bad:

The previous owner had been operating the top by hand - pull open tonneau, drop top, close tonneau. This meant it was never secured and I had the light on the dash all the time. Anyhoo - in order to run it by hand, instead of just disconnecting the links he took the two red ones apart - so I don't know what the original length of them was, since they're adjustable. I could see some witness marks from the screws on the old one, and I set both of the links to that length. I paid close attention, and think I get them pretty close to what they used to be.

The Ugly -

When I initially connected things and drove the cables with my drill, I thought I had it pretty even. The tonneau was even and square in the "up" position but when I closed the top the drivers side of the tonneau was closing a couple of inches before the passenger side. So I played with the drill more and got it to where I think it was closing perfectly evenly. I patted myself on the back, put my tools away and grabbed a cold one. HOWEVER (The Ugly) - when I go to put the top down, the tonneau is still closing on the driver's side WAY BEFORE the passenger side. In fact, it won't go down completely, and I don't want to force the issue.

So - when I put the top "up", things close as they should but when I put the top "down" the tonneau is completely cockeyed.

HELP!

[kabel]

^exactly why I am having someone else replace my top next week including fixing a broken drive cable. I know that is of no help to you, sorry.

[peterbrown77]

You're exactly right -

[peterbrown77]

Well, with constant fiddling I finally got it right. THEN I found the secret to doing this, so I thought I'd share. I'll put it in a separate post too for all:

When replacing a cable and trying to adjust the top, there are timing marks on the left and right transmissions to align the boomerang-shaped levers. Thing is, you can't see them because there is a plastic disc-shaped cover hiding the transmission.

So, remove the 19mm hex screws, pull off the lever, take out the plastic disk and then put the lever back - just no point in torquing it down yet. Then, using a cordless drill, move the left and right sides until they are in the middle of the timing marks. The marks are really just the outline of the boomerang shape, die cast into the transmission case. Once they are even, replace the plastic cover and hook up the linkages again.

Regards