Help w/ Convertible Top - Push Rod won't stay on

[clean_send]

Hey 986 friends, I wanted to post about any ideas to trouble shoot my convertible top on my 98 box with a newer GAAH top (installed by the PO).

Problem
The push rod end cap pops off the passenger side when I try and close the top. It will open fine, but when I go raise it, it will reach all but one inch away (turning off the dash light) and when I manually close it that last bit, it pops off. The driver side has a metal pushrod end that's bolted into the top. Would this make a difference?


Things I've tried
- Bought a new push rod for the passenger side (when I bought the car it didn't even have one)
- Bought new end caps.
- retimed the transmissions as recommended in Wayne's book.
- double and triple checked that the lengths are the same on both sides.
- yelled at the moon in hopes of it magically fixing it's self.

Currently I have just removed the passenger side push rod because I don't want it stabbing the drain trays (another headache especially living in the PNW). The top still opens and closes with just one push rod but I don't want to put extra stress on the transmissions.

Any thoughts?