Help! I jammed my top transmissions?

[dghii]

Getting back into alignment is not hard but took me a bit of trial and error. Just attach a drill to the motor end of the transmission drive cable for each side to align.

[itsnotanova]

97-99 have different transmissions than the 2000+. The 97-99 have one big gear but the gear does not have teeth that go all the way around. It's only like 70%. Think of like a pie with a piece missing. Or something like PacMan. Your gears have rotated into that dead zone and will not reengage unless you manually turn where the V attaches to. The 97-99 can be a PIA because of that. You need to set both transmissions at the right spot or they will fall into that dead zone again when you cycle the top. Set them too far and it will rotate the gear into the dead zone towards the end of the cycle. My advice is to remove one of those transmissions and take a look inside it. Then you'll see what's going on. The 97-99 don't use that plastic gear that strips out on the 2000+.

[CharlesE]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

97-99 have different transmissions than the 2000+. The 97-99 have one big gear but the gear does not have teeth that go all the way around. It's only like 70%. Think of like a pie with a piece missing. Or something like PacMan. Your gears have rotated into that dead zone and will not reengage unless you manually turn where the V attaches to. The 97-99 can be a PIA because of that. You need to set both transmissions at the right spot or they will fall into that dead zone again when you cycle the top. Set them too far and it will rotate the gear into the dead zone towards the end of the cycle. My advice is to remove one of those transmissions and take a look inside it. Then you'll see what's going on. The 97-99 don't use that plastic gear that strips out on the 2000+.

Aw man I hope I didn’t buy these gears for no reason. I’ll pull the transmission and take a look inside.

[itsnotanova]

There's a worm gear that the cable attaches to inside the transmission. Those are know to come loose or break also.

[CharlesE]

Well I pulled the right side transmission and re aligned the gear and everything was working until the end of the cycle the clamshell got stuck down again.

After popping the clips off and inspecting the transmissions this time the left one now isn't moving. I'm ready to get a shop or the dealer to fix it for me at this point. I'm Wondering if a dealership would be able to re-allign it.

[CharlesE]

Does anyone have any idea why the top works perfectly putting it back up but putting it down the motor doesn't stop when the clamshell closes and it locks itself down?
It stops the motor when putting the top up but the light doesn't turn off going down and the clamshell does push down the switch.