Top Partially Failed Today; Could Fix Be This Easy

[austinporsche]

Thanks all.

Been a little quiet: I've had a Land Rover Discovery II, 924S and a Fiat X1/9 of mine all requiring priority interrupts ahead of my top/clamshell troubleshooting.

Replaced the bushing today -- bought the OEM Porsche one from Pelican -- and top is operating much better/smoother and without issues, though the tonneau/clamshell is sitting about an 1/8" higher on both the front and rear on the side I just fixed (passenger) compared to the contiguous fixed body panels (the driver side of the clamshell aligns perfectly). (correction: the misalignment is less than 1/8" but more than 1/16", noticeable both visually and by feel.)

Upon removal and inspection, it appears that the old bushing had been "repaired" with some glue/silicon seal rather than replaced: the thin copper(?) flanged bushing insert on that pivot point was all gummed up with black goo from that repair.

Perhaps the previous owner did the quickie repair on the rubber bushing rather than replace it, then adjusted the clamshell pushrod to compensate? Or maybe the tonneau cover was always a bit off on one side, and I just never noticed. In reading the link sent by BFeller, it appears that the clamshell can get tweaked/bent if something jams up in the top mechanism, which might well be the case as the pivot arm linkage plastic ball cup on the side in question is white. Were the original ball cups red plastic, which would indicate that this arm has been replaced in the past, maybe because the original cup sheared from some failure?

In any case, now that I've seen the modest misalignment, my OCD compels me that I get it right, which presumably means I need to make a minor adjustment (shortening) to that linkage arm on the passenger side to get the tonneau to pull down snugly.

It appears to me that there are two (correction, three) ways to effect such an adjustment:

1) by loosening the pinch bolt on the arm and shortening it a bit (maybe one magic marker mark width to start?); or

2) by disconnecting the linkage arm from the "boomerang" and turning it one or two more times into white plastic ball joint connector the metal push rod is screwed into to shorten the overall arm length (I am guessing that 1 turn would be a 1/16 of an inch and two turns an eighth.

3) (correction) by raising or lowering that rubber bumper (adjusted by a 32mm nut) at each rear corner of the clamshell (this from the link from BFeller).

Does this make sense? Is there yet a different way to adjust the tonneau/clamshell fit when closed? I know someone on this thread recommended to NOT loosen that pinch bolt on the linkage arm, in which case I should go with option 2 then?


And 78F350, thanks for the Bentley offer, going try to download a pdf version first if I can as like having an electronic version I can annotate (my OCD kicking in again: I have 15+ cars and 5 motorcycles, and have the manuals electronically for most of them; the Boxster has been so trouble-free, I haven't really had to think about it 'til now).