awdspyder98,

welcome to the forum! We call the leaking part the "Right Main Lift Cylinder". See Rebuild/Upgrade Service for your Crossfire Right Main Lift Cylinder - send in your cylinder first - Top Hydraulics, Inc. You need to send the part in for rebuild/upgrade service. The function of this cylinder, together with the matching one on the left side is to lift the main portion of the convertible top up or down. Chrysler part number 5170055AA, if you can still find anyone who has the part in stock. There is no consistent nomenclature in convertible-hydraulics-land. Some manufacturers will call a cylinder with the same function the "top drive cylinder, right side". Other manufacturers may call it "top actuation cylinder" (if there are only two cylinders in a simplified hydraulic top system).

It is typical for these cylinders to be leaking out of the bottom bushing first. There are seals inside the cylinder that decay with time, and the one on the bottom is typically first. The seal that is leaking on your cylinder, is the bottom cap seal. It is inside the cylinder. To be specific, the Crossfire cylinders have top and bottom cap seals, rod seals, piston seals, and port seals. All of them need to be replaced for a proper rebuild, and we upgrade them in shape, size, and material for maximum longevity. Wherever the OEM saved a few pennies on the seals, we now do the job right.

Replacing the seals inside these cylinders is absolutely not a DIY job. It is quite involved to open up these crimped aluminum cylinders and to crimp them back together in a manner that is at least as reliable as the original crimp. We have made special tools and presses for this, and we actually replace metal parts in the cylinder for precisely machined ones that accommodate our bigger and better seals.In the very rare case that the polished shaft on the cylinder has been deeply scratched or developed rust, we can replace it with a shaft of our own, made of hardened, polished, stainless steel. We can make the whole rebuild/upgrade process economical because it is our specialty: we rebuild convertible hydraulic cylinders for some 25 brands at this point.

awdspyder98, as you have found out, it is fairly easy to remove the main lift cylinder from your car. To remove the hydraulic lines, you need to slide the small stainless retainer clips on the cylinder's rail out of the way, and pull the hydraulic lines straight out. When you manually move the top, there will be some fluid coming out of the detached lines (you are manually pumping it out of cylinders that are still attached to the system), so take some measures to catch that fluid. There should be a safe way to keep the ends inside an empty oil bottle, for example, or wrapped in a rag and stuffed into a zip-lock bag.

With that said, you can remove any cylinder from the car and still operate the top manually. pizzaguy has posted an awesome video on manual top operation: https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...operation.html

One more comment: you will find more cylinders leaking after you are done with this one. It could be instantly, or weeks, or months. Most likely, the next one to leak will be the matching cylinder on the other side. All seven cylinders in the Crossfire have the same, decaying seal material inside. The speed of the decay depends mostly on temperature. (The next most important factor is the quality of the hydraulic fluid, but that's a big subject in itself - I cannot turn this post into a novel...). All seals are exposed to the same fluid. Thus, a combination of seal cross section and the average temperature that these cylinders are exposed to, will most likely determine which cylinder will fail next.

I hope this helps,

Klaus

relevant part numbers:
Rear bow latch 05142957AA aka A 193 750 0184
Tonneau cover latch 05166559AA aka A 193 750 0183
Folding top rear bow hydraulic cylinder 05142640AA (left side)
Folding top rear bow hydraulic cylinder 05170014AA (right side)
Main drive cylinder 05142639AA (left side)
Main drive cylinder 05170015AA (right side)
Tonneau cover lift cylinder 05142641AA
Hydraulic pump 5142638AA