Re: "Rebuilding the convertible top hydraulic system"
Hey folks – I just finished up the process of replacing all the top cylinders. I understand everyone’s reservation to do this but it really was very doable. You must have some patients – true. Follow the service manual along with the various posts and pictures on this forum. Forum member g3air has a very good picture guide. A few comments that may help you:
1 – Have someone available at your disposal to help hold the tonneau cover and top to place supports as needed and bring you beers when needed!! No, seriously – it really helps to have a helping hand at your disposal.
2 – g3air mentions a support arm in the way of getting the pin out of the upper main cylinder. My solution was to hold the tonneau cover up and then manually fold the top down some and it moves that support arm to clear the pin. Reach around from inside the car to get to the pin. Use your friend here to help hold things and call 911 when you pinch your fingers off when he lets go of the top!!!! Just kidding!! They are there so you don’t pinch your fingers off by trying to do this yourself.
3 – The pin on the lower main cylinder was a challenge because of the insulation; cut it away a little as g3air mentioned. I reinstalled my pins the other way – inboard to outboard. The only issue may be some chaffing on the hydraulic line bundle on the left main but this can be remedied by wrapping the bundle with that spiral anti chaffing stuff or some other method you see fit.
4 – The weather seal was the biggest challenge for me; I just was not sure how much force it would take to remove. After you drill that rivet out, the piece slides down a little and then you kind of peel away with some persuasion.
5 – TOPHYDRAULICS provides new o-rings for the lines; however, there were no O-rings provided for the latches. The service manual did not mention the O-rings but that meant nothing because there are other mistakes in the manual. Since TOPHYDRAULICS did not include the O-rings for the latches and they were not mentioned in the manual, I assumed the latch lines did not need the O-rings but I called TOPHYDRAULICS to confirm - - NO O-rings used on the latch cylinders.
I hope this helps encourage you to tackle this job.
Last edited by gmizell; 10-01-2015 at 10:48 PM.