What's up with this?

[strawfordt]

Hi all,

Looking for suggestions / help.

Yesterday I put my top down and I did not get the red light on the dash to go out when the top finally stopped moving.

I figured that I had a wet sensor or something and being a real chicken#$%, I just put the top back up and went for my drive.

Later was experimenting to see what was wrong and I noticed that at the full down position the drivers side of the clamshell did not seat into the post hole and was actually proud about 1 inch above the deck lid. The passenger side was fine. vSomething allowed the top to be off kilter.

I figured that something was wrong in the cables or mechanism so I decided to get the thing into service position and start looking for the cause.

I checked all connections and the angles of the pivot arms and all was okay. I re-assembled and tried again. Worked perfectly!!!! I doubt that I fixed anything. Could this have been caused by a sticky slider in the "C" channel?

Am I missing something obvious? Does anyone have a good idea?

BTW My Box is a '98

Thanks for reading and a special thanks to those that respond

Tom

[strawfordt]

Update Here.

Seems the problem is intermittent. Sometimes it is okay and other times I have the problem as described above. The offending side is always the drivers side (Left Hand Drive).

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Chris_in_NH]

Update Here.

Seems the problem is intermittent. Sometimes it is okay and other times I have the problem as described above. The offending side is always the drivers side (Left Hand Drive).

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

first thing - i would check the cable lengths, just to be sure they're long enough. see this thread.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=68

you want to make sure you have ~3/4 inch of drive cable sticking out of the black cladding. you just want to be sure that this is not the beginning of a big problem, and the cables are the problem 99% of the time, especially on early Boxsters. i know you said you checked 'everything', but i wasn't sure if the cable ends were included.

if the cables are ok, i would have someone cycle the top for you while you watch to see how the top operates and what happens when it gets hung up. maybe you'll be able to see the problem as it happens. it could be that the slider channel needs to be greased, i suppose. take a look. let us know.

Edited May 10, 2007 by Chris_in_NH

[strawfordt]

Chris,

Thanks for the advice. Late last year I replaced parts & re-calibrated the soft top mechanisms. The cable ends were just fine. I'll look to see if the ends have changed any.

With regards to the channel grease. Does anyone know what type of grease should be used?

Thanks

[FrayAdjacent986]

I'd guess white lithium grease on the parts of the top. Keep us updated if you find anything.

[strawfordt]

Lithium grease it is. I'll keep you posted with my discoveries.

Should be nice here this weekend. Looking forward to a few tours.