Since I'm on a thread-starting frenzy, I'll post another one, lol.

My top seems to "bind" for lack of a better term, when being raised. It feels like it's caught on something, then frees itself. At first, I thought that's just how it is, but while on vacation last fall, I looked at another 3rd gen convertible on a dealer's lot. The car was really beat, but the top went up a lot easier than mine, like it had more "spring tension" (another made up term).

Any suggestions out there as to how to improve the motion and reduce the effort?

 

Sorry this might be a stupid question, but is it the original top? The reason I ask is if you buy a new top with a glass window, you have to fold the rear seats down in order to put it up/down because the window gets caught on the top of the seats.

 

Not a stupid question at all. Yes, the top is the original style with the plastic rear window.

 

mine catches on the passanger window if it is not rolled down, or door is open. Thats all this newbie has for ya.

 

I had the same problem as well. I looked at my frame as it went up, and saw where the paint, or coating had rubbed off. I then applied a light, thin coating of wheel bearing grease and it helped a lot.

You don't want this stuff on your top or interior, so just a real light coat should do the trick. I would avoid the spray on stuff as it'll just make a mess.

-jason

 

I'll give this a try. Thanks Jason.

 

Theres a lot of bolts and plastic bushings at pivot points, maybe one is worn or loose. Put the top part way up and see what you can find. I found a few loose and bad connections on mine.

 

One of the torx bolts shot out of mine last year when I was putting my top up. i just put it back in then I checked everyting else. They were pretty loose.

 

A while back Lon at TDS was talking about putting together a kit of all the bushings etc that would be needed to "re-build" the top.

If he is reading maybe he can tell us where that project is in development...

Speedy