Andrew Estey

Hello Forum

After searching the forum and mining the internet for the past few days, I am sad to say, I need some help.

I have a 1988 Cab with power top issues.

It all started with the drives side motor not engaging or locking down. First thing I did was to disconnect the motor that lowers the top so that I could manually get the top down and to take a look...believe it or not, now both motors won’t lock. If I lock the top down by using a screwdriver to help lock the motors they don’t have a problem unlocking when I engage the rocker switch.

Diagnostics so far...I removed the left motor to see if there was a issue with the gears inside and everything seems fine. Both the Micro switches make a clicking sounds when engaged and the convertible top control unit has no cracks in the connections. I still have to look at the rocker switch under the dash and take a look at the micro switch that connects to the emergency brake...can you guys think of anything else that I am missing in my diagnostics? This is getting pretty frustrating.

Pavegeno928

I have had encountered a similar problem. Sometimes when opening, the left motor will not engage. The right motor does but stops and the red light comes on. When I go the opposite direction, the driver motor again does nothing, the right side closes and the red light stays on. When I turn the car off and take the key out the light usually turns off.

Sometimes when the top is open and I close it, the top will close and when the latch motors engage, the driver one won't sometimes. If I try it a few times it works. Never been stuck with it open from this.

I've had the switch replaced and the everything lubed but it still fails to open about 35% of the time and fails to close on about 10% of the time.

My mech suspects some misalignment due to the body bending slightly over the years. I have found if I put a little sideways pressure on the top it works with much greater success.

Good luck and let me know what you find.

Andrew Estey

So after playing around with it for a few days, I noticed a small crack in the lower gear of the left latch motor. Most of the posts here on the forum talk about the larger gear and on the newer model the latch motor only has one gear. My 88 has two brass gears...a smaller one that connects to the worm drive and a larger one that turns the latch.

I went to Napa and got some lock tight and reassembled the lower gear to the shaft (with the crack it was spinning), after a few hours, I reassembled the latch motor and gave it a try...everything worked, I was able to lock and unlock the latch motor. After a while, the gear gave way from the shaft and the internal micro switches were not in alignment again.

Today, I ordered a new gear ($100) from vertex auto...you have to call them as they don't have this part on their site.

Hopefully upon reassembly, things will be back to normal.

JoeA911

My latch will not spin either
I’m having the same problem with my 88’ 911 Cab. Thinking I'll have to take out the housing, to replace the inside gears, hopefully it’s not the control panel. How did you make out with the gear set from Vertex Auto?

Thomas Otten

It looks like this post is pretty old. But I recently installed a top on an 84 911 Cabrio. There were no videos available that I could find, so I recorded the process. I hope it can help someone.


Replacement Video Is on same channel.

Thanks,

Thomas Otten

parkerfe

I converted my 1988 cab top to manual operation by removing all the motors, cables , wires, ect... and installing a manual header latch handles from a 914.
Works great.