garrett376

I had to drill one more hole that was not present in the casting of the support - odd Porsche would not incorporate these necessary holes.

garrett376

At the very end, I was excited to be almost done, but unfortunately the hole that was in the cast support, was shorter than the previous hole. So, I was cranking this little piece in there and it snapped! Little bugger!

I had to drill it out, and head to the dealer to get a new one. This piece cost $7!!! Holy crap that's expensive for a little tiny piece!!! But I needed it, so I spent the money! Thank goodness for my 10% discount on parts from the dealer for being a member of the PCA!

garrett376

I noticed that the top was a little slack, especially when lowered - so I added contact cement to alleviate the slack so it should be a little more like before...

garrett376

Now for the good part... figuring out why this all happened in the first place. I was hoping it was not one of the many potential break points: motor failure, cable failure, or transmission failure. So, to test both motors, I disconnected each of the links so only the drive arm was connected to the transmissions. I then hit the switch and watch to see if the transmissions work - if the arms both rotate signifying the motors are working, the cables, and tranny's. They worked!

What I did find, was that the passenger side transmission lower mounting bolt was loose, therefore it would rotate slightly, and likely mis-aligning the top. Hmm, that's my only theory to its failure since everything seems to work well...

garrett376

For anyone wanting to see what the transmission looks like, I took apart the passenger side to check on it. Interesting but straightforward design.

garrett376

I was curious where to find the motors - they sit tucked away in the very back behind the panel that covers the firewall to the engine compartment. It's always neat to see how they cram everything into these cars!

garrett376

So far I hope this has been helpful to other cabrio owners, other than a waste of bandwidth! It is possible to do this yourself, and save a lot of money!!

Hope this is helpful! I'll post more tomorrow.. it's bedtime!

robmug

Great thread...answers all of my questions. I can do it myself; it's not worth changing the entire canvass at the same time...but I may fit the new headlining that I have.

How long did it take you overall?

Rob McConnell

Hi Garrett

Good thread shows that the hood is not such a black art as all bodyshops make out.

I had a similar problem, but did not have a break, i noticed the hood making strange noises and decided to check it out. Each transmission is mounted to the body by 3 bolts. The nuts to hold these bolts and transmission in place are welded onto the inside of the wing, making them inaccesable.

On my car two had broken free allowing the transmn to move around.

CARE ALL CAB OWNERS SHOULD TAKE THE TIME NOW TO CHECK THESE 3 BOLTS ON EACH SIDE. AS YOU LOWER THE HOOD WATCH THE TRANSMISSION FOR FLEX AND MOVEMENT.

The transmission is held to the body by the 3 long bolts but 3 spacers are also used, now you would think that the spacers would fit snuggly around the bolt. No they do not, long spacers for a 12m are used for an 8m bolt (approx). So if you do experience a problem this will allow everything to shift around nicely.

Now if anyone checks their car and finds some flex then checks the bolts but cannot tighten them as the nut has broken the weld, there is another fix that is quite simple. Garrett did you manage to tighten your bolt or does it spin free????

If anyone finds they have this i will take the time to take mine apart and take photos of the fix.

Cheers
Rob
91 964 cab
Jersey/UK

Arjan B.

He Garret, nice thread!

Please be carefull!! The 2 motors have both steel wires that drive the top up and down.
If on of the two is not right fitted, the top can break becaus he is not going up and down straigt!! I saw that once. The top will brake near the back seats. Please double check if all works fine!!

Good luck

jrb964

Garrett - nice work. I considered doing mine last time, but everyone made it out to be magic. But the complex is nothing more than one simple task after another. And remembering the path from which you came.

I also was concerned about why Porsche does not pre-drill the holes in the support. Was told that each one is different and should be individually drilled. May be part of the magic....

Great thread and work.

Ruairidh

Garrett - very helpful.

Did you consider changing to a semi-automatic state? Where the raising and lowering of the roof is done by hand and the latching to the windscreen is left electric?

That is currently much on my mind right now as I'd prefer the peace of mind that would allow me to raise and lower the roof on every trip rather than the reluctance to risk a large repair bill for something of little importance to me.

garrett376

Good morning guys! And to those in the States, Happy Thanksgiving! I am looking forward to some home-cooked turkey, potatoes and stuffing!! YES!

Ruairidh - yes, I actually drove that way two days ago while I was in mid-operation. That's when I realized how the whole system works with the transmissions. I put the top in the down position, and then let the motors run to see if they'd turn off, but they just kept going... that sparked my curiosity about how they functioned - when they go on or off. So, with the top down, and the motor not hitting the lower of the two microswitches, of course my little light was on in the dash reminding me my top was not working! I hate lights on dashes, being used to older cars (like my 65), so that would truly annoy me. I think the best way for someone to do a "semi-automatic" method would be to align the transmission so the gear was 180 degrees from its usual "engaged" position - thus unlocked entirely. Take a look at my previous post with the opened transmission to see what I'm talking about. That way you could leave the arm tighened down, so that the passenger side arm would continually active the switches properly, thus keeping the electric circuits functioning correctly - and no dash light! Does that make sense? Hope so. Here's a pic showing the switches a little closer...

garrett376

jrb964 and Arjan, thanks for the nice comments. Arjan is right that there are so many delicate pieces (cables, motors, transmissions) that have to be working well, and in alignment or the thing could break!

Knowing how delicate an operation this is, it does always scare me now when I lower or raise the top - I am kinda waiting for this thing to snap!!!

robmug, it took me about 3 hours the first night to replace everything and snap that bolt on the outside that I showed a picture of. I woke up the next morning and vacuumed out the inside, since I ended up drilling that hole in the support while it was in the car so it made a mess in the interior with little metal shavings! Those things get stuck in the carpet very well!! Hard little buggers to get out! So all in all, it took about 4 hours. Now I am going to work on it again today, since I hear something rattling in the top as I was driving fast to the dealer to get that little part. I'd say about 5 hours of work total to get it all done - probably take about 1 hour less now that I know what to expect.

Rob M, it is interesting that those bolts would get loose. Mine all had good threads to screw into, it was just loose. I was able to tighten those three screws down very nicely so hopefully that will fix the problem.

garrett376

Oh, one more important thing that I figured out yesterday when everything was said and done. Before you close up the canvas on the side of the broken strut and tighten the bolts, don't tighten all four allen bolts yet - you need to check the top alignment in the closed position. Be sure to CLOSE the convertible top and make sure it's aligned properly. The strut has some movement that's permitted for adjustment of the alignment when the bolts are loose. I had bolted everything together without thinking about if it needed to be aligned. When I went to shut the top after hooking up all the motors and stuff, it was closing too far to the left. But by loosening the 4 hex head bolts that hold the base of the strut, you can aim the top better to get it to shut correctly. I actually loosened the bolts, let the top shut so the top aligned the strut, then tightened it all back together.

Just a heads up!! Learn from my mistakes! Especially because you have to take off the weather stripping, and then the canvas, to access those bolts again!! Dang! Backtracking!