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I'd like to thank everybody who posted in this thread. I had an ill fitting top on the sides and it was bothering me, both aesthetically and with the wind noise from where the top wasn't fitting well. I looked to see if the rivet was broken or the cable was, and I found neither. But I did find that it looked like the cables had been replaced with what looked like a homemade cable setup. I bit the bullet and ordered the Porsche cables since I had no idea what length I would need and I ordered the hydraulic crimper from Amazon. I cut the old cable end off and pulled it out to match it up to the new cable, and sure enough the new cables were shorter by a fair amount. The install was straightforward and when I closed the top, it fit perfectly. I would have had no idea what the problem was without this thread. Thank you again to everybody who contributed.
This guide is great. My cable was good, but my connector needed to be pop riveted back on. Unfortunately, I had ordered the cable before pulling everything apart. Guess I now have a spare.
I know this is an old thread... but knowledge is timeless! I have the same problem with my 997 top which has been making me crazy. In a few hours i will go in for some conv top cable surgery. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this thread for the past - 10 years!
Interestingly enough, my issue with the top closing all the way turned out to be the rubber pad on the underside of the cover lid (tonneau). The old one was worn and crumbling which provided too much friction for the cover lid to to seat down properly. New part was around $70 and I spent an hour or so scraping and removing the adhesive after the old pad was removed. Top has been working as designed since replacing.
Hi all, Thanks to this excellent thread, I was able to re-attach one of the tension "ropes" at the broken rivet point. Unfortunately, in the process I lost the small screw that attaches the tension cable to the bottom of the folding frame arm (near the engine).
I've tried finding a replacement at my local dealer, but they have not been able to identify the part. The parts catalog shows the tension rope but not the fastener required to anchor it to the folding frame. Hoping someone can help me figure out how to replace this screw without me spending all summer exploring salvage yards.
Here's the screw and its location (image swiped from a post in the thread above):
The screw is a button top with a star drive, M5x1.25x8
Any suggestions on where I can find this non-standard fastener will be hugely appreciated!!!!!
I also found that Lowes has a really good selection of specialty bolts / screws. It shouldn't be hard to find either there or online as Amargari suggested. It doesn't necessarily need to be a Torx head either. Btw, I almost dropped mine too into the engine bay. A long telescopic magnet saved the day. Let us know if you find one and where.
Thx for the suggestions, but unless I've measured incorrectly, this little fella does not exist in the wild. M5 screws are always 0.8 thread pitch. M8s are 1.25 pitch, but that screw is way larger diameter.
I could not find it on bolt depot and I've been through every bin at Lowes, HD and my local neighborhood hardware store. Nothing like it on ebay or Amazon, unless I'm just not looking for the right dimensions (that's why I included the images of the measurements).
I gave up on finding the correct screw to re-attach the tension rope at the bottom of the frame. Apparently, a star drive, M5x1.25x8 is as rare as hen's teeth (even if you don't worry about the star drive aspect).
Since I had a rivet tool to fasten the top tension rope anchor, I figured it must be strong enough to hold the bottom end too. I had to purchase a different rivet size (5/32" long) to fit the rivet to the screw hole. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the tail end of the rivet extends a bit on the inside of the folding top arm. With a screw, there is nothing protruding on the inside of the arm. Its really doesn't extend too far, and from what I can tell about the mechanical operation of the top, I don't think the end that sticks out will hit or interfere with anything.
Just wondering if anyone with a bit more experience than me can confirm if this can be left as a (semi-)permanent solution, or if I need to continue searching for a matching screw.
Rivet installed, head side nice and clean, and the cable mount can rotate a bit. Rivet Tail extends beyond the frame piece. Is this a potential problem??? Here's the other side with the original screw.
05-13-2019, 11:24 PM
Need help finding Tension Rope Screw/Fastener
