disneyd

Hey folks, I hope you'll forgive my ignorance on some of the terminology here. I'm trying to help my father in law with a convertible top issue.

He's already had it at the dealer for five days and they said they couldn't correct it. At least they didn't charge him for the time.

The issue is that the center trim cover in the back, which I believe houses the 5th bow motor, is not being pulled all the way down flush with the rear deck.

The long vertical latch is being captured and pulled down, but there remains a large (over 1") gap between the center cover and the deck. It also looks to me like the storage lid (painted body panel) might not be coming down as far as it used to, but we're only talking about 1/4" or less there.

I've checked everywhere for obstructions and cannot find any. I also ran across TSB NTB03-122. Even though that isn't the problem he's having, I used it to check the lubrication and adjustment of the 5th bow lock assembly and the auto-closure wire. I didn't see any issues there.

I don't think the top is going to leak, but you do see that big gap between the cover and the deck in your rear-view mirror and it isn't pulling the panel with the rear glass in it as tight as it used to. He said it worked normally and then the next time he closed the top that gap appeared. He couldn't think of anything he'd done that might have caused it.

Any pointers on where I might start looking for the problem?

Thanks

Jennifer 2

The fifth bow is the rigid part at the bottom of the back panel (the panel with the glass window). Looking from inside the car at the fifth bow note two round bars that slide outward in a track, if one of these is obstructed the back roof panel will not be fully deployed downward to meet the painted hatch cover. The fifth bow should meet the hatch cover without a gap (or just the tiniest bit) before the power latch engages and pulls it tight.

disneyd

I'll have the car this weekend, so I can experiment on it a little.

What appears to be happening is that the long latch under the 5th bow apparatus is going through the painted hatch cover and being captured. At that point it is pulled down by the motor, but is isn't being pulled far enough in. It stops before the 5th bow motor cover is pulled down flush.

I don't know if a limiter switch is stopping the motor from pulling it down all the way or if the motor is too weak to do it.

One interesting thing is that you can't physically push it down any further once it stops. Its held securely about an inch off the rear deck.

Is there any adjustment to that system? What controls where the latch is engaged and where it stops?

I'll check the bows this weekend and make sure they aren't being restricted in their movement by anything.

Thanks for any pointers on this.

disneyd

There doesn't appear to be anything obstructing the track for the 5th bow. It travels smoothly.

The latch is being grabbed well before the 5th bow meets the hatch cover. Is there any adjustment for that?

Thanks for any help. This is driving me nuts.

alainbil

Well guys after several days trying to find the problem I finally fixed it, my problem to begin with was a roof that wouldn't open when I selected the switch to open the roof, the windows would go down, the passenger seat would move like it is supposed to and then I would hear a clicking noise in both doors and nothing else would happen.

Took the suggestion to get to the 5th bow motor, so I did, tapped on it and bamm the roof retracted, yessss, then try to close it and noooooo it would not comeback to the front, darn, so after debating if I should remove the top to get to the 5th bow motor I went for it.

Got the instruction on line and I followed the instruction to a T: http://www.myzroadster.com/Files/tsb.../NTB03-116.pdf, I removed both side motors and was able to retract the top to get to the 5th bow motor, took it apart, cleaned it, cleaned the armature with a green scrub pad, I cleaned each groove with a sharp blade and made sure the brushes were in enough good shape and I put everything back together.

To test the 5th bow motor after installation I used a 12 battery with alligator clips and attached them to the 2 lowest pins on the motor connector, I removed the bolts and nuts that attached to the actuators and I applied power and got it to move in both directions, just switch connectors to get it to go the other way.

So after all the testing, I reassembled everything, put the roof back on the car, reconnected everything and tested the unit 4-5 times and it worked like a charm.