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Just for the future (and since nobody seems to scroll up to my posts and see all the pictures are posted in #144, lol), I've copied and pasted the original post with the original pictures. Enjoy!
Originally Posted by bluebadge
*** How To Repair 5th Bow Motor ***
The model featured is my 2004 Touring Roadster, Current mileage is about 123k and I have never cleaned this motor or replaced the brushes before, so this is what you can expect if you are doing this for the first time.
Ok, so I've been wanting to do a how to guide for a while and this is a doozie! yup, 5th Bow Motor Repair!! If your 5th bow is getting stuck or not retracting your soft top in the storage compartment, the is a high probability that the brushes in the 5th bow motor are worn out. My how to will show you how to replace these brushes... The brushes can be bought online and they are the same ones used in the tutorial for fixing a sticking window motor, in fact this is pretty much the same as that, only easier!
What you'll need before you start.
1) A couple of hours spare time
2) A right angled (90 degree) phillips head screwdriver (or really short screwdriver)
3) Pair of suitable brushes got mine from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/MBS5-Stand-Up-.../dp/B001BHLX0W )
4) Small socket set (not 100% needed but useful)
5) Soldering Iron, Flux and Solder
6) Scissors
7) Egg Box and Double Sided Sticky Tape (just messing!)
8) Electrical Contact Cleaner and Rag
9) Fine sand paper (the wives nail file would do!)
10) A couple of band aids just in case!
The whole process took me a couple of hours with help from domrvt (cheers dude!)
Ok first you want to cram yourself inside your Zee (if you are over 6ft I feel for you!) Everything from this point is in picture format so .....
Once I got the motor back in the car I re-attached the electrical harness and press the button for the roof, and voila! it worked, then put it all back together, now my roof works flawlessly! Hope this How To was of help to those (like me) who were facing a $1000 plus repair job! this only cost me a couple of hours and about $10.
Cheers, feel free to re-post this on any other forums that you know of where people are having the same issue!!!
If you have any questions please message me. This is my first how to, so feedback is welcome.
BlueBadge
PS You will notice that I didn't re-lube the components as I didn't have any grease on hand, but I definitely recommend it! (i'll do mine later!)
Top Strongly Opening but Not Stowing is ELASTIC BANDS
I should have quoted the post that prompted me to write this. It was someone saying that the top stopping about 95% of the way open was the 5th Bow Motor. This doesn't appear to be the case. On my 2004 350Z Roadster, the 2nd Bow wasn't dropping into place under the fold of fabric below the 1st Bow. The result was binding between the 2nd bow and something else (exactly what is not fully determined). I haven't fixed it yet but pushing the 2nd Bow back by hand as the roof opens and the bar passes over the headrests shifts it into its proper place and the roof closes fully.
The issue appears to be the elastic bands between 2nd & 3rd Bows. NOTE: a stronger 5th Bow motor could possibly power through this binding, but that's going to cause excessive wear.
Lubricating the joints of the linkages that drive the 2nd Bow might do the trick, but the bands are evidently the root cause.
The worn out bands prevent the top from OPENING fully (stowing, to be precise). The 5th Bow motor evidently prevents the top from CLOSING fully.
The model featured is my 2004 Touring Roadster, Current mileage is about 123k and I have never cleaned this motor or replaced the brushes before, so this is what you can expect if you are doing this for the first time.
Ok, so I've been wanting to do a how to guide for a while and this is a doozie! yup, 5th Bow Motor Repair!! If your 5th bow is getting stuck or not retracting your soft top in the storage compartment, the is a high probability that the brushes in the 5th bow motor are worn out. My how to will show you how to replace these brushes... The brushes can be bought online and they are the same ones used in the tutorial for fixing a sticking window motor, in fact this is pretty much the same as that, only easier!
What you'll need before you start.
1) A couple of hours spare time
2) A right angled (90 degree) phillips head screwdriver (or really short screwdriver)
3) Pair of suitable brushes got mine from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/MBS5-Stand-Up-.../dp/B001BHLX0W )
4) Small socket set (not 100% needed but useful)
5) Soldering Iron, Flux and Solder
6) Scissors
7) Egg Box and Double Sided Sticky Tape (just messing!)
8) Electrical Contact Cleaner and Rag
9) Fine sand paper (the wives nail file would do!)
10) A couple of band aids just in case!
The whole process took me a couple of hours with help from domrvt (cheers dude!)
Ok first you want to cram yourself inside your Zee (if you are over 6ft I feel for you!) Everything from this point is in picture format so .....
Once I got the motor back in the car I re-attached the electrical harness and press the button for the roof, and voila! it worked, then put it all back together, now my roof works flawlessly! Hope this How To was of help to those (like me) who were facing a $1000 plus repair job! this only cost me a couple of hours and about $10.
Cheers, feel free to re-post this on any other forums that you know of where people are having the same issue!!!
If you have any questions please message me. This is my first how to, so feedback is welcome.
BlueBadge
PS You will notice that I didn't re-lube the components as I didn't have any grease on hand, but I definitely recommend it! (i'll do mine later!)
The pics on this thread are gone is there any way you could link the pics to me or send me them directly thanks in advance I’m getting sick of this top lol appreciate it
I dont see the photos, please help... thanks. need help badly.
I don't see the photos, I need help badly, My Soft Top makes a sound as if it want to open but, it just doesn't.. summer is coming and would like to have it working..
I don't see the photos, I need help badly, My Soft Top makes a sound as if it want to open but, it just doesn't.. summer is coming and would like to have it working..
For everyone posting and asking about pictures, my guess is that if you don't have the capacity to scroll up to post #241, you likely should not be attempting this.
Maybe one of the mods can post those pictures into the first post and end this madness.
What’s going on everyone! Just wanted to add to this thread I recently picked up a 2005 350Z and the top was getting stuck. It would work sometimes but most of time it would get stuck! So, I figured I would check the 5th bow motor and sure enough the brushes were almost worn down to nothing! So, I figured I would clean everything up as best as I could without replacing them for now since I didn’t have new brushes aways. Sure enough, after cleaning everything up I put it back together and the top works like new! I ordered new brushes and will eventually replace them. It’s amazing how smooth and glitch free the top works now! Thanks for the thread!
Hey has anybody that has done this still alive on the forum? The was a user above that had linked some brushes since the originals are gone from Amazon. There's this guy that's a on ebay that's using blubadge's pictures and I asked him what brushes he uses. Was a total gonk about it.
Thanks man. I really want to put this dude on ebay on blast. Was such a *****. He was like well his pictures weren't copyrighted so I can do whatever I want pretty much. Total f*** face.
Oh and by the way it turns out those were the ones I ordered yesterday. I had seen someone link them above. I also got some generic ones that would be here sooner. The windows use them and I have a window that has been acting a bit weird. I have to push the glass down every so often to make it work. It's like it slips up about half an inch and won't work until I push it down.
Hey has anybody that has done this still alive on the forum? The was a user above that had linked some brushes since the originals are gone from Amazon. There's this guy that's a on ebay that's using blubadge's pictures and I asked him what brushes he uses. Was a total gonk about it.
Yeah this guy is a jerk I spoke with him also. He seemed to want to help then he was actually like a total jerk I wouldn't support his business if he did it for free!
Hey has anybody that has done this still alive on the forum? The was a user above that had linked some brushes since the originals are gone from Amazon. There's this guy that's a on ebay that's using blubadge's pictures and I asked him what brushes he uses. Was a total gonk about it. Stock photography, I've realized, is like a bridge that connects my imagination to the visual world. This website plant silhouette I found is a treasure trove of such bridges. Each image is a stepping stone towards crafting a vivid narrative, whether I want to evoke emotions, tell stories, or communicate ideas.
Thank you for telling me. I'm very happy with the way this is working out.
