The top opens correctly, but closing has become slow and erratic. I checked the hydraulic fluid level per owners manual and sure enough, most of the fluid has escaped. I can still close if I give it an assist, but this needs to be corrected.

I am not excited about spending a whole bunch to have it done, so----- any suggestions to help me "do it myself" would be wonderful. I assume access to the fluid tank and piping must be through the boot and that the top must be in the closed position to avoid all the fabric and mechanism having it open, but before I start tearing stuff apart, any help and suggestions? Thank you so very much!

 

Pump should be in the box behind the seats. The proper fluid is Royco 756 Hydraulic Fluid. Anything else is to thick to use.
and a large turkey basting hypodermic.

You will need to take the rear side panels of and check the hydraulic rams for leak, fix leaks and clean up the fluid.
Undo the fill port and using the hypodermic refill the pump. run it a few times, refill and do again.

I got fluid and replacement rams on Ebay

 

I got the fluid from Aircraft Spruce, it was the cheapest source for me. It's generically called 5606 fluid, and there are 2 versions: Spec A and H. H is the current spec for "super clean" aircraft hydraulic systems, A is the older spec. A works just fine for us and is cheaper.

Mine had a leak at the O ring between the cylinder end cap and the polished rod of the ram. I took the cap off and put on a new O ring and all was good again.

You'll probably need to raise and lower the top a few times to bleed the air out of the system, topping up the level as needed.

 

The seal that goes bad is on eBay for 14.00. Replace that, and put in the correct fluid as mentioned, and you will be amazed at how well it works.

 

I used an O ring out of an assortment I have, it's a standard size. I doubt it was more than a few cents!

 

I'm certainly glad for you that a o-ring fixed whatever leak you had, but the seal that was bad in mine wasn't in the same family as a o-ring. Its a cupped pressure seal. Simply no way a o-ring could seal it.

 

Thanks so much for your responses to my request about my 1990 convertible hydraulic system. I am delighted that I can reach everything from inside the car. I'm ready to start. Thanks again!

Steve

 

Its a messy job. Somebody has a post on repairing the pump, and replacing that seal. The poster warned to not take the pump down to a certain level because of two tiny little ***** that are check valves. I ignored the warning. Dropped one of them. Luckily found it.

 

Hello All. Im in the middle of this procedure as we speak.

I'll add: Careful Sadepol01 - there are actually 4 bearings in the unit. 2 small and 2 super small (if you have the same pump as I). The 2 super small hold a moon/cresent shaped part that works with the main gear that is driven by the ram.central shaft. When I took mine apart I never even noticed them. Put everything back together without them. When I tested the pump the first time, the friction/locking that happened for not having the 2 tiny bearings in the gear system shattered the large gear. I guess the 2 small bearing hold the machined crescent piece (see pic) of the gear system in just the right place off of the main gear. Now, I'm looking for a new gear OR,,,, a new pump. Which sucks.

All of that for the O-Ring/Ring seal which needed to be replaced. $8 dollar , that looks like its going to cost me $229 for a new pump.

Any ideas on replacing the GEAR out there? That would be awesome.