Wayne (cjd777), Rick (joycesjag), and I are going to collaborate at Wayne's home shop on Monday morning to pull his leaking convertible top hydraulic rams for refurbishment. Any crucial tips or tricks from you guys who have already done this job would be much appreciated....

 

I just pulled the right one last night to investigate the possibility of driving with the top up after removal. Getting them out is straight forward. And since the mechanism locks there is no problem with driving.
The only glitch is that the quarter windows go down if the cylinder is unplugged, but tomorrow morning I'll make a jumper to fool the electronics, and that should take care of it.

 

Yes, pretty straight forward. Take everything out of the back. Make sure you don't lose the little curvy washers that go on the ram bolts. They seem to be pretty important.

 

The car can be driven with the top up or down without the rams. For top up, raise the top and remove the 5a.fuse from the box in the trunk, #1 on my '97, before disconnecting the ram and pulling the pin.

 

RJ, Thanks for the input, every little bit helps.
Now, What are you doing Monday morning. LOL Great company and looks like a beautiful day.
You do have to promise not to giggle.


Wayne/Jon/Rick

 

Update:

Rick was unfortunately not able to join us yesterday morning, but Wayne and I took our time and successfully removed both rams for refurbishment. Both rams were leaking. The key is to take good notes along the way because by the time you have them out, you probably have about 60 loose nuts, bolts, washers, screws, and clips to deal with. Wayne set aside two empty trays (one for the drivers side and one for the passenger side) and as we removed each bit of hardware, we carefully placed the fasteners into the appropriate tray (lining them up from back to front). That storage system along with our written notes should allow us to get everything put back together properly when the time comes....

The bad news is that the rear hydraulic lines' plastic casing was cracking, peeling, and flaking away. While we didn't see any evidence of leakage through the lines themselves, it was obvious that the exposure of the lines to the leaking fluid from the rams had caused significant material breakdown of the plastic exterior of the lines. Knowing how problematic these factory lines are, Wayne quickly decided that we should replace them with the superior Top Hydraulic lines along with the rebuilt rams....

Once the rams have been refurbished and returned to Wayne along with the new rear lines, we'll get back together at Wayne's house to install the rebuilt rams, run the new rear lines, and then reassemble everything. I hope our efforts will indeed provide Wayne with a perfectly-working convertible top again....

More to come....

 

The black covering on the XKR I have been helping on is also falling off, even where there was no exposure to fluid. We have decided to hold off replacing them for now as the inner hose looks good.

 

I hear you, but we only want to do this tear-down once. We don't want to be forced to go back in later and deal with failing hoses. I understand the dilemma given how much the replacement hoses cost, but I think Wayne made the right decision to spend the money and get the garbage hoses out of there now....

 

I agree, but not my car.

 

Understood. But do your buddy a favor and explain to him why he is making a big mistake to stick with hoses that are literally falling apart....

 

if the black covering is falling off, chances are it has weakend/deteriorated at the connections to the rams and pump as well. Pressurizing the system may cause the tubing to come completely out of the connector (this is how mine failed)