Convertible top goes down but only part way up
 

Hi all,

I've been searching the archives a bit and I haven't found what I'm experiencing yet.

I put my top up and down a lot and with the (totally awesome) Jag Wrangler key fob thingy and one morning I came out to my garage to find it had not closed the night before.

When I tried to put the top up I could hear the pump running but the top rose quite slowly and gave up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up. Then it just sinks back down. I released the petcock, put it up, latched the top, redid the petcock and it goes down normally. So it seems like putting it down is working fine but going up is slow and gives up at halfway or less... I see no obvious signs of leaking anywhere and the reservoir is full of the correct fluid (Petosin). I did top off the top hydraulic reservoir when I first got the car a little but it has not gone down that I can notice in the 2 years since then...

It's a '97 so it's probably still got the original hoses, I suspect, but 97's have the stronger ones which are somewhat less that are likely to green shower, I think.

How should I be trouble shooting this? What should I be checking? Thanks in advance. : )

If you are sure you have the petcock tight then I would remove the rear seat and check for leaks at the cylinders. The pressure has to be going somewhere.

After replacing all the top lines, rams, and the front latch, it was ultimately the top up solenoid on top of the top hydraulic pump that was bad. I found this out by very carefully swapping solenoids.

Manually raise top
 

I read something about being able to manually raise the top. Is there a thread on that?
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Soft top
 

I had a 2000 and a 2003 XK8, a 2007 XK convertibles and now a 2010 XK coupe. I had problems with the tops in the convertibles with the hoses bursting on the 2000 and the 2003 at the front windscreen latch. I had a door latch sensor on the 2003 XK8 that would not allow the roof to latch or the rear side windows to close. The 2007 XK had a servo motor fail on the passenger side which would not latch or raise the rear side windows. Also the rear window detached from the top and I had to re glue and attach the window. So I loved driving the convertibles but I was at a point where I was afraid to lower the top for fear I wouldn’t be able to raise it. Hence I have a XK coupe.