When my latch hoses leaked I decided not to replace them right now, but to cap off their ports on the pump. I ordered the caps and plugs from Malone Specialties in Ohio.

This afternoon I pulled the pump and removed the two latch hoses and covered their open ends with a small plastic bag to catch any possible drips, which so far have not appeared. When I first started to screw on the compression caps I thought they were the wrong size, as I could only screw them on about a quarter turn by finger. But once I put the wrench on them I saw they they are just a very tight fit. As a matter of fact, the hose couplings were quite tight when I unscrewed them.

I topped off the fluid with maybe half a pint and closed her up.

The top operates just fine, although I did have to push up on the front of the top when I released the latch, in order to start it moving. I am hoping that might be a temporary requirement; perhaps there is a little air in the system that needs to wok its way out. No matter, I can live with it, if it means I'll have use of the convertible top until such time as I replace the hoses (if ever). I did have to press the rocker switch a second time to clear the top not latched message.

Bottom line: I am completely happy and no longer have to worry about the green shower. The worst is over.

 

Good job. Keep us posted on whether the manual solution continues to consistently work as advertised....

 

Stamford,

I think you'll find that this behavior is permanent. It seems to vary car-to-car. My '01 required a little push to start the "lower top" cycle; my '03 does not.

With either automatic or manual latch, the top gets "parked" by the control system ... hovering just a bit above the windshield frame ... in the course of the "raise top" cycle. It is then pulled down into place by the closing of the latch. (The top gets parked when the system senses that it has contacted the open latch.)

Ideally, the top will spring back to the "parked" position as the latch is opened to begin the "lower top" cycle, and when the control system sees that this condition has been met, it will proceed to lower the top.

For reasons I don't fully understand, with manual latch some cars seem to require a little push to get the top back to the "parked" position so the lower top cycle can proceed. Someday maybe I'll figure this out.

[Edit] Just remembered this from member SteveInFrance ... be sure latch is fully raised when beginning both the "raise top" and "lower top" cycles. May eliminate the "push required".

 

Hi Dennis,
Hope you figure it out. But in the meantime I am happy to give a little push to be able to continue going topless.

 

Of course, now I can be paranoid about leaking rams. ;-)

 

Stamford:

Thanks for posting your success plugging up the ports on the pump. I was hoping to do the same thing with my pump which just started leaking at the latch this last weekend. I was wondering if you could let me know what is the tread size of the plug, would like to have the caps on hand before taking the lines off of the pump.

 

The following info is from this post: XK8 Convertible Top, Manual Latch Conversion

The hose fittings are metric: M12x1.5 thread, DIN 24 degree with o-ring, 6 millimeter tube. This sounds complicated, but it's a pretty common standard and components are easy to find, once you know what you're looking for. Each of the two pump ports requires a blanking plug (~ $2.00) and a compression nut (~ $1.00). So overall ~ $6.00 for the two ports.
I ordered from a very helpful and knowledgeable fellow named Larry at Malone Specialty Inc. in Mentor, OH. Metric Fittings | Custom Metric Adapters | Malone Specialty Inc.
Their part numbers: 1506L = compression nut, 1306LSR = blanking plug with o-ring.

As I mentioned in my post, the caps and plugs are cheap enough that you might want to buy three of each, instead of just two. I dropped one of the caps when I was screwing it on and it went under the big fuse box. Luckily I was able to use a magnet to fish it out or I would have had to remove the fuse box. There are a lots of hard-to-access places that a cap or plug can wind up if you drop it. The caps are a very tight fit, so don't be surprised when you can hardly grab any thread when using your fingers. Once you use a wrench they can be fully tightened.

Good luck,
John

 

JITM,

You really should read the whole link given in Stamford's post. It's important to know the correct procedures for operating the top after the ports are capped.

 

I just finished the same project on my 2000 XK8 and ordered from Malone. When I gave the girl at Malone the part #'s, she said: "got a Jaguar, eh"? What a great forum!

 

Thanks to Dennis I converted my 2004 some time ago. No problems and no shower to worry about.

 

Stamford

Thanks for your reply with the specs for the caps and plugs needed to seal off the latch circuit.

And a special thanks to you and Dennis07 and Gus and everyone else who spent a lot of time to get this all sussed out for the rest of us.