I am working on replacing the hydraulics for my XK8 roof. Everything is back in place except that I can't work out where to hook up the wires to the right hand lift cylinder.

Or rather, I think I have two of the wires connected up right but I can't find out where to put the ground. There is a black wire that is connected to a grounding point via a Torx screw. And I just can't find the hole the screw goes into.

Been looking for three hours now.

The ground is definitely essential to getting the lift mechanism working as it allows the lift mechanism to work out when the hood is fully in place and it is time to fire the latch mechanism and raise the rear quarter panels.

Aggh!!!

 

OK so I found the ground point, it is on the lift cylinder itself.

But I still can't get the top to close.

When I press close the top latch raises to catch the header catch and everything works fine until the top is almost in place at the point where the catch should fire pulling the top tight shut and lock it in place. That part isn't working.

However when I lower the top, the catch retracts correctly when it reaches the end of the travel.

So one possibility is that the switch inside the piston isn't working right. Another is that I have some of the wiring wrong. I have a black/red and a black yellow line to the sense wires.

I guess the other possibility is that there is something wrong in the 'ready to latch switch' area.

 

Have you tried a few times? It takes several cycles to bleed the air out of the system.

 

Totally, it has been up and down plenty of times trying to get this diagnosed. The motor sounds completely normal (except for being a little louder due to the trunk being open).

I guess the next step is to slap a multimeter on it and see if the switches are opening and closing right.