Soft top removal started (NOW FINISHED)

[rich_stockton]

OK so my roof motor seems too have given up so i decided to follow shipkillers how to instructions on removing the roof.
Started at 2pm this afternoon and by 4pm the roof was ready to be lifted out.

This is the point i am at now and had to stop because it went dark.

I have to say from looking at the instructions it seems quite daunting but so far its been pretty simple. The hardest thing was to remove the weather strip around the back of the hood. It comes out eventually but its bloody hard going on the hands.

Anyway tommorow i will lift the roof out with the help of my dad or brother and so i will let you all know how it went.

[Adamski]

Good effort!


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[andysat]

Well done for even attempting it-good luck and keep us posted!

[tabbie]

Good luck, I shall be watching this thread/post for sure

[rich_stockton]

couldnt do any work on the roof on saturday so i did the rest of it today.

So i had got to the stage where i could lift the roof out after removing the last four bolts on friday night.
i began work at 10 am with my bro to lift the roof out, the hardest part was to unhook the rear hoop but after 20 mins we had the roof off and into the garage.
the roof motor housing was taken off and left to soak along with the padding in warm slightly soapy water as it was covered in rust. most of the inner housing was soaked with rusty water/sludge even though we had no rain for a couple of days. after about 10 mins soaking i scrubbed them clean and left them to dry.

i took the motor off the hydraulic unit first to inspect it and tested it using my 12v dc power supply (as i suspected nothing happened, it didnt even try to spin). the next step was to take the assembly off which links the motor to the hydraulic unit. (very simple, just two bolts and the thing drops off the motor shaft !). With this done i took a wire brush to the motor and removed all the rust. i sprayed about half a can of loctite 7061 super cleaner inside the motor and watched the mountains of rust fall out. I tested the motor again but it still didn't work so immediately thought there must be some more stubborn rust lurking inside. i got a rubber mallet an beat the hell out of the motor casing to loosen it. straight away large pieces of rust began to fall out of the motor, another quick spray with the loctite cleaner and a blast with the hot air gun got the remaining bits out. I tested the motor and it sprang into life. i left it on for about 5 mins then reversed the connections and left it running for another 5.

The next step was to reassemble the motor and clean/dry housing. I used loctite silicon set to bond the two halves of the motor together giving it a water tight seal. i used a couple of tie wraps to keep the halves together while i sealed and let the silicon set. So the roof was now back together and i fitted it back onto the car with the help of my dad n bro ( could not have done it without them ! ).

I followed shipkillers instuctions backwards to put the car back together and tested the roof.

IT WORKED PERFECTLY !!!!! . No motor stalling or straining so it was back to how it should be. needless to say im over the moon about the results and all it cost was £4.50 for the loctite silicon as i had all the other tools and consumables. Total time taken was 8 hours

[srhutch]

Nice result and so much cheaper than a dealer/indi would cost.

[Darren Slone]

what a fantastic job well done!!!!

[andysat]

Hey well done!-is that all you need to do to revive it?-beat the crap out of it?

[rich_stockton]

Thanks everyone, yes pretty much, its a sealed motor so you had to work with what you can. By turning and beating the motor with a rubber mallet it loosens the major rust and you see flakes of it fall through the gaps in the side of the motor

The loctite super cleaner is a solvent based cleaner and removes any kind of dirt or grime you can think of.

http://www.onlinebearings.co.uk/loctite ... 16631.html

It doesnt leave any residue and dries quickly which is why i used it. The heat gun i used was to help dry out any remaining rust.
Running the motor for a long period of time forwards and backwards helped to clean the brushes and commutator contacts.
The windings of the motor were all fine and the coating to stop them shorting out were still in great condition so these i knew were fine.

A quick spray of loctite to remove any residue from running the motor/cleaning the contacts followed by a quick retest and the unit was ready to be reassembled.

[Mangozac]

Great to know that the motor can be repaired by the handyperson rather than replaced at large expense!

[Beedub]

awesome stuff OP awesome!!

[rich_stockton]

if i get chance this week im going to add some notes to shipkillers instructions as i think it will help others on the areas i got stuck on whilst trying to figure out what was going on. Hopefully i can save them as a pdf or word document and post it on here

[tabbie]

Great effort,I would be too nervous to attempt it! Hats off to you

[AlienZed]

Great result,nice to know the motors can be repaired,thanks for sharing

[Bradders75]

I love threads like this, well done OP. If the worst ever happens to mine, I'll definitely give it a go thanks to your efforts.