Hey dude,
I see you have done the hard work and replaced the line 23. I will work on it this weekend but I have some questions before hand.
First, I have never worked on a convertible before I am not familiar with it.:facepalm:..
Hey dude,
I had never owned or worked on a convertible before either. When I first saw the leak I thought I was doomed to pay a specialist $Ks to fix it. Then I got into it and realized the top is fairly simple. The best thing you can do is get a really bright flashlight, a friend, and operate the top manually. Stop it at various positions and peak under the fabric top and headliner, in the storage area, ... to familiarize yourself with it.
Also, read the PDFs I link in the first post of the sticky.
I hear people saying lot of things about the alignment of the top, "don`t take it off, you gonna mess it etc"... I need to clarify some things. :thanks:
in your DIY, you say...
I cover this in Step 7 of the Main Lift Cylinders. In this photo there are 3 nuts circled in red, and a couple nuts not circled of the same size. The top is anchored to a plate, and the plate is anchored to the car. The position of the plate is set at the factory, so do NOT loosen the nuts NOT circled.
Mark the position of the other nuts so you can line up these up when reinstalling. Truthfully, once you tighten this nut the other 3 nuts fall into place. I didn't want to put that into the DIY since I feel it is important to mark the position of the nuts and some may skip it.
-You just removed the inner fabric? if so, how? I made a search but couldn`t find anything! or Do I just need the space around c pillars so that you can see how the line is routed? (step#4 in your DIY)
I did not remove any fabric. Sorry for not making that clear. I guess I shouldn't say "outer fabric" and say "any fabric" instead.
If you find you need more room at the corner of the tension bar you can remove some #20 torx screws to loosen the headliner. I didn't find I needed the room. Here's one:
I found the strings for the batwings got in the way. Removing the top mounting point for the string will help:
-if you didn`t remove the top while taking out the line, how did you detach the line #23 from the valve block?
what kind of trick have you done to remove/install those hoses from the valve block. It seems almost impossible to do that without removing the top.
I cover that in Step 3 of the Line #23 DIY. You need a set of long nose bent pliers (preferrably 90 degree bent):
http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-3492-1...7425216&sr=8-4&keywords=long+bent+nose+pliers
I'll add this photo to the DIY. The arrow points to where you will use the pliers to access the line and retaining clips:
As I note in Step 3, doing it this way is easy to remove, difficult to reinstall. To reinstall the line just try to get the end of the fitting in the proper hole first, even if it is on an odd angle. This way you can re-position the pliers to straighten the fitting while applying pressure to keep the fitting in the hole.
The hardest part will be reattaching the black plastic retainer. You may drop the retainer so have something handly to retrieve it. The best way to attach it is on an angle, putting the end that locks against a fitting in first.
- I already take out the inside side trims rear seats etc.. Now waiting on how to detach the line and remove the inside interior fabric to reroute the line...
Sweet, you're half way done. As I said before, no need to remove ANY fabric.
PM me if you get stuck in the middle of this DIY. PMs send me an email to my phone so hopefully I'll respond quickly. Everyone else, please don't flood my PM inbox unless you're truly stuck in the middle of a DIY.