The top goes up and down fine, but after about three times, the driver’s side cylinder decided to start leaking (a lot!), so we replaced both sides. I haven’t done this before, so we had to do the YouTube thing to figure out how to remove the cylinders. No one had done a good job of showing this, and now that I write this I wish I’d done a better job of documenting it.
We started by removing the seat back and bench bottom. No bolts at all there, so it was super easy. Then we removed the interior quarter panel pieces. A couple of screws. The previous owner had also installed some over-the-shoulder belts, so we had to remove those as well. Not too hard.
The fluid that came out of the cylinders was pretty old – a good reminder that all the fluids in this car will need to be addressed.
We replaced both sides with these Auto Pro USA Convertible Top Cylinders TC1001 and bled the system. It took the entire quart of new ATF TypeF fluid, but once it was all done and put back together, the top moves like new.
Leave a Reply