[PacificMustang01]

Hello vert community!

I've got some questions that I haven't been able to answer via search of MM or google.

First, do any of the shop manuals cover vert motors? I have the Chilton book, and it has nothing about the top or top motor. I was wondering if the Haynes book covers this (and yes, I know they are made by the same company, but the Haynes book has a different cover).

Second, how do you gain access to the top motor? From what I've read it is located somewhere behind the back seats, before the trunk. I'm guessing it is under the liner of the top storage area? But I'm not sure.

My top is working fine, but I was thinking about checking the hydrolic (tranny) fluid levels, cleaning it up and just giving all of it an inspection. I don't want the situation like others' have had where a tube breaks and sprays hydrolic fluid all over the place. So, I figure giving it a look over is a good idea.

So come on all you SN95 vert owners, let's represent better here in the convertible section.

[Lefty]

There's your motor (don't mind the red circles. That was for someone's question). You can see the motor by the amps for the mach audio system, right behind the seats.

[PacificMustang01]

great pic, shows location of everytihng for top. Do you really have to remove the back seat to get to the motor? Is it a pita, or pretty straight forward to get the seat out?


I like your spoiler, by the way.

[Lefty]

You **MAY** be able to get to it through the trunk if you take that apart, but I doubt it. The part of the top that covers all that might be in the way. So you may only get to it through the back seats.

[~C~]

Yea that pic came from a POS.....but we won't discuss that...

Actually, if you go into the trunk, remove the plugs holding the board up in the back of the trunk (closer to the front of the car). I think you will have to remove most of them to get the whole thing out. You will have access to the amps and the motor, but you won't be able to really look at it and fuck with it. Problem is the top and the piece that runs across the car. I think it may be part of the body as well.

Either way, you will either be doing a lot of work to take an excellent look at it, or a little work to take an OK look at it. Pick the lesser of two evils! If you are just going to give it a once over, I would go in through the trunk first before ripping out the seat and all the interior plastics. Just my opinion.

[Lefty]

BTW that's not my car. A buddy on SVTPerformance shot it over to me cuz I had some questions a while back.

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by ~C~ Yea that pic came from a POS.....but we won't discuss that... Actually, if you go into the trunk, remove the plugs holding the board up in the back of the trunk (closer to the front of the car). I think you will have to remove most of them to get the whole thing out. You will have access to the amps and the motor, but you won't be able to really look at it and fuck with it. Problem is the top and the piece that runs across the car. I think it may be part of the body as well. Either way, you will either be doing a lot of work to take an excellent look at it, or a little work to take an OK look at it. Pick the lesser of two evils! If you are just going to give it a once over, I would go in through the trunk first before ripping out the seat and all the interior plastics. Just my opinion.

Yeah that's what I was saying. I was almost positive you could get to it via the trunk but you won't be able to really see much for shit. The rear seats way would be the best.

[PacificMustang01]

well, hell. it sounds like either way its a pain in the a$s. i guess since it's working fine (mostly=== I am a little concerned that when it first starts to go up the passenger side goes up first, and it takes a second for the drivers side to start.....but it then catches up and by the time it is ~1/4 up they are even. I think there may have even been a TSB about it, so I don't worry too much).

I just thought that if it was easy I would check and top off hydrolic fluid if need be.....maybe blead the lines, just in case. But seems like way too much work. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right---at least in this situation.

Oh well, at least I know if it ever does break I could fix it with a 1/2 to full day work, taking out back seat and back panels. If it ever comes to that I may be hitting you guys up again if I run into troubles. So far, however, removing panels and the like has been easy on this car. The only hard thing has been changing the rear turn signal bulb. I wrote a whole thread about that POS design for access to light bulbs. Something that should always be easy to access/change on any car. But I digress.....


thanks for the quick reply you guys! Glad to know help is always out there!!!!

[PacificMustang01]

[QUOTE=~C~;1850091]Yea that pic came from a POS.....but we won't discuss that...

QUOTE]

So what's the story behind this????

For the record, there is not enough info in that pic to tell if POS or not....(but it sounds like there is a story here...)

It was a good technical picture, insomuch as it shows location of major convertible top motor/piston locations...

Why doesn't the damn shop manual tell anything at all about convertible top/top mechanical info/etc. The best we get is a damn wireing diagram of top motor switch operation. Hell, I could have figured that out pretty easy.

[Lefty]

^ He was kiddin'

You can rep both of us too if we helped ya out. And that top that GT Rags has is from an 03/04 Cobra. You can find guys selling them from wrecked Cobra's...

[~C~]

Yea I was hoping Rags would come in here and see it but he doesn't whore up this section enough I guess. He just did a whole thread on replacing his top.

Anyway, I wouldn't sweat the motor to much. Mine has been working fine for 9 years. I looked at it once when I installed my subs. Going in through the trunk is not hard at all. It takes like 5 mins to remove the cardboard (?) trunk liner. Start on one side and work the way around. It popped right out. You can see the seat and the amps and the motor and the wheel humps and all.

I replaced my rear lights and it took like 10 mins. How is the bulb hard to get to? There are a couple of screws and pop the whole thing comes off.

[PacificMustang01]

Mine had more than a couple bolts (actually 4). Two were pretty easy to get to...two were very hard to get to, hidden behind some sheet-metal structure on the far outside of the car.

Then, one of the bolts had a metal washer crimped onto it that had to be cut/squished/twisted/pulled/borken to remove.

After all that, then the housing poped right out. But it was a damn lot of work just to get access to a light bulb. Next time I have to do that (which should be never, since I replaced all bulbs while in there) it will be a lot easier.

What are reps? (two posts above).

[Lefty]

See the little scale thingy below your avatar picture and stuff? Well if you go under our names and click it you can leave "reputation" then.

[HMUSN]

<--- rep button

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by HMUSN <--- rep button

Showoff

[~C~]

LOL yea really! No wonder he got to 80 bazillion posts!

[t70]

how is a cobra top different?
just curious

[G.T. Rags]

03/04 cobra tops are cloth instead of vynl.....

[Lefty]

^what he said.

[PacificMustang01]

I'm thinking of replacing my top. The one I have is fine, but starting to show its age. Furthermore, I really like the fabric look, as opposed to our stock Chrysler sailpoint vinal.

Also, I really like the look of the 1 peice top. It looks much better than the 2 peice that is stock, and also seems like it would have less issues, being it's single.

I checked out some site and am having them send me some samples. Of course, I'll keep you all posted if I decide to change, for I'll most likely want opinions RE color choices/fabric/double vs single. You know, things my wife doesn't care about