R129 soft top problem

[greg palmer]

All, as part of the virus clampdown I am now isolated at home for the foreseeable future, so started to play with the SL. Off with the pano roof ( heavy !!) but soft top will only go as far as vertically upright...... plenty of fluid in pump and no apparent leaks, any ideas please !!

 

[BTB 500]

Presumably the hood worked before? I would try fully raising/lowering the roll bar a few times. They are linked, and a slightly sticky microswitch somewhere *could* give this sort of problem (if the roof control module thinks the roll bar is in the way).

And yes the pano roof is heavy! Glass weighs a fair bit more than the aluminium in the standard one

 

[219]

All, as part of the virus clampdown I am now isolated at home for the foreseeable future, so started to play with the SL. Off with the pano roof ( heavy !!) but soft top will only go as far as vertically upright...... plenty of fluid in pump and no apparent leaks, any ideas please !!

Usually a sticky microswitch - mine sometimes does that after a period of hibernation , just keep working it back and forward , including lifting it manually past the stick point .

It will eventually come right , mine always does .

 

[Yogioes]

Did you get your roof problem resolved?

I had a similar problem with the roof only going half way up.
I also looked at the cylinders and checked the fluid in the pump, but it was nothing to do with that.
Around the same time, the driver door window had stripped the teeth on the winding mechanism and would bump several time when at the top. It didn't occur to me that this would be anything to do with the roof but it's quite logical and clever really.
For the roof to operate, it needs to know where the window is.
I'm no expert but I believe that on early models there are window limit switches that let the roof controller know when the window is up or down. On later models like mine it counts the motor rotations.
So, when I wound up the window the motor turn too many time when the teeth stripped. This means it was unsafe to put the roof up as it could hit the window.
The roof would appear to work but stopped when in the vertical position and would then slowly fall back.
From memory, if the roof was in the fully up and closed position, it would not release from the header rail and had to be done manually.

To fix mine, I did a weld repair to the window winder teeth. Then, with the roof in the up position, I put the window up and held the switch for a few seconds to reset the top position. After that the roof was back to operating correctly.

I realise this may be different from your problem but the fact that the roof controller is looking for the window position may be connected.

 

[BTB 500]

I'm no expert but I believe that on early models there are window limit switches that let the roof controller know when the window is up or down. On later models like mine it counts the motor rotations.

Interesting. Early cars also don't drop the window slightly when opening a door (hence they have different rubber seals on the hood & hard top). The roof control module does a fair bit - as mentioned the roll bar is also linked in, and the speed sensor of course. I haven't used my hard top for a long time but I'm pretty sure the doors have to be open when fitting/removing that (not just windows down), or the latches won't operate.

 

[BlackC55]

First thing you need to do is to plug it in.

 

[wub]

Does anybody know if you can stop the softtop operation in mid flow on a 96 r129? i want to deal with some body work issues under where the rear of the soft top sits, so would ideally like to stop it just after the front has latched, before the back piece folds down. But i dont want want to mess the whole thing up by stopping half way!

 

[BTB 500]

Yes, just let go of the button and it will stop. I've done that to clean inside the compartment that the hood folds down into.

 

[Martin 1]

You'll need it open for a while for bodywork, unless you leave the engine running, when pump pressure drops, 6 to 8 minutes, it will drop, you need to prop it open. Sorry if I'm teaching my Granny to suck eggs.

 

[nyssa7]

You can wind it open manually and stop at any point you want. I became far too adept when scum stole me stereo my smashing the passenger door window. No window going down meant the roof wouldn’t work

 

[Peterds]

Any progess with the roof...