vert latch broke, and top not fully going up...

My wife drove my car to work yesterday and dropped the top. She did not put it back up and after the sun went down the top shrank a little and I could not get it close enough to latch.

I was tired of screwing with it and let it sit overnight with the top up, but not latched.

This morning when It was light out, I tried to raise it completely and latch it. Except the drivers side latch broke a rivit on the portion that the bar that the lever travels forward and hooks to the J hook block. (best way I can describe it)

Anyone know a quick fix? I couldnt find a replacement rivit through the vendors. The rivit looks close to 1/4", I am thinking about hitting up the hardware store for a flat headed bolt that I can run through there to get it to function. As it sits now, I can get the hook latched, but it has no tension so it does not fully seat the top.


Also. My top does not fully raise. I touched on this last fall and added fluid to the motor. But that did not help. It seems like the top is adjusted to stiff to fully travel forward. When it is hot out, the top is easy to put back up. But once it cools down it becomes a total pita to latch back down.

I saw there were 3 bolts that allowed for adjustment, I have loosened them up but it has not made a difference. Anyone adjust thier own top?

btw, it was in the mid 90's yesterday, so the top was easy to put up. But today it is 60 and raining.

stykthyn said:

Are youre tension cables run correctly?

Click to expand...

hmm. How would I tell?

btw, I ordered the vert top manual from 50resto today. I am hoping that will help clear some stuff up for me.

Ok, so I got to screwing around with the latch assembly. It took a 14mm wrench and one nut to remove the latch portion. You do not need to use the allen hole on the bottom of the frame. The portion that holds the J hook feels like it comes off with a phillips head screw driver. I do believe it would be impossible to remove without partially removing the top. I didnt feel like adding a hole to my top so I did not remove it.

So here is a picture of the broken rivit. It might of been an expansion nut, I couldnt find the other half of it.




Here is a picture of a normal, unbroken latch. (not mine)




Here is the other side. This is the side that faces towards the interior of the car.
The red circle indicates where the rivit broke from. (for clarification)




I could not find a replacement for it at the local parts store. So I headed off to the local hardware store and found this.





It is a 1/4" bolt about 3/4" long, with a nylon lock nut. I chose the type of head that is on it because It was thinner than the others. The head of the bolt needs to fit between two piece of metal and not hang up on the head. Unfortunantly the head of the bolt was still to thick to fit between them. Which was no problem since I have a bench grinder to use.




But after trying to get the bolt into the old hole, I found that the evil pieces for the J Hook block (dont know what else to call it). Would not let the bolt fully seat. I would note that if you forced it into the hole, it would seat. But it would be impossible to remove the bolt without cutting it out.

So I got to work on the bolt again with the bench grinder.




When I grinded the head of the bolt down it allowed it to seat fully into the hole, It did not hang up at all. After I got the nut on loosley I was able to get the top latched down and tightened up the nut.

The latch actually feels way more secure now than it did prior to it breaking. It no longer rattles when its not latched. It took maybe an hour to fix the latch. I bought enough to do the passenger side and have a spare. Hopefully I will not need them.

As for the top not fully going up. I do not know if this helped. But I found 6 bolts that had slots for adjustment. I loosened them and tried to manually pull the top forward. But that didnt help. I then got busy working on the latch and completely forgot I had loosened the bolts. I had to drive my car to the hardware store to get the parts and could only latch one side of the top.

After I had fixed the latch I noticed that it was way easier to secure the top. After I latched the top, I remembered the bolts. So I tightened them again. Dont know if that helped or not. any input?

I will get you some pics. I do believe that there are 2 per side on the middle portion of the frame. Right about where you head is when you drive.

Then one per side in the very back on the portion of the frame that is verticle.

Keep in mind that I do not have a head liner. So the nuts are easier to get to and see.

These are the two front ones I was talking about. They are actually on the front portion of the frame and are above the latch. The rear one has a slot to adjust forwards and backwards.






This is the other forward and backward adjustment slot I found. It is located on the rear portion of the frame where it is vertical and goes into the well. Note, its not the rusty one with the metal support. Its the one on the right.





Left/right adjust up by the cable mount/spring tensioner.




Another Left/right adjust. It is below the cable.






This is where the frame bolts to the car. It has adjustments as well.

You can actually see the fixed latch in the first photo. It is the shiny nut above the sun visor. I will probably break down and get some better pictures.

Also, I really need to clean up my car. all the dirt is a bit embarrasing. :/

I spent a total of $2.10 this morning and had it fixed by noon.

I priced new latches, they are $149 new, and the cheapest on Ebay are $49 or so. I couldnt see paying that much for something that has around 20 years of use already.

Plus its raining, and my top would not go all the way up.



on a positive note, I just noticed that I still have alot of forward adjustment left on the bolt that is in the picture 2nd down.

I might play with that tommorow.

stykthyn said:

nothing wrong with using local hardware store parts. I have more than a few in my top. I think it sucks that no one sells the pivot pins.

Click to expand...

I know, I was hoping to find a vendor that sold a simple fix. But the only option is to buy the $149 replacement.

90limited said:

Hungrymonkey... I just noticed that the latch that I did not replace is getting harder to move and has a kind of grindy feel to it... Just a matter of time till it breaks. I am going to try my hand at your fix. I think I kept the parts to the one that broke and may even fix that one for a back up... Thanks for the info.

Click to expand...

There are two nylon bushings that the latch rests on, they appear to be for the handle to pivot on. They keep it from binding up.

I would pull that portion of the latch and try putting some graphite on it. It might work.