430 Droptop gets stuck in certain positions, nobody can figure it out where I live

While I don't own a 430 Spider ( I have a 360 coupe) it sounds like in my experience (30 years plus building cars of all Marques) that it may be an electrical problem. I have things like this crop up on other cars and sometimes I trace it down to an overheating of a relay. You may want to check to see if there is a circuit breaker involved that is failing and or being overheated and cutting power to the top operating system--- especially since you say once you wait a period of time it will once again resume operation. That is very tell tail sign of an electrical circuit issue that I have found on many other cars I have worked on over my 30+ years. One car I worked on had a circuit breaker for the Power windows and it would do the same thing. Window would simply stop going up. Wait a time and it would resume operation. Also be sure you have a fully charged battery. Very important.

Of course you will want to check to see that there is no added strain on the system caused by any misalignment of components which of course would overheat electrical components.

But of course others here who own a 430 Spider may be able to offer more specific advice. I figured this may be an idea you can suss out yourself since you say you live in an area with limited professionals to work on your car.

Best of luck, Ken

 

Is that all operated by hydraulic cylinders ? Controlled by a set of solenoid valves in the hydraulics ?

 

Have you checked the hydraulic fluid level?
Does the pump continue to run when stuck in those positions, or does it stop? Does the pitch (sound) of the pump change - if so, can you describe it?

P.S. I guess Thailand.

 

I'm not sure how relevant this is since yours seems to recover after waiting some length of time, but when mine was stuck in a similar position on the way up, I found microswitch 12 was not working properly/wedged. The pump would keep trying to move it, but it wasn't until I repaired the switch that it worked normally again. Maybe something is sticking with that or one of the other switches?

(To get to #12, I needed to remove the engine panels on the left side of the car)

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The Roof ECU looks at a number of different switches at each step of the opening. Here is a document which shows the required status for each switch:

https://www.dropbox.com/t/qL6qzOgjnohcO8Gz

Open Step #8 mentions switch 12 (also known as EDA or E.D/A). The status should be "1". It's not clear if this means the switch is closed or open circuit.
I believe this is the switch which tells the system that the hard cover is fully up.

If you have problems accessing the switch, you may be able to check the statis of the switch at the Roof ECU. There is a 20 pin connector ("2Q") on the Roof ECU (one of 3 different plugs). Pin 3 will either be open circuit or be earthed.

See 16Q in this 360 wiring diagram:

https://www.dropbox.com/t/YjUCQnYBoMYX3oEa

It should be the same as the 430.

 

Sorry, my mistake...

https://www.dropbox.com/t/eYSetXCSipfJIZNo

 

Matthew are you using battery power (car not running) or is the car running? My 360 did that on battery power when my battery needed replacement

 

Would it help to try spraying all the limit switches with contact cleaner, then blowing dry with compressed air

 

Thanks, then it's a microswitch. They sometimes need a little bit of adjustment on the locking screw to fully engage (or disengage) in the desired position. They can also fail, or be damaged by a misaligned roof. Use a diagram to find the appropriate switch and investigate it.

 

Have you flushed the fluid? Apparently it's common for it to just get topped off over the years and gunk to collect in some parts.

Mine would stop occasionally when I first bought the car but I've had it adjusted a couple times and the fluid flushed and it always works perfectly now.

 

on a side note, i have NEVER seen a Rosso exterior with a bordeaux interior.....WOW...