Spider top fork not engaging with pin

Well, the story line you will get next will be to adjust the mounting plates of the top frame to the body. Three bolts that need to be loosened and then the base adjusted to change the position of the stud. I have done that three times and it made little difference. It is also ***** to get at the back bolts.

I have bled my system. The engagement is better at that point, but not perfect. It gets worse as it sits. Colder makes it worse as well. Right now it is not engaging unless I help it.

I am coming to the conclusion that the top frame is slightly bent. Possibly when people go to lower the top and fail to move the top bar back due to failed elastic straps, the pump just drives the frame into that bar until someone stops it.

My passenger side has never really lined up. I had someone else run the top up & down and I watched from behind the car. The right side is lower as the top moves up. It straightens out once the pin / fork engage. Additionally, the fork on the drivers side bottoms out on the wear plate behind the seat before the passenger fork hits the same plate on that side. Thinking that the frame is twisted somehow?

Hopefully I am wrong and someone will post a magical cure here. I hope so! But for now I have a question....How does a guy untwist the top frame?

...and guys, let's hold off on the "buy a Belrinetta" comments..

 

Lots of adjustments you can spends days or some just remove the fork or pin I forgot what one

 

I had my Indy guy fix it, cost me about $1500 to resolve the top issues.
Actually glad I got off cheap

 

Mitch - do I need to dig up your thread about Berlinetta's ?

 

I think the top bows out if it jams IIRC or in maybe. You can use a tie down and pull them together to see what way it starts to bow then go from there

 

Hummm. That's interesting. Good thought.

 

LOL yeah I done a few drop tops in my time, more like a few hundred LOL

 

Did you ever try what worked for me in this thread? Mine is still working.....or at least it did the last time I put the top up!

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/soft-top-issue.536088/

 

That's funny. Almost exactly a year ago I replied in that thread with this:

 

So where do you "squeeze" it? haha

 

Loosen the three bolts that secure the top mechanism to the body of the car on each side, and then you can rotate the mechanism so that the hook will line up and catch the pin when operating the top. This is kind of a two-person job, as you need a fair amount of force to rotate and hold the mechanism in place while tightening the fasteners. Use of a pry bar will help as well.

 

that is what fixed mine
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Been there. Done that. Don't work.

Now what?

 

Sell the car..lol..no don't do that. Every top problem as you describe is slightly different. It takes time and frustration to get it right. I have battled many of these tops over the years, and the fix was always different form car to car. A magic bullet will not be found here. You just have to play with it until you find it.

355 top issues are not for the short tempered.

 

Sell the car?! Been there ALMOST done that.

I hear you. I work on the top. Get frustrated. Stop. Come back later. Rinse & repeat. It is only off by a slight bit.

It's a tweak, twist or tug off in some direction. This winter is the season to correct it. In fact I may start a thread on the process so I can remember it all as I move through the repair.

Thanks for the input.

 

I had to open up that adjuster hole a little with a rotary tool, to get it to rotate enough.

 

Egads that must have been a tight mess. I have not tried to open up the holes on the mounting plates.

I need to think about that.

Clearly it worked without that modification, so....

 

Nuff said

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/solve-this-puzzle.480906/

 

The fix will come to you in your sleep. Happens to me all the time. There are indeed "go to" checks and fixes which are far to difficult to type out and describe. Stopping and taking a break from it is the best thing you can do.

 

Well I am awake again and last night? Nothin'

Maybe I'll just go back to bed. If I dream about fixing the car are those billable hours?

 

Watson,
I was dreaming about your car last night and thought ................What if you loosened the other side and rotated it the opposite way? I wonder if that may level the top better.

I feel your frustration. I bet I watched my top go up and down a hundred times trying to understand how it all went together. it reminded me of trying to do a Rubix cube as a kid!
ernest

 

I know it's not possible here.
If the top canvas was off you would laugh how simple it really is. The top tweaks the movement enough to make your brain spin.
The trick is to get the fulcrums to rotate before they reach their limits.

Fold a piece of paper in 3 sections like an accordion and fully extend it, now it no longer accordions it binds.


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