Dennis07,

please excuse my ignorance. Are you a vendor involved in a system upgrade, or related to a party providing those? The reason I'm asking is because you are writing about 300 users, so you must have a lot of inside information. You are writing that the hose failure rate is much lower now - do you know what the number is, or at least a range?

Also, wouldn't you agree that the hose failure must be brought down to zero?

-Klaus

 

Klaus,

Sorry if I was less than clear. I'm afraid you have come upon the remnants of a long, long series of posts and disagreements.

Honestly I did not have your work in mind in my post, and your work sounds like a godsend! Zero failure rate sounds great to me.

If you're interested, I can PM you about the 300 number, it's been discussed before here, but was more like 200 to 250 at the time. (BTW, I'm not selling anything.)

 

Next winter, I'll plan for that rebuild, the cylinder price NEW is very pricey! $589 from one of our dealer sponsors, which is almostn always the best online price that can be found. I'll find you then Klaus! Its top down weather now, cant miss this time of the year.

 

Dennis07,

my apologies for stirring up emotions about long arguments from the past, and maybe I should have been more careful about the way I'm jumping into a discussion that has worn out some good people already!

I know how that can go in forum discussions, even between forum members who are all excellent contributors and really mean to help. Things can easily get misunderstood, or people might feel attacked where there wasn't even meant to be any criticism. Frankly, I sensed a lot of tension in some of the discussions that showed up in my forum search, and was even hesitant to go on reading at that point.

I hope that I can bring some helpful solutions to this forum, and I hope that we can remove anxieties about failing tops once a complete solution has been worked out. I'm a perfectionist myself, but would never claim that my technical solutions are perfect. On the cylinder upgrades, we currently have a failure rate of about 1/1,000, and we are constantly working on improving that number. It is a joy for me to work with happy customers every day, and I hope to count in more and more members of this forum.

Thank you all,

-Klaus

 

Not to overly stir the pot but I thought it had long ago been shown that the resistor solution did not do that much to significantly reduce pressure where it counted versus the pressure relief system that consistently did so under all conditions. Wasn't this finally demonstrated with a plethora of charts and graphs?



Doug

 

We have been down this road before, let's not start again.

If anyone is contemplating either of the two pressure reduction options, they can find all the information they need and the arguments for and against documented at length in the other threads.

This thread was focusing on repairing parts that have failed despite being protected, and has provided some information that I don't think had been discussed previously on the forum, can we stay with that topic please?

 

I concur, Norri. We all want the best possible solution(s) to these complex and expensive convertible top failures. Multiple forum members have contributed beneficial ideas and potential improvements in this matter. Now Klaus has found his way here, and he brings considerable knowledge and experience to the table. Rather than browbeat each other and criticize any of the potential system improvements, let's all continue to work together to make the eventual solution 1) completely effective and 2) even more affordable....

 

Well, Friday we had a late winter snow here in Chicago so I didn't want to be driving the Jag 100 miles back home to my garage. My leak will have to remain a mystery until next weekend...

 

Not a problem!

 

In case any of the topless people have missed it, this is a key piece of information if you consider the operating characteristics of hydraulic rams during top operation.

 

Top Hydraulics can rebuild your existing rams for at 1/3 the price of a new one. They can also rebuild the roof latch but I do not know what the price is going to be. Considering a replacement latch is around #500.00 used and $700.00 new a savings would be welcome. My link JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

 

plums,

well observed - I was only hinting in that previous post...

We are making replacement hoses for other brands already, using the small diameter OEM hose material that Mercedes has applied since 1989. The fittings are not available off the shelf, and we had to make our own hydraulic crimping machines for hose production - regular crimping machines go down to about three times the diameter of the hoses we are using. We are not making Jaguar hoses yet; I will keep the forum posted.

I know that most convertible owners are quite loyal to their brands and may even get upset when other brands are mentioned. Most notable, that is going on between Mercedes and BMW owners. In any case, I hope that my frequent references to other brands do not annoy anyone, but make it clear that we can combine the best of all worlds to make your tops more of a joy to use...

-Klaus

 

@ Klaus (Top Hydraulics) I don't think that anyone around here will object to you sharing your expertise and experience.

You appear to be putting time/effort/ and money into developing aftermarket parts that will help Jaguar owners to continue to enjoy their cars with a potentially lower cost of replacement parts.

Can't be bad IMHO.

(anyhow, the tyre valves on my XJ40s are the same on my Toyota, Renault, and Lawnmower, I know because I fitted them, many cars have cross commonality of parts. We even have threads about Jaguar and Ford, or Lincoln LS).

So naturally you will quote from your experience with MB and BMW etc, and if you are able to help by developing something suitable for Jaguar.

Then GREAT.

 

Klaus, speaking personally, if you can find and adapt technology from another brand to improve the functionality and durability of ours I'm all for it.

 

What he said!

 

Klaus emailed me and said that the price for rebuilding the top latch is $150, pretty fair I think. There are several seals that are replaced, some are specialty items. He is going to update us all when they get officially on board.

If you go to his website take a look at the convoluted Mercedes hydraulic set up and you'll appreciate our relative simplicity!

No use in buying a used one in my estimation, the rebuild probably results in a better end result.

I'm sort of surprised that we've not heard much about the top latch failing given all the time we spend on top hydraulics. Maybe I just missed it.

 

It was a surprise to me as well on the rebuild and I posted his link quickly on my page for others. Klaus and I have talked about the problems related to the roof operation and have high hopes to improve the quality of the hyd devices.

 

Well, it looks as if my second green shower (green sprinkle, more accurately) is from a leaking front latch actuator. I pulled off the top cover and the fittings and hoses were tight and dry, so they are not the problem.

I cycled the top enough to get the latch to extend/contract several times but it didn't leak any amount that I could see. There was fluid around the area, however, so I removed the headliner and noticed that there was fluid on the underside of the actuator near where its ram exits.

Then I removed the "shelf" that the whole latching assembly is affixed to and when I turned it to get a good look inside there was a teaspoon of fluid that dripped from the area.

I guess it can't be anything else, so I'll be the first on the forum to send a latch off to Top Hydraulics for the $150 rebuild. It is easy to remove; 4 screws, a couple of C-clips and a twist and it comes right out.

Fortunately the weather has turned nice here so I can unwrap the Corvette and use it while the latch is repaired. It will go out Monday...

 

I am so glad that it was not the hose replacing it again would be a real bummer. I do not feel you will have a problem with your latch rebuild but want to hear from you on what you think of the returned latch. We only had a few latch problems and this would be a great fix. Please keep us posted.

 

I had a feeling that this would be the fault.
Let us know how it goes, if nothing else at least the timing was good for the rebuild option.