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fixed top hydraulics--lessons learned Posted by michael [Email]  (#1365) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from michael) on Tue, 5 Apr 2005 16:13:53
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so i noticed my pass side top piston leaking the other day. decided to try to rebuild it. '91 900tc; here's a how-to:
1. removed rear seat/trim. fairly straightforward. bottom seat just held on by clips, yank 'n pull. back held on by 4 bolts, 2 larger on the bottom, 2 smaller bolts behind/beneath the headrests under the slits in the fabric. trim held on with maybe 5 torx screws/side.
2. removed piston. my system was out of oil, so i removed the hose at the bypass valve. removed the clevis pin and piston, which was held on with 2 bolts accessible through the side.
3. rebuilt piston. put piston body in vise, used slip pliers to unscrew top and remove. next the rod needs to be removed from the top. grab the bottom bolt with a wrench, insert screwdriver through eye and twist. the eye unscrewed first on mine. in the top there are 3 seals/o-rings, 2 of which i replaced. the wipe seal at the top was removed with a small screwdriver (be careful, this can be reused). this lets you access a metal bushing. insert a socket through the top and whack it to drive the bushing out of the housing. the bushing contains the 2 o-rings that should be replaced, one on the inside, and one on the outside. after much searching, i found appropriate replacements at home depot. installation, as the say, is the reverse of removal.
4. here's where i made a mistake; replaced piston, refilled system, and tried to bleed system (as i saw in a couple of posts) by simply raising/lowering top. i tried a lot of combinations with bypass open/closed. couldn't even begin to remove all the air. sooo...
rather than remove the entire system, i decided to try an in car bleed. removed the pistons (with hoses attached), and set ouside car (through the doors). i was able to bleed 'em just fine this way, removing one line at a time from the pistons, as per bentley. to speed some of the air out of the lines, i ran the pump a bit. this worked great, power bleeding baby! make sure to keep the fluid topped off on the resevoir.
5. replace pistons. only problem i had here was not realizing that both of the holes on the piston get filled. one with the removable bracket, and the other is connected to the mechanism. it's obvious if you know it's there.
6. i looked everywhere for suitable replacement fluid. despite what people say, i'm under the impression that 10w oil doesn't exist. 2 different napa's said they don't have a napa brand hydraulic oil. so i used hydraulic jack oil, which worked fine. i'm skeptical that this stuff will catastrophically eat my seals/hoses, but i guess we'll see.
anyway, hoped this helps someone.
posted by 68.11.50...
, Tue, 5 Apr 2005 16:13:53 <-- Viewing This Message
, Wed, 6 Apr 2005 11:23:12, Thu, 7 Apr 2005 05:45:27, Wed, 6 Apr 2005 07:00:25
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