Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 09:10:05 -0700
Reply-To: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: Pop top issue
In-Reply-To: <AE1620BA6A204509A0D0B1FEEB12DA6A@troyb5bff49d63>
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Hi,
I've been dealing with a friend's pop top issue and while its not
quite the same problem you have maybe this will help.
1. the latch is adjustable. The handle part on the roof is adjustable
for vertical latch engagement via a couple of bolts. The design has
changed slightly over the years but you can see the adjustment bolts
in the shallow "u" in this pic of a latch from an '82 westy
http://shufti.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/img_3229.jpg
The amount of vertical adjustment is limited.
The fixed part of latch on the metal roof is adjustable fore and aft,
those 4 big phillips head screws sit in elongated holes. Here is a pic
of the that part, showing the backing plate hidden above headliner
http://shufti.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/img_3232.jpg
2. about the top sitting high on one side... this is happening to my
friend's '91 westy. Its like a hat sitting not quite straight on a
head. So one side hits the tapered part of the roof before the other
side. You know that there seems to be no real lateral adjustment at
the hinges, but there is fore and aft adjustment. So you can push one
side forward and the other aft a little, which ends up "cocking" the
roof. BTW, we found removing the pop top gas struts makes this
adjustment much easier. This might be enough to get things right, but
it did not work in our case. We found that while we can get the latch
to engage properly, we still could lift one forward edge of the pop
top much easier than the other side indicating it was not down firm
enough on that side. Back at the rear, you can see the mis alignment b
how the rear "bulges" of the roof sit on either side of the hatch.
We considered that the hinges had been bent slightly. They didn't
appear to be, but it is still a possibility. Time was running short so
we didn't explore "tweaking" the hinges with a pry bar.
We were using where the rear of the pop top ("bulges") sit on the
metal, the forward seal on the luggage rack, and the vertical distance
to gutter on the sides as "metrics". We'd adjust the latch to suit our
roof adjustments.
3. on the pop top roof, at the hinges, the manual shows that one of
the holes in the fibreglass is elongated. I think its the upper rear
one. We did not notice that until later, but I wonder if that allows
further tweaking on how the roof sits. I don't see how it does as the
other holes on the roof are not elongated, but hey, its worth a try.
Those painted screws can be hard to loosen, you really do need to use
a good fitting large screwdriver.
I hope some of this helps, and I hope if you get the alignment fixed
you tell me what you did :) Buggering around with the roof is a bit of
a chore, it is easier with 2 people.
alistair
On 27-May-11, at 8:08 PM, Troy wrote:
> Hi folks:
>
> Would like to get some feedback from others as to how hard it is to
> latch their pop top. Maybe I'm just getting weak or old, but it
> really takes a huge amount of effort to get the latch to catch. My
> pop top has always has always sat a little bit high on the driver
> side too. I can pull it down, but it seems to want to pop back up as
> though the top is somehow tweaked out of square or something. I
> have replaced both hinges, and one of the support struts that seem
> to have a slight bend to it with little change. Any suggestions on
> how to go about adjusting this to improve the ease of closure?
>
> Troy
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