Convertible top motors, How to fix. with pictures! Options

[match220]

I actually live in California, but it would be awesome to live in Korea. How long did you live there? I would really like to move, but if I can't take my Celica with me, then no deal .

I lived there a little over a year. I loved it, I lived in Seoul though and it was sooooo polluted. I worked outside of Seoul so I always took the bus there, I forget what the area was called that I worked in, but it was a 30 minute bus ride out of the city. I did a lot of traveling around while I was there, some hikes and exploring, there was a hike I really liked off of subway stop 711, that's all i remember about it. Hwaseong fortress was nice. Seeing places like that really makes me want to go back. That was almost 10 years ago though, so my memory fails me with some details.

[808celica]

Wow Jay you still alive??? I kinda want a convertable now.......this might be useful in the future

[match220]

Wow Jay you still alive??? I kinda want a convertable now.......this might be useful in the future

hahaha, yeah, I'm still alive, still in hawaii, still working on the celica (when I get $$$). Riding around on the motorcycle for now, sold my other car. I'm working at the shop for about another week then I'm quitting and focusing solely on school. I'll just make extra money doing side jobs on cars. Right now I'm going to school while working almost full time, and it's tough. Did you ever get another celica? Or a 3s for yours? Your car just needed a crank position sensor right? Convertibles celicas are hard to come by here, the people that have them either shipped them over from cali or bought it from someone that did, the convertible's manufacturing started in Japan and finished in Long Beach and they were only sold in the mainland, they weren't shipped here due to cost.

[ACCELICA]

This was the post that hooked me forever on 6gc.net also! Invaluable help and advice. Mine worked on and off because I kept using super cheap drill bits and the top was mis-adjusted to cause more than normal resistance so they kept breaking. Now my top is in perfect adjustment and I made some legit pins by cutting up a hardened steel 3/32 inch punch into 2 pins. Being able to put the top up and down at a stoplight is so BadA.

Sadly though, I just got everything in working order to sell the car. It's been such a fun season of my life but it just doesn't fit the double stroller and car seats like I want it to so it's time for a new adventure. Definitely need to post up some pics of the finished product as I get ready to say goodbye...

[njccmd2002]

yup same post that brought me here.

[JuniorJoe]

so, my 99 spins the motors, but the roof just sits there. pins broken.

how long are the pins? i know everyone says 3/32" diameter, but what about how long?

sorry to bump an old thread, but i believe it's pretty relevant.

[match220]

so, my 99 spins the motors, but the roof just sits there. pins broken.

how long are the pins? i know everyone says 3/32" diameter, but what about how long?

sorry to bump an old thread, but i believe it's pretty relevant.

going off memory, I think they are 3/4 inch long. But don't take that to the bank, that is just approximate. One of mine broke the other day and I've been delaying changing it. Someone said in the other thread that they put 3/32 drill bits in instead of the roll pin that was in it. I have greased up all of my joints and the pins still snap. I don't know if it is due to cheap metal pins that I'm buying or if it's something else. If I do them soon I'll post up the picture and length of the pin.

[njccmd2002]

I did the titanium pins 4 years ago

[JuniorJoe]

3/32" diameter by 1/2" length

i pulled mine out today. the driver's side just had a broken pin.

the passenger's side:



yup. sheared the 4 allen screws right off





attempts at retrieving the broken screws were... "unsuccessful"

i'm going to see if i can find some stronger screws tomorrow. they look to be 4-40 x 3/8", but i'm not 100% sure on the pitch.

[JuniorJoe]

as i suspected, hardware is as follows:

pin: 3/32" diameter x 1/2" length
allen screws: 4-40 pitch x 3/8" length

all 8 allen screws on the motor unit (motor + gearbox) are the same size. since i don't want that to happen again, i ordered a completely new set of allen screws (along with new pins) to replace where the motor bolts on.

[snyderbd]

I just went through this with my convertible motors but noted that the motors were made by Globe Motors here in my town of Dayton, OH. I called them to see if the motors were still made (they are not). Globe motors does overhaul the motors though and also offers an upgrade to the original motor which gets rid of the pin (uses a D shaft instead of a pin) and pretty much eliminates the problem listed below. The old motors are part number 409A519-3. The new motor that fixes the pin problem are part number 409A590. The upgrade costs between $120 and $170/motor depending on the problems they find during he overhaul/upgrade. Mine cost $143 each (both working with one pin failed). If you want a permanent fix for the problem, you can contact Globe Motors at 937 229-8534 and speak to Debbie Anderson or you can email her at danderson@globemotors.com

Ok so i've been meaning to post this for awhile now, but haven't had the chance till now. Well i've heard a lot of people having problems with thier convertible top opening and closing. And usually the motor is still good, except there is a part inside that is broken. What happened with mine was that one of the sides stopped working and my convertible top needed assistance opening and closing. But the motor was still good, cause it still made noise when i pressed the button. The problem was a pin inside. So if you are having this problem, and your motor still sounds good, then try this, and it may solve your problem...

First you'll need to remove your convertible top motor from which ever side isn't working properly. So first remove the bottom part of the seats, they just pop right out, they are held in by two clips in the front. Then you will need to remove the rear plastic panel on the side your trying to get to. Don't worry bout the seat belts, you can leave those attached, cause you just need to get the panel out of the way. After those are out of your way, You should be able to see the convertible top motors. They are held in by 4 10mm bolts, but you will also need to remove the rear speakers and cut a zip tie before you can unplug the wiring clip and remove the motor. After you remove the motor, you will need to take off 4 hex bolts connecting the motor to a black box that has gears in it. After you take that apart, it should look like this...




Now we can take a look at the problem. There is supposed to be a pin that keeps the gear moving when the motor moves. When this pin breaks, the motor will just keep spinning, but it has nothing left to turn the gear. This pin seems to break off since it happened to both of my motors. Im guessing its like a fail safe device or something, if there's too much stress put on the motor is just breaks the pin, so you dont burn out the motor? Thats my guess. Or maybe the pins just suck. Well anyways, it needed to be replaced. Here's a picture of the Motor with the broken pin removed...



Here's a picture of what was left of the pin...



Here's where your gunna need to improvise cuase i couldn't find a part number for the pin. I ended up cutting drill bits in half and using the solid end as the pin, whatever get's it done right? haha Im guessing you could use any pin as long as it fits in the hole pretty snug. I hope this helps

[njccmd2002]

i spent 3 bucks using a titanium drillbit 5 years ago. no problem since.

[SteveO]

I have a 95 Convertible and had an initial question about my car.

I recently purchased the car and where the convertible switch was supposed to be located, it was closed off with a piece of solid plastic. I looked under the plastic when I was changing the radio and saw that the switch was in fact removed, but the plug to accept it was still there.

So I bought the switch on eBay, installed it. Now all I hear is clicking in the back rear when I engage the switch either up or down. To me, that implies the relay and electrics are working to get all the way to the back.

Without further opening the car, does anyone know if the convertible motor is broken, or something else? Curious to diagnose before opening things up.

[StevenD]

Just did the drivers side on my "new" 1998 Celica Convertible, MANY thanks for this thread!

I did motors on my 1995 (sold it a year ago and missed it up till last week when the new kid came home with me) and ordered used motors off E-bay for way too much $$. Looking at the parts left from the motor I disassembled to try and fix it I can see that it was the pin that time as well. I may fix that one for a spare if I can get the pinion off the motor shaft without breaking the aluminum plate for the planetary gearbox. No room to get a pinion puller in there that I've found...

This time it was a three hour fix (mostly getting too the motor) and included replacing the rear speakers. Had to drill the old pin out, it broke off both sides but the bit in the center was not moving...

[CelicaRacer97]

bump

[Markup]

Fantastic to have found this site!

Since reading your generous post here earlier on today I got myself tooled up then went out and attacked the job. I managed to remove the motor (passenger side) and sure enough, there was about 4mm worth of pin lodge within the grease surrounding the main shaft.
Try as I might, I just cannot drive what remains of the pin through the shaft - its as though its a part of the shaft itself - and in the process of trying I have somehow lost the caste type washer that was on the shaft. I think this is to hold the cog on but I tried to slide that along too and its pretty much stuck to the shaft, although before I attempt a reassembley after the fix I will make sure I replace it (the washer).

I just caught our local diy store and bought 5 3/32 drill bits (because thats how confident I am in my general ability :-)) so I will try again, after some food, to drive the stubbornly stuck pin through the shaft.

If I am right in my thinking (that this pin is just in situ to prevent the cog from sliding toward the motor itself, thus disengaging the drive action) would it not be feasible for me to knock a new section of pin into both existing holes on either side of the central spine, as long as they were tight fitting...or am I missing the whole point of why the pin is there at all.

Thanks for putting this here my friend...

Mark

[Markup]

I wonder if I can get someone who may have carried out this fix on the power hood to look at the below images and give an opinion on (in my case) exactly what job the pin does. I notice that my central shaft protrudes out from the centre of the gear wheel further than it does on MaskedMan's but I am not sure if that is an action that happend when voltage is put through the motor or not.

Also, there appears to be a kind of collar around the central shaft of MaskedMan's which is not on mine.

I dont know either if the pin is supposed to be the same length as the diameter of the central shaft or if it's supposed to protrude out of each side by a certain length ...any help or advice here would be greatly appreciated because after struggling to get the pin out which was broken in the hole, I am just not sure what its function is, perhaps if I could understand that I could approach the problem better but I am pretty well stumped at the moment.

These are the images I have taken:

This is an image of what the gear end of MaskedMan's motor looked like...



This is an image of what the gear end of My motor looks like...



This is an image of my motor placed near the scrteen showing a comparison and the differet appearance of the two



thanking you in advance,
Mark

[SteveO]

Update: Glad this conversation is still going. On my side, I opened up the car and found that in fact there were no motors, someone had removed them

So I hunted down motors on eBay and they recently arrived. One thing is it didn't come with the pins, I gather those are separate and on the outside of the motors?

Regardless, I'm first going to send the motors out to the company that manufactured the motor and have them rebuild it.

Another point - I did see on eBay that if you search for 'celica convertible motor' it shows some product listings from other motors which seem to be compatible with Celicas for signficantly less money. I did not want to mess around so much with that but perhaps someone else can comment on that.

[ArcherRich]

To EVERYONE that has added to this post, "THANK YOU"! I've replaced the rolled or tension pins on drivers side 4 times in a week (both coiled and the normal type). The last one is from GRANGER and had specs on the strength (seems like I saw 785 lbs.) If that doesn't work I'm going with the drill bits.

But one person in the 4 pages of posts mentioned their top needed alignment. My concern is that I could damage the motor etc. using the drill bits if there is a problem with alignment or something else increasing the drag.

Can anyone explain how you know if alignment is off or what else might increase drag?

Thanks!

[INTRIPIC]

I am facing the same problem with my 95 Celica gt convertible lift motors. When they started failing, it snapped the frame lift arm in two!! I've disassembled the rear already (need to fix the rear quarter window lift assy. as well)... If anyone who has done this has the ability to cut a pair of those 3/32 1/2" titanium drill bits, I'd gladly pay!

Also - anyone in LA know of where to weld said frame parts together? the main lift arm broke and so did the eye loop with the star shoulder bolt. Is tig or mig necessary or can you propane weld those parts?

ay-yay-yia