I kinda like the electric drop top, but I'd be happier I think with a system that I could drop down and pull back up myself. Can I disconnect something or somethings so I have a manual drop top? Is this something easy to do or should I just pipe down and accept it.
On the A body cars Ive seen this done, just disconnect the cylinders and the top can be folded up and down with a couple people. But on the big cars, you have the scissor designed roof where the sides split and fold into the middle. Plus the top moves with drive cables. I dont think it will be very easy to do it manually with the drive cables let go.
Why? The top mechanisms are heavy and awkward to raise or lower manually, but if you think you would like that disconnect the cylinders and give it a try. I don't think you will enjoy the experience.
You can say that again. Raising that top is not like raising an Austin Healy 3000 top manually. I suspect you would need two people for the LeSabre top.
The "scissor" top that the full size 71-76 GM cars had does not have hydraulic cylinders but rather uses an electric motor driving speedometer-like cables. You could unhook the drive cables from the electric motor located under the rear seat and see if you really want to lift that thing. They're pretty heavy pieces.
I think you got a hard time over this question as we dont understand why (assuming you have a working electric top) you'd want to make it manual.. You can remove the drive cables, its not hard.. but I think that design of top wont be easy to put up/down by yourself. My dads 75 Lesabre had a non working top for a while (relay issue) and it was a pain in the a$$ to have to get in the back seat and strain yourself to lift it up.
Naw...no hard time taken. I can tell that the system is tired and I'm not sure I want to tackle a resto on it this coming spring. I usually keep the top down in the spring/summer months since its parked in the garage at night or in bad weather. Right now the top is up since its winter and I didnt want any rodents to get in it if the the garage had a hole it it somewhere. I know that if I take it down right now, it will have a hard time going back up at 20 degree weather. Are these things hard to rebuild?
The top on my 68GS had the cylinders disconneted when I purchased it and it was a Bit*h to put up and down manually and you will risk bending something if you try doing it alone. The previous owner said the top stopped working years before I purchsed it so he disconnected the cylinders and put the top down in the spring and up in the fall (garage kept). Turns out, the electrical connector under the dash was not plugged in correctly and I had it working 2 minutes after he delivered the car to my house. At least I was able to use the non-working top as a barganing chip when negotiating the price.... I believe the previous owner saved the top on my GS by not using it too much because it still has its factory white convertible top in great shape...
I think in the type of motor you have the only thing to be rebuilt is the electric motor. It has a cable, kinda like a speedo cable, out of each side that go to the top mechanism. the motor turns the cables, turns the gears and up/down goes the top. If it seems weak, then in all likely hood its the motor. A new motor will be a bit over $200 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-1976-C...r:1975|Make:Buick&vxp=mtr&hash=item1c21744936 If you need new cables they're about $35 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-1976-F...r:1975|Make:Buick&vxp=mtr&hash=item19cae60b53 Its not a complicated system, if you take out the upper portion of the back seat, you should be able to access it all
if you care about your top dont do it. scissor tops are tightly syncronized. putting the up and down by hand will soon tear the top from the first bow behind the header bow. also you dramatically increase to chances of tearing the tension cables from the second bow. when motoring the top up and down, always have the car running. the extra voltage does wonders.
