Roof unlocks then sticks

[TFrantz]

Hi all! I am trying to help out a friend of mine with his 1959 Fairlane retractable. It worked great for years but recently he started having this problem.

During the retraction cycle, the roof unlocks fine but then it sticks. If you give it a little nudge, it begins operating again and works fine. The erection cycle functions perfectly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Please let me know what additional information you might need. Thanks!

Tom Frantz

[pto]

Just sounds like the switches need to be gone through. He can try adjusting it a little to see if that helps, if not, he will have to take off the switch and have it rebuilt or replaced.

These cars work through a series of switches as it goes through each cycle.

[TFrantz]

Just sounds like the switches need to be gone through. He can try adjusting it a little to see if that helps, if not, he will have to take off the switch and have it rebuilt or replaced.

These cars work through a series of switches as it goes through each cycle.

In reading through the manual, I am finding that the roof is supposed to raise "about 4 inches off the locks" to actuate the roof position "A" switch and stop the 2 roof lock motors. The roof does not make it 4 inches before we have to give it a nudge to assist it in completing the cycle. So would that mean that it has to be either the position "D" switch or the roof erect and delay switch that needs to be adjusted/replaced?

[1959retractable]

My roof retract solenoid would not engage once the roof screws unlocked due to low voltage going to the solenoid. If I manually engaged the solenoid then once the roof lifted a few inches the roof retract solenoid would work fine. Rather than spend time going through all the switches and connectors looking for the resistance, I just installed a relay assist kit from Wayne Rollins. It puts full voltage to a solenoid to engage it. My roof retract relay only had 8.4 volts to it (the relay terminal on the solenoid) when the roof screws unlocked. Once the top was lifted a few inches then 10.4 volts was being fed to the roof retract relay terminal. The relay assist kit corrected the problem without me having to remove switches, clean connectors, and reinstall. Hopefully, this info might help someone out there.