Ok so this car sat for 25 years I've rebuilt top motor and new cylinders , raised and lowered top about ten times and I worked fine till today . I hit the switch and it will run long enough to drop about half way then it stops. I come to find it looses power at fuse box but only for about 20 seconds then its hot agin and I can Finnish lowering it. This continues as it goes up or down . It's hooked up to proper location in fuse panel . I relocated it to another location and it did fine once , then I lost power there , so back to orig prong . It's the orange wire , can someone tell me where it gets power from and how it can be hot 12. Something one min then after being on a load it goes dead then it's hot again?

 

I did the same thing recently (new lift cylinders, lines, and motor). When I was bleeding the lines I worked the top up and down about 7x and the last time I did it the motor stopped when it was half way down. I checked the motor and it was hot as hell, so I let it sit for a while and then tried it again and it worked fine. So I assume there must be a thermal protect on the motor (on my motor at least...).

Maybe the thermal protect on yours is faulty or the motor/roof rails are binding a bit and overheating the motor?

 

x2 for dalilama's response. I just had the same experience after replacing one cylinder, but now it goes up and down without stopping. I assume that it may have gotten too hot while cycling and filling the system (air bubbles)? Once it was bled it seems to be OK.

 

Grounds and other connections tight and clean? Break out the volt/ohm meter and look for the voltage drop. That will pin-point the problem area. Do you know how to do a voltage drop test?

 

No binds and all is lubed good bushing . I found that the breaker in the fuse box says its a 8.25amp , why in the hell someone would've ever put a breaker that small in it beats me so guy at my local auto part store has me a 20amp and a 30 on the way. He even said it should be more like a 30amp. I read another post where a guy said it should have a 40amp breaker in it. I figured I'd start with a 20 and see what happens

 

Not sure please explain. I was thinking my plug at the motor seems , we'll its 40 years old brittle and maybe a little loose .

 

Easier to send you to youtube. Enter voltage drop in the search box. There are a couple quite intuitive videos. Simple to do.
Each connection in the vert top circuit if dirty and or lose will add resistance to the overall circuit which means less volts going to the motor. Each point of resistance will cause heat as well. That combined with the wrong circuit breaker will definitely cause problems. The most important thing in a negative ground system which is what out cars have is good clean tight grounds and good clean connections overall on everything. Get a wiring diagram for the car get a decent volt ohm meter and start troubleshooting.

 

Well I put a 20amp beaker in it and the top works great.....

 

Good news - you can go to a 30A if you want too.

Also, I'm going to go with relays soon (see attachment) to prevent the new switch I put in from burning out. This schematic came from this forum - I take no credit for it (nor do I remember who posted it), but it's a good way to protect the switch.

 

I did get a 30amp also I just tossed it in glovebox just incase