Hi should check the fluid in the convertible motor and i can read in the body manual that the top
should be in "raised position" in my 98 , raised position = top all the way up and locked ???

 

Look in the Fisher Body Manual for instructions on how to fill the reservoir.

You’ll need a jar of brake or transmission fluid and some vacuum hose. I believe the procedure is just to stick the vacuum line in the fill hole in the reservoir and put the top up & down a few times.

You can also look at the plastic lines behind the back seat to see if there are air bubbles in the lines which will make the top work less well.

It’s a bit like bleeding brakes where you just want to get enough fluid in the system and get rid of the air bubbles.

Chris

 

Glenn - Yes, to the fully raised position, which would normally be the locked position. You can generally hear the pump cycle and stop at the very end of the fully raised position even if it isn't the locked position; but, having the top in the locked position, you have reached the end of travel and the pump will no longer move fluid into the cylinders (listen to the end of the pump cycle).

 

Thanks for info should check the fluid level soon. ( when my legs are feeling better , i hope )

 

If it's an older car, check to make sure it doesn't use brake fluid before topping up.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT use brake fluid. When it leaks it will eat your paint like paint stripper. Only use ATF. There are some good videos on utube.

 

Some came with brake fluid, moat were changed to ATF by now. If for some reason if it still has brake fluid, clean it all out before adding any ATF, They don't mix well....Tedd

 

Ok was thinking to use hydralic fluid 32 , same that i use in our tractor hydralic system. But i should try to se what fluid it is in the system , could not se any red atf fluid in the hose connection on top of the pump.

 

Have removed backseat and it looks like the convertible motor have been replaced so i hope that there is atf fluid in the system, looks a little red thru the hoses. And a lot of air in the hoses when i take the top up and down. Last time i should raise the top the motor stopped several times so i had to wait a little to continue . Should check the level tomorrow.

 

Checked the fluid today and it had a light yellow
colour not red as i suspected. The rubber plug to
the filling hole was laying under rear bench seat.
Removed the motor to drain the oil and loosen the
cylinder rod and pushed it in and out a couple of times so most of the fluid was drained.

 

Top up the fluid with whatever you think was in there before. The two traditional choices are automatic transmission fluid and brake fluid. Either will work, but I don't think they will mix well.

If you have any doubts, it is probably best to completely drain the system, clean it and refill with your choice. Brake fluid likes to eat interior paint if it spills, but then it usually spills under the seat, so it's not something to really worry about. Transmission fluid might just help the hydraulic seals in the top cylinders last a bit longer, but that is only a guesss.

Also, if you want (and I don't really recommend it, unless your fill plug does not seal), you can tap the seal hole and plug it with a short bolt + gasket like an engine oil pan.

Finally all of these parts are still available from HydroElectric (in Florida, I think) and Convertible Service (?) in San Gabriel, CA.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris . i try to drain the system and fill up
with transmission fluid to be sure. Don't know what kind of oil in the system now. It,s light yellow.
Yes the motor come from convertible service in san Gabriel.

 

Is there any way to flush it through? Put the suction side in fresh fluid, and dump the old into a container while cycling the pump.....

 

Glenn - The notion of what fluid is currently contained in the system cannot absolutely be based upon color alone. Brand new out of the jug Tractor Supply UTF is a pale yellow, Traveller Universal Tractor Hydraulic Fluid right out of the jug is pale yellow, Yanmar hydraulic fluid is red. Thre is no manner of determining what fluid is currently in the system based upon color alone - some hydraulic fluids are clear right out of the jug.

 

Hmm , nice tip maybe i can connect a cannister with fresh transmission fluid and this suction
into the cylinder when i pull the rod outwards.
Thanks.

Should be nice to get some fresh oil on the
system, the hydralic fluid i use in the tractors
is clear. This old oil smelled like gearbox oil.
Was thinking to mount the motor with strips ?
first and drive the top up and down för easy
access to the filler hole and then mount it when
it works good. Impossible to get access to the
filler hole when motor are mounted.
Thanks Norm.

 

I'd do it as fleming442 suggested. I'd also use lots of old t-shirts or cotton clothing you have laying around as they are great sponges working with hydraulic fluid oil.
I'd also fill it w/ your ISO 32 hydraulic fluid - it's perfect hydraulic fluid. That should be a perfect viscosity for your area.
It's senseless, IMO, to tackle & talk about any supposed benefits of transmission fluid in a vehicle's convertible top hydraulic rams/pumps/seals/lines. It's not like you're going to benefit w/ DEXRON vs. CVT vs. TYPE F vs. MERCON, etc. in a convertible top hydraulic system. There's no need to address heat and the retention of oil on valve bodies, seals, etc. as in a transmission under constant movement and heat.

Hell, fill it w/ vegetable oil (Canola preferred) and be done with it.

 

I agree that hydraulic fluid would be appropriate for this application.

 

Hi first thanks everybody for tip and input Have done the last things today and i filled up with hydralic fluid 32 .
There was very little fluid in the system and motor cannister. I disconnected the hydralic cylinder pushrods and
grounded the motor , then took a wire from positive on the battery so i could sit on the floor next to the convertible
motor and drive the cylinderrods up and down several times and refilling oil in motor cannister. It worked very well.
Should write the oil name on a sticker and attach above the motor so next owner knows what kind of oil there
is in the system. I cut a couple bits of hoses to protect hydralic lines from metal edges in the motor housing.

 

Good job, Glenn.

 

Well Norm , it was to early to be glad about this. Drove out the car from the garage today and should take the top down and the
o-ring between the motor and cannister blew out . Luckaly i had the armrest between front seats up where the oil hit.
So i have to remove the motor again and replace
the o-rings.


I did not opened the motor / cannister last time. But i,m wondering , to check the level with top fully raised and the
cylinderrods out , when the top go down there must be more oil going back to the cannister than going out because
of the larger volume of oil with no cylinderrod in that movement , hmmm

 

Replacing Your Seal
Just a quick note to let you know that the seal is just a plain old (very large diameter) O ring.

I am not sure if you can frind the exact right size in metric Sverige, but here in the US, you can find those O ring seals in many hardware stores. Here it is not terribly special.

Your best move, due to the diffrences between metric and US O rings, may be to get a replacement seal from Convertible Service or Hydro-E-lectric.

If it were me in Scandinavia, I would take the old O ring to a hardware store, or perhaps an inudstrial supply store, and see if I could find a meteric replacement, just in case that might work.

Manual Operation
When the system is disassembled and there is no hydralic pressure in the cylinders, you can disconnect the right and left cylinders from the top frame, using the one bolt at the top of each one. Then you can push the cylinders all the way down manually. Or remove them.

This will allow you to raise and lower the (heavy) top manually during Summer! The only hard part will be pulling the top close enough to the windshield when you want it up. But if it's a warm day or the car has been in the sun for a while, it should not be too hard

Manual operation is not intended, but it works just fine.

Cheers
Chris

 

Hi Chris , yes i should buy a couple of new o-rings
here that should not be a problem . I have removed the cylinder rods from the top and pushed them down so we can operate the top manually , worked fine so we can use the car. But maybe it,s better to check oil level with the cylinder rods down in cylinders instead to avoid more leakage, hmm

 

Hi i mailed Convertible service in California and they answer that it,s wrong to have the top up when
checking fluid level. This caused the o-ring to blew out because of to much oil in the system.The top must be down so the cylinder rods are fully in the cylinder when checking fluid level.

 

Their advice sounds exactly right. I'm pretty sure I had it in the wrong position when I blew my O ring seal.

There is a filling procedure described in the Fisher Body Manual for 1966. Hopefully you can find the same inforation in your 1965 version. It has to do with cycling the top up & down a few times with a vacuum hose into a reservoir of brake or transmission fluild located lower than the pump motor. Usually I put it on the floor where the back seat bottom should be. It's pretty much like bleeding brakes - the idea is to get as much of the air out of the system as possible, but -- and here we have experience -- not so full that you blow the pump motor O ring seal. At the end of the process you will see a few bubbles, but this is not a problem, it is working correctly.

I have found the cylinders to have long lives - perhaps 10 years or more. But when their seals go, I don't have the skills to repair them, so I just replace them. The plastic lines with the brass fittings are very long lived too, I hope yours are in good shape.

Good luck from here.
Chris

 

Thanks Chris , i should order new o-rings today , the bleeding of air in the system worked fine and i drove the
pistonrods up and down about 10 times but with the filler hole open , then i raised the cylinderrods and
connected them to the raised top and filled up the oil level , put in the fillerplug and mounted the motor.
I looked at this in the 1965 Oldsmobile Body manual and it says checking oil level with top in raised position :
maybe it,s a difference between oem convertible motor and aftermarket that i suspect i have in the car.

 

Hi i can write that the convertible top works great now , replaced the o-rings and did the air bleeding
again and filled up with 32 hydraulic oil when top was fully down. It was a mistake to check the fluid
with top raised as i saw in the 1965 Oldsmobile Body Manual when i have an aftermarked convertible
motor.

 

Not sure if this will come through quite right but

<<eller, men>> gratulerer på toppen!>>

Chris

 

Thanks Chris ,

 

Glad you got it straight

 

Thanks Fleming , yes nice to have this done