[solerdr]

Thank you to others who have helped me locate parts for my 450SL. As I mentioned in a previous post I am a new 450SL (1980) owner with little to no mechanical experience.

I would like to remove the hardtop to enjoy the beautiful Colorado summer; however, having issues with unlocking the hardtop to remove it.

I have followed the instructions in the owner's manual and fear I may have a broken release cable.

Here is the deal; I place lever one in positon "B" as described by the manual and I heard a click or unlock. When I try to move lever 7 (the smaller handled piece) to position "E" the lever does a full 360 turn and I do not hear anything. I can unlock the other four locking points (two on windshield and the ones behind each seat); however, top does not budge. Thus, my request for assistance.

What are your thoughts?

I've also seen other posts recommending that others remove the panel in the trunk and use an "L" shaped screw driver to release the hard top. If this is possible please know that I am a visual learner and learn by pictures.

I thank you all in advance for taking the time to help out a 450SL rookie.

Have a Merc-tastic day!!!

Solerdr

 

[rowdie]

PO may have broken the tabs on the small lever. It should turn 90 degrees or less. Remove both levers and look. If the tabs are sheared on the small one you can use large needle nose pliers to engage the mechanism.

 

[CavallinoRed]

rowdie has it correct (as he does more often that not) that the tabs or cable that releases the center pin are broken. Should only go counter-clockwise to about the 5 o'clock position.

Going to take a combination of muscle and a deft touch to get the center pin to release. You need to be able to have a couple of strong arms to lift the top up enough (and maybe rotate) with a third person to poke in the exposed center hole to move the little lock piece over so the pin will release.

You'd need a truck to take the hardtop back but if you want to come down to Arvada i had an electric hard top lift. Mine is up for the summer but could put that on a stand and see if we can get yours off. Still a three person job but at least with the top suspended while you mess around with pin there would be less chance of damage.

 

[Nyyyce&Eeeezy]

Glad you were able to use the link and find your way over here from the General M-B Forum, solerdr.

I've rarely (ever?) come across a problem that the guys here couldn't help solve.

 

[solerdr]

Cavallino,

Thank you for the information and offer to assist! the two pins on the small lever are still in tact, which leads me to believe it is a cable problem.

I would be more than happy to come on down to Arvada to get your assistance as it sounds like you've done this kind of thing before. Please email me at [email protected] and we can exchange contact information.

So thankful and glad that Nycee and Ezzzy directed me to this forum.

Appreciate everyone's help.

Look forward to future communication.

Solerdr

 

[DonT107]

I had a similar issue with my first hardtop removal last spring. What I ended up doing was cutting two wedges from a 2 x 4 similar to a doorstop and releasing the four hold downs, two at the windshield and the two behind the doors and moving the big top release lever to the about the 1 o'clock position which loosen the center pin lock at the back of the hardtop and enabled me to lift it about a half an inch, at that point I worked the two wedges under the back edge of a hardtop after wrapping them with some rags to carefully lift the back of the hardtop until it stopped and then I could move the small lever to approximately 7 o'clock position and it would momentarily move the release after a couple careful of attempts of adjusting the wedges and working the release lever I was able to get the top free. You have to be careful with the wedges because too much pressure will bend the metal tonneau cover. When I was able to get the top compartment opened I found that the cable that moves the center pin release had a loose sheathing on it. While at the LA GTG this spring 560duke showed me a trick with some zip ties to fix that loose cable I can now release the soft top or the hardtop with no trouble at all. Hope this makes sense and you get in some top down driving enjoyment.

 

[solerdr]

Thank you for the suggestion.

I need to clarify my comment about the small lever. The lever still has the small tabs. It appears to be loose and when I turn it clock wise it stops at the 5 o'clock position; however, there is no resistance when I turn it clockwise to the 5 o'clock position and I do not hear any noise from the rear or hard top. Likewise, when I turn the small lever counter-clockwise, it moves back around to the five o'clock positon again without resistance or sound. If I continue to try and turn the small lever counter clockwise the mechanism inside the panel (the piece that the small lever fits into with the tabs) begins to unscrew.

 

[solerdr]

rowdie,

Thank you for the reply. Engage the mechanism with needle nose pliers? I am such a visual learner I am not sure how to go about doing such a thing. If I use needle nose pliers which way to I turn the mechanism? I ask as when I bought the car both levers were off and I could not discern which position either lever was in at that time. However, I have been able to figure out the A and B positions for the large lever, but I have not idea which position the small lever is in, other than I know it stops at 5 o'clock again with no resistance when turning it clockwise or counter-clockwise.

 

[DonT107]

"but I have not idea which position the small lever is in, other than I know it stops at 5 o'clock again with no resistance when turning it clockwise or counter-clockwise."

Yes this is what happened with my car also. I have included a couple of pictures of the cable and put zip ties out-of-the-way you can see the gap between the sheathing and the latch mechanism with that gap there the sheathing has nothing to push against the zip ties fill that gap which takes out the play and it is able to move the latch. You can see in the second picture I have moved the small lever clockwise it feels like nothing happens and you can see that sheathing has filled the gap.

If the cable has stretched too much you may have to use a tool outside the car to push the latch aside to release the top. The latch that holds the center pen down is on the passenger side so if you can use a hook tool similar to the one in the third photo you can push the latch to the right towards the passenger side enough to get the pin out with upward pressure on the hardtop using an assistant or wedges. It is very tedious work, with the hardtop in place you will need a longer tool than the one I show the picture. Since you are not sure how the large handle is clocked if you turn it clockwise until it stops that should be the position where the center pen is locked down if you then move it counterclockwise about a quarter of a turn it should release the center pen so you can lift the back of the top up about a half inch.

 

[CavallinoRed]

Dude. Sent you an email. Bit of a problem as my garage door just went south with a broken spring. Offer open once i get it fixed.

DonT107 gave some good insight as to the problem but this might help as well. The pin that hold the tops in place have a notch on the passenger's side that fits in a roller type lock. If you can rotate the top around so that the pin offers a flat side to the lock with someone to poke it out of the way to get the pin free.

Here's the lock & pin

 

[solerdr]

DonT107,

Great information. To get access to the cable to attache the zip ties, I assume I have to remove the panel in the trunk? Once I have access to the cable to put on the zip ties, what position does the small lever need to be in to do so (i.e. what clock position)?

As for the pin on the passenger side, where on the passenger side is that located?

Thank you once again for taking the time to reply and provide pictures.

Solerdr

 

[CavallinoRed]

No access via the panel above the package tray. Part you missed on fine post by DonT107 was "If the cable has stretched too much you may have to use a tool outside the car to push the latch aside to release the top."

In your case it sounds like the cable itself has broken. Only choice is to muscle up the top, rotate and use a awl like tool with a 90 degree bend to move the lock out of the way. Damage possibility is quite high on this so be careful.

 

[solerdr]

Cavallino,

I emailed you back. SO just to be clear, to gain access to the lock to use the "L" shaped tool, I need to muscle the top up as high as I can, rotate it to get access to the lock I need to adjust?

Thank you.

Solerdr

 

[DonT107]

As CavallinoRed said you cannot get to the latch until you have a hard top off and the tonneau cover open I took those pictures from the driver seat looking back.

What I was trying to say (I am more visual also) is that the latch that holds the center pin is on the passenger side of the hole that center pin is setting in so you would have to push the latch toward the passenger side to free the center pin. You can sort of see the latch in the fourth picture that I posted. That is from outside of the car looking down with the top off.

I am glad to try and help out I was removing my hardtop yesterday so it was convenient to take the pictures. I know from experience that it is hard to see how to free the hardtop when it is installed.

 

[CavallinoRed]

Cavallino,

I emailed you back. SO just to be clear, to gain access to the lock to use the "L" shaped tool, I need to muscle the top up as high as I can, rotate it to get access to the lock I need to adjust?

Thank you.

Solerdr

Correct. Tool needs to be fairly skinny as not a lot of room in the hole. You need to get next to the pin on the passengers side. You'll only have maybe an inch gap to work with. You want to poke on the passenger's side of the hole pushing the locking tab to the outside.

Once you have the other four locks free you need two strong folks to rotate the top counter-clockwise about 10-20 degrees. Sometimes this alone is enough to free the top but gives you a bit better access in any case. Rotating offers more of a flat side of the pin to the locking tab then use the tool to push the tab out of the way. Pad everything really well. A small piece of wood might help keep the top of the deck while you fiddle with it.

You're sure not the first one with this problem. Might help to see how it's all supposed to work here http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/1507940-mercedes-benz-r107-hard-soft-top.html

To get an idea of the process here http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/1486586-soft-top-rear-pin-release.html

 

[solerdr]

Update!

Good morning to you all. Just a quick update. It occurred to me just this morning that I may be moving the large lever and the small lever out of sequence; thus, this morning I started with the large lever in the "A" position, and moved the smaller lever to the "D" position, and as I was moving the lever which stopped at 5 o'clock position, I felt some resistance (which did not occur when I moved large lever to position "B" first). I then moved large lever to position "B" and it sounded like something was moving or moved. Granted I did not unlock the other four locks to try and remove the top as I am by myself and have no one else to assist.

My questions: do I have the sequence right (small lever first, then large lever)? Is the resistance I feel in moving small lever to 5 o'clock what is supposed to occur?

Hoping I am on the right trace to top-down driving!!!!

Thank you all again and have a great Sunday!!!!!

Sole

 

[CavallinoRed]

The small lever underneath moves clockwise to about the 5 o'clock position and should hit a stop. Pushing a bit more is what releases the safety center pin lock. The large lever with the knob when rotated counterclockwise wise will stop about 10am and pushing beyond this is what releases the top hard cover. Moving the large handle clockwise to 5pm is what pulls the center pin down to seal the top in place.

Review this again 560SL Hard Top and Soft Top Instructions

And this shows how the lever should work at about 3 min in.

 

[solerdr]

thank you!!!!!

I really appreciate the video!!!!! I searched and searched on Google for such a video all to no avail, so this is a tremendous help!

I'll keep you all posted as I may try to get the top off next week.

Thanks again to everyone for their patience with a rookie.

Have a great day and week!!!

Sole

 

[rowdie]

The procedure is also in the EGv107 Sticky and the owners manual.

 

[solerdr]

rowdie,

Thank you for the additional resources. I did see the procedure in the owner's manual; just helps to see the video...as I said, visual learner, and although the manual does have pics, nice to see a video of someone actually performing the actions, for as I said, when I purchased the car, the handles were off and I was not sure about their orientation (position on the clock). All the input, pictures and videos you all have provided have helped me figure out the proper orientation and procedures.

Thanks again for taking the time to assist.

Have a great day!!!

Sole