Mark21

Greetings all,
I've taken apart the interior of my 72 Cutlass Convertible to get the seats recovered and replace the carpet. Apparently, the passenger side top ram has sprung a small leak. The top seal appears to be worn and leaking. There was a small puddle of fluid on the rear floor.
Question: Is there a rebuild kit, with seals, for these rams or am I going to have to buy a complete new one?
Thanks

Fun71

I think the end of the cylinder housing is crimped, so you would need some specialized tooling to open and reclose it.

So the answer is it's new cylinder time. There are several vendors, and from what I recall the lowest price I found was around $120 each.

edit:

I just did a web search for Chevelle convertible top cylinders and found some as low as $90:

https://www.google.com/search?q=1971...t=gws-wiz-serp

Mark21

Thanks Kenneth,
Yeah, I just wanted to confirm. I've been searching and all I find are the complete cylinders. I contacted a rebuild house and they told me that those A-Body cylinders are crimped at the top so a rebuild is impossible.
Time for a new set. Thanks for the info
Mark

WTHIRTY1

There's a convertible shop in Florida (the name has escaped me) and they'll get you set with new pistons and new hoses if needed. I posted on my pace car thread detailed instructions for a bleeding technique I had a lot of success with that is similar to that outlined in the chassis manual. Good luck!

70sgeek

Hydro Electric

https://www.hydroe.com/ 941-639-0437

5530 Independence Ct.
Punta Gorda, FL 33982

Great shop been around forever. Got my top motor and some other parts from them when rebuilding my system back in '17.

Vintage Chief

^^x2^^

I've only purchased a couple convertible top items from them & I've spoken w/ them on the phone. Very knowledgeable, very helpful, quality parts & just an overall great business. Good Luck!

acavagnaro

Hydro-Electric is good. Since these cylinders are hidden behind your body panels, it pays to go with the best quality you can get rather than try to cheap out. If one springs a leak, you won't know until you have a much bigger problem on your hands.
I'd recommend changing your lines as well and leave your interior panels and carpet out for several cycles of the top to make sure you have it bled and there are no leaks.
Good luck.

Mark21

Well, since I had everything out, I decided to go all new. OPGI came through with OEM cylinders and hoses. I already had a new pump on the shelf. The swap went well but messy.
Installing the pump was a pain.
I installed the lines on the pump and left them loose. The rubber "pop in" grommets didn't exactly "pop" into the mounting bracket. The bracket is nothing more that a piece of flat metal with no support. Every time I pushed on the grommets the metal mount would flex. Of course it's in the most inconvenient place and difficult to get to without some degree of contorting. Finally had to resort to pulling the grommets though from the bottom and not without some spewing of language and loss of skin. Also, used some Vaseline type of lube to coat the rubber.
Snaked the hose through and loosely fastened the fittings to the cylinders. Once the cylinders were mounted I tightened all the fittings and started the cycle/fill process. This is the messy part of the process where a lot of rags come in handy.
I have a couple of large syringes that worked well for adding ATF to the pump, but it still made a mess. In total I think I cycles the top about 7 times before all the air was out of the lines. I notice a few small air bubbles in the lines, but the top cycles smooth and quiet with no leaks. Like new!

Hope this helps the next guy/girl when replacing the mechanicals. There's a few videos on YouTube that also helped.
Thanks all for the advice.
Mark

allyolds68

Just to follow up on this thread and hopefully make the job a little easier for others…..

the three rubber mounting bushings on the pump are usually dried out and have to be replaced anyway. To replace the hoses you have to remove the side panels anyway. At this point four bolts (two on each cylinder) gets both cylinders removed. The hoses on my 68 weren’t snaked through anything. I was able to easily remove the entire assembly with the hoses still attached. On my work bench I replaced the hoses and bled the entire system using my battery jump pack. It was way easier than trying to fill the pump and cycle the cylinders while the pump was mounted in the trunk. Once everything was bled and topped off I reinstalled the whole assembly in the car.