Thanks. As I was undoing things, I noticed that when trying to push the top closed, it bound up a lot. some gentle taps with a mallet got the frame to nudge it back . Moving on, I tried to loosen the 19mm bolt that has the nut on it (the one that gets replaced)...and it just spins with the nut spinning as well. How did you get those bolts out? Do I take them all of the way out or just try to get the nut loose? Seems like I am stuck now on this step. How in the world did you get the OEM nut off/ out of there?! Thanks...
Watch the video...you have to replace the org nut with a thin 17mm nut for this to work.The 19mm wrench is to hold the long bolt so it doesn't turn when your removing the org thick nut.Remember the little bracket that held your rams has to be pushed all the way down towards the bottom of the car..or the top will bind going down.also remember when you put on the thin nut,dont tighten it to much..just snug or the top will be to hard to put up or down if to tight. Michael
Ok thanks....I watched the video 3x previously. So are you saying that the top has to be pushed down somewhat to access the 17 mm nut? Otherwise it seems inaccessible. ..
No leave the top up. You have to remove the side cover..the 19mm head is very thin on the long bolt.look very close and you will see what I mean.
Ok cool, removed the cover but can't access the nut...I see the 19...but the 17 looks buried under the fork.
Good How did you remove your rams without removing the covers? If you look at the video the 17mm nut is in clear view.I don't see what the problem is. 19mm wrench on one end and a 17mm wrench on the nut.Make sure your top is up.
I guess I will take a picture of it tomorrow morning. It seems right now that the 17 millimeter nut basically seems inaccessible
I just used a thin open end 17mm snap on wrench,I think I know what your problem is. As you unbolt the nut use a screw driver to push in the long bolt so you can remove your nut.
After four years of driving my 1995 F355 Spider, i ran into a roof problem. At first the top would not go down so I checked the hydraulic reservoir and found the level to be at MINIMUM. I went on the chat line and a suggestion to use a turkey baster to fill the reservoir.. The turkey baster worked BUT it was very messy because the moment you move the baster from the refill hole, the fluid gushes back out at high pressure. After several attempts and about 3/4 of liter of fluid in rags, i learned that i needed to have the pin ready and re-insert it as quickly as possible into the refill hole. It worked but I did waste a lot of oil. I tested the top and it opened half way down but now it would not come back up.... the forks were not releasing from the round pin. After some friendly persuasion, the forks released and the top moved downwards to about 3/4 of the way.. I tried to cycle the top back up BUT now the forks would not realign with the round pins. the forks kept hitting the pins at about the middle position. After many hours of trying to put the top up, I disconnected both forks and was able to close the top. Frustrated, I brought the car to a garage and they are now trying to find the problem. I was told that the 355 tops have been a problem since day one. Turning the system to a manual process eliminates potential problems but who wants to do a manual process on a Ferrari with a very expensive top.. AND whenever a problem is encountered on a Ferrari, there are always spectators around to record the malfunction. Frustrating and the car is still at the garage.... That's a good things since its been raining for the last three days...
Michael: It seems your video is very appreciated by many 355 owners. However, the video seems rushed and I think in an attempt to keep it short, you assumed certain steps would be understood but seems like there are still a lot of questions over small details you left out. I don't know if it cost you much to do the video, but I think another conversion of a 355 ( I'm sure there would be volunteers), from beginning to end, showing all the steps, would go over very well.
Randy The video cost me nothing but my time.Read post #23 and watch the video at the same time.Many have sent me a message and had no problems making there top manual. Like i said if anybody wants to bring there car to me i will do it for Free and we can video the whole thing again.I don't know what more i can say.Remember the most important thing is the thin 17mm nut..very clear in the video.the rest is just removing a few parts. I dont know what more i can say. Michael
This doesn't make sense. The fluid in the reservoir is under no pressure at all when the plug is removed to fill it. Maybe you had the turkey blaster pressed hard against the opening when filling it and pressurized it? It is just open to air like a brake master cylinder being refilled. I had no problem at all adding fluid.
I agree, mine takes pretty heavy effort to lift up without the rams in place. Modifying it was pretty easy and fast, but I do want to get the top to work as it was initially intended without all the silly gyrations like the parking break and moving the seats. Mark
Amazing! It has only taken 15 years - and a mechanical genius to figure this out. I guess I can buy one now. And I've saved $70,000 by waiting until the problem was solved. Thank you, Michael!
Exactly, as I said earlier in this thread, many claimed they did it. Michael actually did it for real and posted a instructional video, with a little prompting, ribbing and poking But the man came through, I hope now he sees were I was coming from, now owners are showing there gratitude.
Thanks guys for the kind words.maybe now our spiders will go up abit in value because people will not fear our power tops so much. Michael
I have had my 355 Spider for the past 13 yrs now, so I would say I've had pretty good experience, most of the issues with the top are attributed to the 2 straps that over time become too stretched on either side and eventually loose their elasticity all together therefore causing the top to be misaligned when moving and all sorts of other issues. You can check out this thread for more info. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/440553-how-do-you-install-355-spider-elastic-top-straps.html
+1. The previous owner of my car allowed the reservoir to go dry and damaged two rams, that had to be replaced. Also a seat potentiometer failed on him. During my 9.5 years of ownership, I never had an issue, other than topping up the reservoir every three years. About two years ago the dealer suggested having the elastic straps replaced...they farmed it out to a convertible top specialist in Seattle, it was only $140 or so sublet charge. They did a perfect job.
BTW, at a recent technical session at Ferrari of Seattle, Mark Glenwood, their technical director (and master technician) stated that if you have slow top operation on a 355 or 360 and the fluid level is good, the probable issue is old, thick fluid. He said the fluid does get lost past the seals on the rams and from evaporation, and constant topping every two or three years, at the reservoir, forces all the old fluid toward the lines and rams. A complete purging and fluid flush will usually restore operation back to the way intended.
Hello again. I made my F 355 top manual last night. With the help of two friends and a few Corona's, we got it done. IT WAS NOT EASY. We did, however, get it done. It took 3 hours. Here is my input on what others need to know: To access the screws on the black ram covers (hiding the rams behind your seats), find a very short phillips head and feel around back there like Stevie Wonder for about an hour....then remove the ram covers, backwards and up, basically. Take note of which screws came from where. When you remove the plastic tabs on the panel under the rear window plastic, the screws might be at a slight angle, as were mine. Angle the screwdriver toward the front of the car if need be. If the top is completely bound up....take note of the way the bolt slides down that metal shaft. You want the mechanism to slide down. Understand what you are trying to get the top to do... To remove the nut on the main bolt: mine was 19 MM on a 19mm bolt. The Ferrari wrench in your toolkit is the only one thin enough to wedge in there, from what I found. Here's where you need to really do a meditation exercise to help you keep cool while trying to remove that nut...seriously, this part drove us nuts. Not fun. Not easy. If it were not for the fork being in the way of the nut, you would not have a problem removing it. I was told to keep the top UP while removing this nut. It wouldn't go down manually much anyway after removing the 4 rams from the system....so we could not get the fork to pivot down and away from the nut. The fork hung up on the collar of the nut (see the video on this tread). We had to (using a large flathead screwdriver) WEDGE the fork aside and WEDGE a 19 mm Ferrari wrench in AND onto the nut, whilst simultaneously trying fiercely to hold a 19mm open-ended wrench on that super-shallow/thin bolt head. It was a massive knuckle-banger. SO once you get that nut cracked and backed off the bolt a bit, push the bolt OUT to allow MORE OF THE BOLT-HEAD TO STICK OUT. Use a flathead screwdriver to get behind that bolt-head. When you do, you will be able to get a 19mm socket onto it. THEN have your friend kneel one knee behind the other seat and hold and turn that socket while you hold the nut with the wrench.THEN YOU DO A TURN OF THE WRENCH< AND HE RESETS THE BOLT WITH THE SOCKET SO YOU DONT HAVE TO REMOVE AND RESET THE WRENCH AFTER EVERY TURN. That was the secret. It took...FOREVER. Both BOLTS stripped off bits of metal from the nut itself. I think the bolt is a harder alloy. When the nuts were finally unthreaded, the fork still held one in place. With a LOT of wiggling and prying, we got the nut off. That sucked. That joint was so bound up it made things very difficult. Driver's side, btw. When we got both NUTS out.... (bolts are still in of course)...we we then and only then able to move the top back ....BUT: We had not disconnected the hydraulic lines yet. We wanted to see if we could even get the nuts off. Many many many 1/4 turns of that 19mm Ferrari wrench, and it happened. When we moved the top down, it hung up on a cross-brace that is in the front portion of the top. We were staring at the JOINTS baffled, unable to get the top to move DOWN after it went BACK. My other friend said "No. look...that cross bar is getting pinched up. Move it with your hand...move it back....its not the joints that are bound up, its the top." Viola. it moved down very suddenly and almost took off my friend's fingers.Anyway...it hung up on a ram that was resting on the back panel...since I had not bothered to fully disconnect them from the hydraulic lines without getting the nuts off first. I moved the rams down and rested them on the back ledge under the window. Then the top went down, all the way...without disconnecting the lines or putting a new nut on either of the bolts. I'm sure I will get a new, machined nut on there this week, but the top opens and closes just fine without them. The reason they need to be machined down is that the fork will hang up on a thick nut while trying to put the top back up....just as it hung up on the collar of the OEM nut while trying to remove it. It seemed the passenger side fork moved enough to get the nut off while trying to remove it, but it was still not easy. I will probably remove the rams this week, with a rag ready. Good luck. Hope your experience is much easier than mine. If I knew a simpler way, I would have done it. In the end, it was great to get the top down for the first time since I have owned the car. Now its time to enjoy a convertible.