Convertible top woes!

[248305]

New member. Thanks for having me.

1966 continental has several issues I’m working through. New cylinders to replace the last ones damaged by a shop.

When the top went down, the top down switch wasn’t pressed. The rod that comes out of it shifted to the side instead of being pressed down.

Now the top is out of sequence. Top down, Deck lid up, upper back panel is down.

How can I manually move the upper back panel?

[Dan Szwarc]

Welcome to the ONLY sixties Lincoln forum with convertible experts (because there’s only like 3-4 of us in the world).

The back of the shop manual are a bunch of pages that break down exactly which relays control which portion of the top cycle.

You better have a manual. If you don’t, I can send you one for a donation (we don’t give them away because it helps cover the costs of running this ad-free forum). PM me for details.

If you don’t want to justify a manual, then this should help you.

Locate the relay that is identified in the section titled Upper Back Panel Erect - Top Retract Cycle, page 18-22. It is the aft-most row, second one from the right when facing them from the rear.

Remove the connector to the relay and, using a jumper wire with wide male terminals and 12AWG wire, jump the BLUE-red stripe wire to the BLUE-white stripe wire. This will extend the panel.

You will know you’re on the right wires because they will be 12 or 10 AWG. The third wire will be small by comparison.

The BLUE-red wire is HOT (+12V) at all times so you don’t need to worry about ignition or gear or anything. Just don’t short it to GND.

Once it’s fully extended against the stops, if everything else is still ok, you should be able to close the deck (top down) or reverse the process and raise the top.

[248305]

Tried buying a shop manual. PayPal says it’s not working.

[Dan Szwarc]

Check your PMs.