zeroptzero

Hi, I have an OEM hardtop and on the driver side front latche the screws that hold it in place just spin, they won't come out or go in. So the latch is loose and can't be removed or installed tighter. It seems like something under the 2 latch screws is spinning with the screws and they won't loosen or tighten. I can see some shims under the latch but I can't get under it to see what is going on, I tried putting a flathead screwdriver under it as much as possible but it doesn't do anything. I don't think the screws are stripped as they won't come out, it's as if something on the other side of the screw is spinning with the screw in whatever direction you turn them. I can't get my fingers under the latch and I can't get the roof liner to lift up either, so I can't see under it in any way. I'm considering cutting the liner if it helps to lift it up, but I haven't gone that far yet.

Any advice out there ?, I did a search adn seen one other post on this exact issue but there wasn't any resolution on how the poster may have solved it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks very much for looking.

triddle

On page 20-61 of my helms is the breakout of the hard top latches - maybe someone can scan it in for you and post it. What I see looks to me like the screws go through the shims and thread into the hard top itself. It's not 100% clear but there does not appear to be nuts or something else that should be spinning. Page 20-54 has the full breakout of the hard top and again it doesn't look like there are nuts as individual pieces or anything like that. The shims are definitely not threaded.

It doesn't look to me like going through the front trim is going to be an option available to you. I hope you figure something out, I'd hate for this to happen to my hard top.

zeroptzero

thanks very much for the quick and detailed reply. That info is helpful to know. I can see the shims moving thus they aren't threaded like you say. The screws must then go straight into the top. I may try to drill out the screws as long as I can keep them from spinning.

I could totally understand them being stripped and not tightening up, but for the life of me I can't understand why they can be pulled out of the top, I tried putting some decent leverage on the screws to back them out but they wouldn't budge outwards, only kept spinning is all they want to do. thanks again.

zeroptzero

I ended up drilling out the smaller bolt and that freed up enough wiggle room to get the larger bolt out. Under the roof section that the latches sit upon are thread extensions that are about 20mm long est. . I think the roof was used with loose screws for a long time and the two thread extensions ended up breaking. They are aluminum and don't appear overly strong. Once the thread extensions broke they kept the bolts from coming out and were stripped going in, thus the bolts just spun around - very frustrating. I'm gonna try to helicoil the remaining threads with 8x1.25 replacement bolts hopefully that works and there is enough threads to keep the bolts tight. If that doesn't work then I'll have to look at welding the latches down, but I'd like to avoid having to do that.

Try not to run with loose latches for long periods of time, this can ruin your latch bolt threads.