XK8 convertible top

I changed the oil on my recently purchase '98 convertible and it now doesn’t close properly. It appears to close with the hood at an angle, IE pointing to the left slightly and then struggles to line up with the two guide pins. It has also started to leak water at the top right corner where the hood meets the top rail. Any suggestions?

Art

I’ve never had that problem, but I would suggest checking that the hydraulic fluid is full then cycling the top up and down several times.

This is one problem I haven’t had with my hood (although plenty of other ones). My guess is that one of the rams has got some air in it. There is a quite long winded procedure for replacing the hydraulic fluid. It’s described in SB 501-33 which I have put here.
501-33am Convertible Top Slow Operation.pdf (84.8 KB)
It doesn’t mention how to bleed the rams so they must ordinarily be self-bleeding but you might like to look through the SB and see if it covers anything you didn’t do.

Eric,

This SB is what prompted me to replace the fluid in the first place. I followed it to the letter and what a faff that turned out to be. I assume that the left side ram is not working as well as the right, hence the skewed deployment of the hood. The SB comments that the old fluid is thicker than the new stuff so I’m wondering do the ram cylinders wear? I guess I’m going to have to get in there and remove the rams and have a looksee.

Art