Squeaky t-tops

[Guest jjohart]

Can anyone point me in the right direction of what I have to do to quiet down the creaklin cracling sound I hear over bumps from both the L AN D RIGHT t top panels on my 83 ZXT 2=2?

My dealer, of no help, told me I have to replace them, that they're not amenable to internal lubrication to make the latches tighter or less noisy as the magnetic innerworks seem to chatter sometimes as well. I think some of this noise is from the plastic around the lock covers on the t-top, but when I press up on the rear most glass, near the door/window vertical line, it quiets a bit. My next trick might be to put vaseline or Rhuli gel in the rubber seams, but I'm wondering if in fact the reason the top is chattering is b/c they've worn out, flattened, so that the top is riding lower than it otherwise would by design>

Any help appreciated..I've had quieter convertibles at this point!

John

[Guest Aaron]

On my 81 T-Top I used to wipe the seals down with WD-40 which seemed to make them sell slightly, and definately made them more water tight. An old boy friend of my mother's used vaseline on the seals of his Fiero and that worked also. If your tops are rattling, I am not sure that this will help you much.

[Guest Nic-Rebel450CA]

I would recommend against wd-40 for that purpose (and normally recommend against it for most purposes) as wd-40 is a dry lubricant. The moisture evaporates out and leaves you not much better off than you were and sometimes worse off. Mineral oil would be a better solution, as would common 3-in-1 household oil. I'm not familiar with the mounting on those, but if there is a spot that you can put pressure and it goes away, you might want to see if there is a way you can shim it or put a thin washer in whatever mount is holding it in place in order to help put some pressure to hold it snug.