Soft top Springs?

[mal]

hello,
Does anyone know what is the function of the Soft top Springs?
and where do they exactly go?

Many thanks

Malek Mrowa - Beirut, Lebanon.
280SL 71- Light Blue-/Blue
190SL 61 - Silver/Red

[Bob G ✝︎]

Malek:

This may be late in response to youe question. But here goes. I beleive the springs add tension to the soft top to keep it aligned and make it easy to fold in and out of the soft top boot. This design was never a very good and perfect one because stress was put on either side of the soft top fame parts causing the top to be mis aligned or stock in the boot.


The brackets that hold the big springs on the right & left side of the soft top frame are prone to fracture as was my right side when it cracked and separted it self last year. Fixing requires MIG welding if possible this part to the frame again and re attaching the spring to the soft-top frame and boot.

At a cost of $600 USD for just the frame alone, it is not uncommon to see few of these frames still with the two springs functoning in place.

Take good care to make sure your soft top is alighned and bolts and nuts are tight and lubricated. This is not one of Daimler-Benz's better designs but does make the SL look nicer with the soft top uder an alumiun boot.

Bob Geco
California USA

[mal]

Thanks Bob, this clarifies things, I have not installed the springs yet, and this might explain why it is so difficult to open and close the top.

yesterday,I installed the new fabric that came from GAHH , but it seems very very  tight??

Also, the frame above the side windows is not straight, which makes the alignments to the window very difficult!! ( Please See Photo).

Any ideas on how to remedy these problems.

Many Thanks


Download Attachment: Softtop. jpg.jpg
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Malek Mrowa - Beirut, Lebanon.
280SL 71- Light Blue-/Blue
190SL 61 - Silver/Red

[knirk]

Malek,

Maybe you can use some of this information from an earlier post:

http://sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=1387


Per G. Birkeland
69 280 sl aut 834
Norway

[JPMOSE]

I just had my soft top replaced and discovered the piece that my right side spring attaches to has broken off.  There are two springs (one large coil spring and a small circle like spring).

Can I buy this part individually (the part which both springs clip on to)?

How hard would it be to take apart and replace this part?

Best Regards,

J. P. Mose
1968 250SL

[TheEngineer]

Those springs were missing on my car and I bought new ones from my friendly MB dealer. They provide assistance when raising and lowering the soft top. Probably worthwile, but the top works ok without. Kind of a pain to install them.