914 rear top latch question

jeffkay1967 · 12-29-2014, 07:05 PM

My '73 came with no reat latches installed. I did find a box of rear latches that were bought most likely on ebay. They had been disassembled and painted poorly. I put them together and installed them but noted the "hook lever" wobbles about and the hole is not snug on the stud/pin but does not look worn or rounded out.
I was thinking maybe the slop is the result of two different years parts? Are all the latches the same? Is there a trick?
I also noted if hook lever rests on the stud/pin bottom shoulder, the lever hits the rivet head nearby on the other arm. The wobblyness causes the retaining clip to pop off and makes getting the lever out of the housing when attaching or releasing the top a pain.
Any exploded drawings of this part? Thanks for the help.

Dave at Pelican Parts · Dave at Pelican Parts's Garage

The part numbers for the assembly (it seems to only be sold as an assembly) are specific to left and right sides. Is it possible you're mixing up left and right parts? I'm not sure exactly what the difference is between them, other than the direction the arms are mounted in the assemblies. So it's possible that there is some sort of offset; double-check the parts to verify that.

Loose tops seem to occur after years of wear; one popular fix is to put plastic shrink-tubing on the post that the hooks grab onto. That makes them thicker, and holds the top tighter. Check the hooks and the posts for visible wear.

--DD

The cap'n · 12-30-2014, 08:01 AM

That would be "plastic fish tank tubing", Dave, not "shrink tubing", which is quite thin.

The Cap'n

lorenzoscribe · 12-30-2014, 11:13 AM

My latches would also not stay attached. When I took them apart, I went to a welding shop and had them daub a small blob of weld onto the tips. Then I took the time to file everything down to original sizing. The hardest part was finding some push on ( I guess you would call them speed nuts) to hold the hook on the pin. They wobble a bit because I was not able to find some sort of sleeve for the pin to make up for the wear. However, they do stay latched.

Larry Steckel
1971 Porsche 914
Now a 1910 cc.

jeffkay1967 · 12-31-2014, 05:59 AM

The latches pull down and lock fine. The left and right deciding factor seemes to be just the base part that has the two bumps to take the rubber buffer coming from top. The levers seem to be flat with no offset. AA does sell a repro of this lever but they don't specify any left or right but might know the I.d. of the hole...