Convertible Latch Down

Hi - - I'm a newby. I just purchased from the original owner, a Gun Metal Gray '90 convertible that looks new. I can not believe how lucky I am. It has not been abused or driven very much. For the passed few days I have poured over the Reatta Forum and AACA forums looking for answers to many of my questions on the Reattas. What a wealth of information the members have provided. I do need some help. Can any one tell me how to, fix/correct/adjust, the latching of the top. The "pin" behind the driver engages the "pull down motor" fine and there is no gap and then the next thing you notice the is a half inch gap. Also I would like to enclose some pic's if I could figure out how to do it. You might say we are a real fan of the Buicks as we have had a string of them starting with a '54 Century and about ten others to our present line up of a 2002 LeSabre (mine) and a 2005 Park Avenue (wife's).

The 90 Reatta does not have a pull down motor. You have to put the palm of your hand on the top just over the pin and push down hard. I believe this may have been difficult for many owners because on the 91's they did install an electric pull down motor. If after pushing down hard and making sure the top locked, you still have a gap, you will need to adjust the pins. I have never had to do that for any of the 5 convertibles that I have owned so I cannot be too much help there.

Sounds like a really nice car.

Good luck,

from your description, it sound like it is not latching properly. You can open the cover and manually test the latches. They may be out of adjustment.

Also you have a fairly rare color. The dark grey, technically called GUNMETAL GRAY METALLIC (CODE85) was listed as having slate (grey) or blue interior, there may have been a few made with red.

We do not have the mix of interior/exterior colors but the majority have the grey interior. We do know that only 37 Gunmetal Gray convertibles were made in 1990

Posting photo's: On the quick reply menu there are icons on the top, right about where the print is that you are typing. The third icon from the right is the one you click on and it will prompt you to insert image. That's it, east peasy

I find everything is still so tight on my 7K mile convertible, that it is sometimes easier to snap the pins in prior to latching down the front latches. You can try it the normal way again just really give a good shove down to at the latch pin. so give it a go.

I always latch the rear pins first then the front clamps at the top of the windshield. It is also very easy to adjust the pins if you pull back the headlining material at the pins (held with velcro) you will see that it is a simple matter of loosening the nut and then adjusting the pin, and then securing the nut. There is a top manual currently available from hydro-lectric that actually gives the proper measurements for all top adjustments and there is a plastic tool available on Ebay to measure properly for around $10. I adjusted mine prior to getting the manual and tool and it worked out fine but it was nice to have the right specifications too.

I also always push the rear bow pins in first, then latch the front.

IMHO the 1990 instruction manual (both revisions) is wrong. I think they must have originally written the manual assuming power pull-downs. But when the power pull-downs got deferred to '91, the manual was incorrectly revised. Twice.

Thanks for all the replies with some good advise. I think our driveway is part of the problem as just after backing out of the garage the body makes a hard turn twisting as it goes up a steep driveway.

You are correct. After looking at the maintenance manual again I see that the pin shown in the book does not look like the pin on my Reatta. Also the manual does not have any info on the brake system. I just learned that ny GM manual is for "new products" so I guess if the brakes are not different from older Buicks then I need to look else were?

Head over to http://reatta.net/docs.html and sign up for (free) access to the factory service manuals.

Yes Lee, the FSM you have is the New Product version. It only contains what changed in Reattas from 1989 to 1990. There is a complete version of the FSM available for 1990 which contains most of the information you need. It looks very similar to what you have but doesn't have the red writing on the cover saying New Product Information. The FSM is available online for free as Walter (wws944) has suggested as well. I like having a hard copy. The top manual is separate from the FSM and gives a ton of information only relating to the top and top mechanism. It too may be available online but I don't know where.

Greg

Talking about adjusting the pins, I wanted a tighter fit on the back of my white one and easily adjusted the pins that it pulled it tighter and made a better seal.

Agree, pins first then front latches, reverse to put down, this relaxes the tension on the pins and makes the lever easier to pull/less tension on the cable.

Reatta.net also has the top manual. There is a description of adjusting the 4th bow if the pins pop out.