gymowner

RT315... i answered you in another thread but here goes. in my experience with this situation if you go to push the top metal pins into the holes, they just pop back up and not hold in place for the motor to pull it down, there needs to be an adjustment to the whole mechanism/bracket in the boot well. the bracket needs to be moved slightly "up". you can do this by moving the top out of your way as much as possible to get yourself in place in the top well and loosen the 5 nuts holding the whole bracket in place. 2 on the left, 2 on the right and one in the middle. dont forget the one in the middle of the bracket. you will see that the bracket was more than likely in the middle of the adjustment position. go to one side and push the whole bracket up about 1/2" more than its original position. quickly tighten two nuts on that side before it slides back down. go to the other side and push the bracket up again about 1/2" or so then tighten those nuts. the bracket should not be able to adjust any higher than this. now tighten the middle nut. put the tonneau cover back in place and now try the convertible top again by placing the metal pics back into the holes. with the bracket being 1/2" higher or so the pins should now grab the mechanism claws and "click into place". if they hold in place, go into the car and try lowering the top with the top switch. then secure and the windshield. this should solve your problem. hope this helps.

in my experience with this situation if you go to push the top metal pins into the holes, they just pop back up and not hold in place for the motor to pull it down, there needs to be an adjustment to the whole mechanism/bracket in the boot well. the bracket needs to be moved slightly "up". you can do this by moving the top out of your way as much as possible to get yourself in place in the top well and loosen the 5 nuts holding the whole bracket in place. 2 on the left, 2 on the right and one in the middle. dont forget the one in the middle of the bracket. you will see that the bracket was more than likely in the middle of the adjustment position. push the whole bracket up about 1/2" more than its original position. quickly tighten two nuts on one side before it slides back down. go to the other side and push the bracket up again about 1/2" or so then tighten those nuts. the bracket should not be able to adjust any higher than this. now tighten the middle nut. put the tonneau cover back in place and now try the convertible top again by placing the metal pics back into the holes. with the bracket being 1/2" higher or so the pins should now grab the mechanism claws and "click into place". if they hold in place, go into the car and try lowering the top with the top switch. this should solve your problem. hope this helps.

it wont help. if the struts are strong, when you use the button in the glove box you will here a click and then go to the trunk. you should be able to grab under the light housing and pull up the trunk with some difficulty. the trunk is extremely heavy. should have used aluminum. if the struts are getting weak when you here the click and go to the trunk you wont be able to open the trunk without using the key.

RT315... in my experience with this situation if you go to push the top metal pins into the holes, they just pop back up and not hold in place for the motor to pull it down, there needs to be an adjustment to the whole mechanism/bracket in the boot well. the bracket needs to be moved slightly "up". you can do this by moving the top out of your way as much as possible to get yourself in place in the top well and loosen the 5 nuts holding the whole bracket in place. 2 on the left, 2 on the right and one in the middle. dont forget the one in the middle of the bracket. you will see that the bracket was more than likely in the middle of the adjustment position. push the whole bracket up about 1/2" more than its original position. quickly tighten two nuts on one side before it slides back down. go to the other side and push the bracket up again about 1/2" or so then tighten those nuts. the bracket should not be able to adjust any higher than this. now tighten the middle nut. put the tonneau cover back in place and now try the convertible top again by placing the metal pics back into the holes. with the bracket being 1/2" higher or so the pins should now grab the mechanism claws and "click into place". if they hold in place, go into the car and try lowering the top with the top switch. this should solve your problem. hope this helps.

Rick from Florida (16v_guru) here as a member, may be valuable at chiming in on this subject. He has known and been a part of these cars from the beginning and has multiple clients that he exclusively services their 16 valve TC's. All are supposedly with ultra low miles. I think he knows this market price pretty well. One thing i've had on my mind is how close the "big 3" car makers come to making legends then blow it at the last minute and cripple cars productions and success. Example as with the TC. Think about this. The 1989 base corvette came with a v8 that produced 245 ponies at about 3200-3300 pounds. The 1989 Mercedes was about 3600 pounds with a huge v8 that produced about 270 ponies in the states. The TC could have easily been rolled out as a 2.2 turbo, a 4 speed automatic instead of the 3 speed and with a few easy bin modification parts, produced 200 ponies at under 3200 pounds instead of the paltry 160 horsepower. The 16 valve could have been the " super halo" TC. According to Rick, it can easily produce 260-275 ponies with some mods and upwards with more mods into the 300 horsepower range having the 5 speed Getrag manual... all while still being a 4 cylinder! What an easy marketing job and down right success these cars could have been! Chrysler could have made the '87 LeBaron's looks an evolution of the '86 model and postponed the TC likeness till about '92 or so. Trickle down is always preferred over down up in the auto styling departments. Throw on a power convertible top, have a digital dash option like the Allante ('87 LeBaron) and now a "sporty maserati" made for chrysler could have matched the Cadillac Allante's horsepower as an automatic and matched the SL560's ponies with 500 or so less pounds as the 16v. The TC has a much more luxurious interior than either the Allante or the SL560. Ive had 2 Allante's and one "87 SL560. Their interiors where not what i would have expected. Chrysler could have even marketed the 16v as having more horsepower than a base '89 v8 corvette... all with a very fuel efficient lighter 4 cylinder! Sporty, luxurious, nimble, an Italian roadster with a much better stereo system than either the Allante or SL560 (ever hear the Becker in a SL?) at about 2/3 the price of the Allante and half the price of the SL 560. The MSRP could have even been in line with the Corvette convertible of $36,780 for the automatic and bumped the 16v into the $38-40,000 range (with correct marketing). These TC's would have sold like hotcakes! I bring this up since these are the sorts of issues that keep cars like the TC from legendary status. Now these wonderful cars dont support the prices on the market that they truly deserve.

I actually thought I wasnt found of the light yellow, beige color combo but I have to say it is really growing on me!. I have never seen such beautiful, perfect rims on a car let alone on from 1989. Good story. When I was chatting with the original owner he started telling me he almost didnt buy the car. The story goes he went to a personal friend that owned a chrysler/dodge dealership in chicago area. when the TC came out, he had to have one with the Maserati engine. So he ordered it and was explicit that no miles get driven on the car. Well he said the car came into Chicago Navy Pier by boat. I didnt know that could happen but they then DROVE the car the 20 miles or so to the dealership. He was furious! He wanted it flat bed towed to the dealership. With a lot of persuading by his friend, owner of the dealership he went through with the purchase... on one condition. That the dealer flat bed and pay for the car to be sent back to Danville illinois!

Thanks hemi. I will. So far in a month of ownership I have put on about 100 miles. The odometer works as it should. The only issue is I need to recharge the freon as the system hasnt been touched in many years. At this moment I'm not driving the car much due to excessive heat so it is parked nicely in the garage. I will certainly continue with keeping miles low.

ok... so to answer all your questions lol. i bought the car! i did some research prior to flying into chicago to purchase. from the pictures listed on the website there was a letter sent to maserati with a return letter sent back to the original owner. i said "what the hell"... googled him and he appeared! phone number and all. i made the call. an elderly gentleman answered and after a few questions it was the original owner. he remembered the car well after a bit of mind jogging. he owns/owned an aviation company in the danville area of illinois. he verified to me without me even asking that he sold the car in 1996 to a friend in his town with "less than 100 miles on it". he said he owned many many cars and parked it originally in one of the hangers and drove a few laps once a month to "keep it fresh". his only request was that the second owner "keep it nice and try to keep the miles low". there also is a signed receipt that i have to the 2nd owner back then from the original owner with the bill of sales at 96 miles. so my belief is that when registering the car the dmv made a mistake. i will try to rectify this with the dmv. i own another TC and looking up, down, inside and out i can confirm to the best of my abilities that the car had 3150 at purchase. leather is brand new. all lenses are crystal clear. car has the cd player and original key fob for locking and unlocking the car. probably one of the first out there. stereo sounds terrific. the car has the tool kit, the umbrella with a "made in italy" sticker on it, the original window sticker in plastic and a host of literature that i never have seen before. i spoke with rick out of florida who in my opinion is a guru on these TC's. i told him what i was paying for the car and he said "if you can get it for that, consider it stolen!". so no, i did not buy it for $20995... lo... much less. had the car shipped back to las vegas and now i have the very car i wanted 33 years ago, with the maserati 16v engine and probably one of the lowest mile TC's with the 16v in existence. i am selling my automatic 1989 TC. 88,500 miles. it was repainted in a medium/deep green (originally red) and looks striking with the black haartz cloth top and ginger interior. perfect italian color that should have been used from the factory. interior very nice but at some point the drivers seat should be reupholstered. looks ok but i am being fussy. everything works. air conditioning works fine but i am having the common vacuum issue that at acceleration, the air vents blow down for a few seconds till the vacuum stabilizes then blows back to the air vents. not an issue when using the heat ducts. windows work fine (back driver small window is a little slow but works), locks, power mirrors, antenna and seats work fine. cruise control works. the original radio on/off button sticks which causes the antenna to stay up so i disconnected the radio. i had the upper half of the engine rebuilt about 4 years ago and rear brakes rebuilt last year. also through rick i put on a daytona performance smec unit that was "plug and play" and a blow off valve from a porsche. about 40 extra ponies. all lift struts (trunk, engine, tonneau cover and stowage cover) were replaced. if anyone is interested or knows of someone who wants to give the car a new home please contact me, john, at 815 258-3422. the car is in las vegas. i will accept what the market feels the car is worth but please be respectful with your bids.

im gonna work on the vacuum actuator on my '89 TC. air is cold but as i stated above there is the vent door issue. a vacuum drop as stated in the manual can also make the car idle slightly rough as does mine when the ac compressor is on. if the car has the ac on and i put it in park it then idles fine. if i put the car in park when no ac is on after the engine is warm, then the idle wants to go up to about 1500 rpms. something for sure with vacuum pressure issue. im selling this car. re-painted a really cool italian medium/deep green and with a haartz black cloth soft top and ginger interior it looks fantastic. i also added the smec unit from daytona (plug and play)and a Porsche blow off valve with added about 40 ponies. only reason in selling my baby is i finally had the opportunity of purchasing #386 of the 501 manuals made. and with inly 3150 miles at purchase this month! it is as new. if there is an area to list on here for sale i will offer there. if anyone knows of a potential buyer please get in touch with me, john at 815 258-3422. the car is in las vegas. i hope i am not breaking any rules here for posting. if so i will take this down immediately.

mine does this constantly and only when i need extra acceleration or "boost" from the engine. after about 10 seconds it settles down and air blows again on the upper vents... until i need extra engine oomph then is cycles this issue over and over. rob221.... that picture looks like it is somewhere in the engine bay yet i cannot seem to find a check valve there like this. can you take a larger pic of this area so i can look in my engine bay for the valve?

Nile.. you are right on the money! Rick is a super cool guy that knows everything about the TC. Called him a few times to make sure I attached the bov in the right place. The smec was a plug and play sort of install. Super easy. The difference these two parts make is crazy good! The car now has a good amount of acceleration and pull it should have and is linear throughout. It easily has another 40 plus horsepower. Where the car should have been originally. Thanks to the knowledge of you guys on this forum and Nile, getting me to Rick. Thank you!!

spoke with rick this morning. very nice guy. i am buying the upgraded smec and upgraded blow off valve. he claims they are easy to install and will get over 200 horsepower from these installs. the blow off valve is necessary he believes since they work hand and hand. rick told me his dark red tc with the 16 valve 5 speed has these upgrades and a few more and gets easily over 270 horsepower. looks like a great deal guys. anyone interested in it should look on ebay. has about 44k miles so a great car. i will update you when i get them and do the install.

hi reaper...that is awesome! let me know if you are interested in building a "plug and play" digital dash for members like myself. for a decent price, i sure would buy one! nile....do you have information on how to get in touch with rick diogo? i am thinking this is more of the way to go now. man...when you need some "oomph" to get up to speed from the start, these little cars sure dont have anything to get up and go.

new guy here. have had my tc for about 4 years. 80k miles on it. repainted it a true italian green color with the ginger interior and brand new haartz cloth top in black. looks fantastic like a real italian maserati. question. my fantasy to move this wonderful little car along would be to swap out the anemic 2.2 with a '89 maserati bi-turbo v-6. what a car this would be. a real bonified maserati much nicer than a bi-turbo. does anyone know if this swap will work? has anyone ever tried it before? also. i have seen on you tube where guys swap out the analogue guages with a digital dash on other chryslers in that era. has anyone ever swapped out the analogue dash for a digital one from maybe an '87-'89 lebaron? swap out the hvac manual controls for the digital one from maybe a '90 new yorker? i would love to make this car a really unique beautiful italian lady!