gjung1

I have a 97 986. After a big rain, the car smelled moldy. The passenger carpet was completely soaked. It was fall and my first suspicion was fallen leaves had clogged a drain. After a cursory check of the drain tray, which looked fine, I started inspecting the drain lines front and back. It turned out that the culprit was the drain tray. It seals the cabin from water. I discovered it when driving right after a rain. I heard water sloshing behind the rear bulkhead. It seeps into the cabin slowly over the course of a day or two, so it isn’t an instant event in case you want to test it. A month or so earlier, the plastic cups on the pushrods popped off the top ball socket and likely pierced the foam tray. I can't say this for certain but after inspecting the positions of the front drains, I don't believe they will spill into the cabin if clogged. The rear drains, if clogged, will back up onto the foam tray. You should have sitting water there after rain. If it isn't, your problem has to be the foam drain which is no longer sealed. The fact that your car was recently painted suggests they may have been removed and replaced. On my car the foam doesn’t come out. If yours lifts out that might be sign. To repair mine, I filled the perforations with RTV and used a plastic tape to seal it. Be sure to check both sides. Good luck. By the way, the alarm sensor module under the driver seat can be irreparably damaged if soaked. A word of caution should you inspect the drains, I accidentally punched out the tubing on the front driver side drain while using a screw driver to see if it was clogged. It was a nightmare to put back together. The plastic tubing fits into a grommet and if you use too much force it comes apart. There is no way to get into that space from above. I had to disconnect the steering rack from below.

For reference, I had this problem and here is how I managed to fix the drain tube grommet being pushed through. 1. Spray the grommet seating area (next to battery tray) with lubricant. I used WD-40. 2. Raise front right of car and place on jack stand. It's always a good idea to make sure the car is stable on the stand. 3. Remove front right tire. 4. The distal (far) end of the drain outlet is behind the front wheel, around 1 o'clock. 5. If it is still there, mine was, use a flexible wire like a clothes hangar and insert it into the grommet/drain tube. 6. In inserting it through, you can control it and look for the other end through the hole in the body where it seats. A friend is useful here. 7. I used a medical hemostat to capture the other end and work it back through. This took a little manipulation but ultimately you can work around the circumference and feed the grommet completely through the body and reseat it into position. The was not too difficult to do and took less than an hour start to finish. Raising and lowering the car takes a good chunk of the time. This is worth doing. In my case, the tube which I accidently pushed through to make sure it wasn't backed up was out of place for about a year. Water drains down and collects in the middle skid plate causing a build-up of gunk and corroding any metal components in the path of the water (I live in wet Cleveland, may not be a problem for desert dwellers). The other takeway is that when checking for suspected clogged drains, do not force anything down the grommet from the battery side. The tube takes a sharp right turn and anything forced down into the drain tube is likely to pop it out. You can test it by pouring a cup of water into it to see if it flows through. If you think its partially clogged its safer to clear it from the wheel well using a wire clothes hanger or similar.

I have this exact problem. Care to share how it was fixed? Thx.

This is wonderful information. However, I must be the outlier in terms of understanding. I too have a top stuck in the closed postion (top up). As mentioned, this really hampers any attempt at gaining access to the top mechanism for repairs or visibility of the mechanism itself. You can't see anything to diagnose the problem. I must be heavily reliant on vision as groping the components in the dark has proven to be a useless exercise for me. I can't even tell what I am groping much less discern what components I am feeling and what to do with them. I am hoping to tap into someone who has direct experience in doing this and can provide insight into this process. I have managed to release the vinyl curtain and peel it back to expose the inner workings of the top mechanism. I found and released the rearmost balljoint that attaches the softtop. I believe the only ball joint needing to be released is the one attaching the clamshell. I understand this to be black, on the outboard side of the clamshell and positioned approximately six to eight inches from the edge of the quarter panel where it meets the rearmost section of the door. Is this correct? If so my second question is this: Am I trying to separate the balljoint from the linkage or from the clamshell? I can't feel or see the physical connections to accurately determine what is connected to what. Lastly, do I apply force laterally outward to separate the joint connection? None of the postings searched provide the minutiae that I evidently need to make this repair. I have a 1997, 2.5l, us spec 986 with manual 5sp. I thank you in advance for your help. Gene