Convertible Top Not Working

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mopardude62

mopardude62

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I have a 1967 Barracuda Convertible. It has a power top and the switch will not actuate the motor. I have done no testing to see if I have power to the switch or motor because I'm thinking this thing has to be fused somewhere.

I did stick my head up under the dash just long enough to find out there is a rather large wire that runs from the back of the ALT gauge to the switch without ever going through the fuse box. Wow!

I have a factory service manual for this car but it does not show any of the wiring detail for the convertible top. It's easy to troubleshoot but I wanted to go for a drive today with the top down. Anyone have a "quick fix"?
 
mopardude62 said:
I have a 1967 Barracuda Convertible. It has a power top and the switch will not actuate the motor. I have done no testing to see if I have power to the switch or motor because I'm thinking this thing has to be fused somewhere.
Click to expand...

You need to see if you have power to the switch first. It's not fused anywhere along the PT circuit other than the circuit breaker (behind the driver's kick panel)

mopardude said:
I did stick my head up under the dash just long enough to find out there is a rather large wire that runs from the back of the ALT gauge to the switch without ever going through the fuse box. Wow!
Click to expand...

That's the way it's wired!

mopardude said:
I have a factory service manual for this car but it does not show any of the wiring detail for the convertible top. It's easy to troubleshoot but I wanted to go for a drive today with the top down. Anyone have a "quick fix"?
Click to expand...

The FSM should have a section in Chaper 8 (Electrical) on the wiring. My 65, 69 and 71 FSM all show it. If you have power to the switch, keep checking on down the line. Might be the pump itself.
 
I did not know there was a circuit breaker behind the driver's kick panel. I do have power to the switch. I'll pull the kick panel and check that next. Thanks!
 
Once you get to the circuit breaker, it's pretty much a straight shot wiring-wise to the pump motor (other than the connector behind the kick panel and at the pump). There is also a ground wire from the pump to the pump bracket.
 
Found it. I guess they mounted the circuit breaker right on the side of the switch in 1967. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of my switch and circuit breaker. The big red wire was unplugged.
 

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FYI the wiring goes something like this - HD wire from the ammeter to the switch, to the circuit breaker to the pump. Also from the switch there are 2 more wires controlling up & down - these go back to the pump.
 
mopardude62 said:
Found it. I guess they mounted the circuit breaker right on the side of the switch in 1967. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of my switch and circuit breaker. The big red wire was unplugged.
Click to expand...

Looks like your problem solved!

My circuit breaker for my Dart is behind the kick panel as was the one for the 65 Valiant I parted out.
 
The circuit breaker in My 67 Dart is located on the top’s dash switch.

These top switches are not the most robust, and its breaker is rated at 30 amps. You may want to rewire this circuit using two relays triggered by the dash up and down switch. One relay would be for up, the other for down. By using relays to do the heavy lifting, the amperage passing through the dash switch would be reduced to about one amp or so prolonging its life.

I made this modification on my car several years ago.
 
That's a great idea. I will look into adding the relays to this circuit. I already had a top switch go bad and tried like heck to find another one. Oh sure, the convertible top places have them, but I'm not paying top dollar for a switch. PM me a copy of the relay circuit (if you have one) and would it be possible to use only one relay for this? Or do I need one for up and a separate one for down?
 
Yup I have heard factory switches are a scarce commodity particularly for a 67.

Here is how I wired up a pair of relays to relive high current load from factory top switch.

TopMotorRelay.jpg


You should probably use a 30 amp circuit breaker between new 12 volt feed and relays because this all can be housed out of the way behind the dash. The circuit breaker will break the circuit, and after a very short time automatically re-set once it has cooled. The existing breaker on the old top switch should be change for a lower rated breaker; say 3 amps

If you use a 30 amp fuse for over current protection, you will need easily access its fuse holder. I think when replacing the factory glass fuse block with modern fuses I provided fusing for the top motor in the new block.

The grounding conductors from each trigger circuit (#85) can be ganged together, run over behind kick panel, and attached securely body sheet metal with a new screw and eye.
 
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