i wish my cali top's motor was broken but it is not! The motor spins for nothing, so to fix that problem you gotta take off the headliner which is too much work at the beginning. Still looking for a nice weather to get this done before the summer..

Could it be possible to bypass the motor and just slide the top open and closed manually, and just fashion a latch on the inside to keep it closed?

I've wondered the same thing about Cali tops.

I think thats an option I'm going to explore. I haven't been able to locate a motor (at least not for what I want to pay). The weather has been nice this past week , and I was able to slide my roof back with only minimal effort, it's just when I slide it back closed it doesn't want to pull as tight as it would if it were functioning normally. I'm thinking a latch similar to to the ones used on a Jeep hood would work best (sort of a tension latch). To give it a snug closing. I'll update my progress and in the mean time, does anyone know of a car that was made with a similar, manually opening top that I could study.

Hello, Older post, but do still have the name of the machine shop that made the gear(s) for you? Thanks! Rich :cool:

I'm in Utah and I just went to a local shop. I knew one of the machinist and they took my old plastic gear and made one out of aluminum for me. I'm sure they would have charged me more, but they said they just quickly "put it together" for me, they typically do military aircraft parts. The shop is called Aerospace Engineering and Support (www.aesut.com). Hope it helps.

It's a lead, thanks for taking the moment to respond! Do you still have connections there by chance? I did check out their site. Curious about a contact or entry point to inquire. Inside connection sometimes is way more effective. :cool:

I used to work for them long time ago, used to be their IT manager. The machine shop manager's name is Ryan. Talk to him and ask him about the gear for a bmw. I'm sure they'll do the part for you, you'll probably have to send them a sample of the part though. I forgot Ryan's last name, but if you call their main number and ask for Ryan the machine shop manager, they should know who you're talking about. He's a great guy, he'll see what he can do for you. Cheers.

From one IT manager to another, Thanks! :cool: