There is a spring and cable system inside the arms, it could be broken
or weak by now.  You should be able to see the cable on the outside edge
of the elbow, if not it may have broken and been wound up inside.  Both
sides should have this, but mine is minimally useful, nothing like you
describe yours used to be, or maybe it is just YOU that used to be a lot
stronger!

I keep thinking about installing a couple (or four) gas pressurized
hatch struts like the Eurovan conversion has, but I haven't gotten
around to it.  Imagine, pop the latch and it almost goes up by itself!
Maybe you'd like to fiddle with this, it wouldn't be too hard to do and
you could make millions selling a conversion kit to all us aging baby
boomers!

"W. Silva" wrote:
>
> I seem to remember reading something about counter weights on a pop top.
> Ours has gotten progressively harder to raise over the past year or so, it
> seems we have to support all the weight where we used to just start it up
> and it would pop up the rest of the way by itself.
>
> Is there a "fix" for this problem?  I have tried the archives but must not
> be putting the right words together.  Any help is appreciated.
>
> John & Wendy
> Cape Cod, MA
>
> '85 Westfalia "S-Cape"
> '98 Passat "The Doo Dah Machine"
>
> CAMPERS ON CAPE COD
> A LiMBO sponsored event
> SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 1, 2000

--
Stuart MacMillan
Seattle

'84 Vanagon Westfalia
'65 MGB (Driven since 1969)
'74 MGB GT (Restoring)

Assisting on Restoration:
'72 MGB GT (Daughter's)
'64 MGB (Son's)

Parts cars:
'68 & '73 MGB, '67 MGB GT