Thanks, David. Doubt it's a old-guy user error -- I put gas shocks on
the pop top last year and while the top no longer "weighs" as much, it
is quite unwilling to move.

I'll wait to see if Neil has anything to add re the symmetry about the
axis thing.

Neither your solution nor his are "everyman" fixes, requiring special
skills or tools. Neil said to check the Samba. I'll do so, though
finding the keyword to do the search might be tricky.

On Fri, 2011-06-03 at 19:21 -0400, David Beierl wrote:

> At 06:35 PM 6/3/2011, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
> >I can't tell if mine is undergoing the same failure. The poptop has
> >gotten harder to move.
> >
> >Here are shots of mine:
> ><https://picasaweb.google.com/j.michael.elliott/PoptopHinges?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXnpcK_gtDDuAE&feat=directlink>
>
> I'm sure it is; question is how far.  My photo is of an extreme case,
> as you can see by the photo of what's left of the
> crossbar.  Unfortunately it's a few hundred miles away so I can't run
> out and measure/photograph the joint after repair.  I do expect to be
> visiting it this summer.
>
> I don't *recall* that there was much difference in effort, but it was
> a while ago.  You might want to put some oil in the big hinge at the
> rear.  It might also be age error on user...I semi-vividly remember
> when 60# sandbags suddenly started feeling like 95# cement sacks.
>
> Neil N had his apart not long ago - I think he can advise whether the
> measurement should be symmetrical around the axis.
>
> But given the high loading and horrendous design of that joint, it
> seems unlikely to me that it wouldn't have significantly deteriorated
> by now given reasonable use.
>
> Yrs,
> d
>