I think it's a really elegant piece of workmanship, that's why I saved the
link.  After a year under tension I'd say it doesn't need any improvement,
but you need to do something about the fact you have not raised the top in a
year!

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
neil n
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 2:10 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: spring/wire in pop top lift handle

The web page Stuart points is mine. I say this b/c for a point of reference,
AFAIK, the new cables I made (and had parts swaged on to) are still holding.
Shamefully, I have not used top in over a year.
With the top closed, the springs are under full tension.

At that time a cable failed, Phil Zimmerman (he's on this list), suggested
what likely had happened. I knew nothing of those parts until that point.

The cables are NLA. My cable design is possibly a "first", so one could
likely improve the design.

With the top up and properly supported, I removed the strut assembly as a
unit. Top up, the springs should be fully UN-expanded so tension on those
parts is gone. One can feel if the cables are under stress (they shouldn't
be).

Drawbacks to this method: top stays up until new parts installed, top is
heavy and if no supported properly, is a huge liability.

If replacing the entire set of struts, inspect the cable in each set of arms
where they wrap around the elbow. My guess is that they eventually fail at
this point.

Even with a fairly strong pair of assist struts installed, and no springs
working, I still found the top tough to support on the last
1/3 - closing.

Neil.