At 11:59 AM 8/25/2015, Jim Felder wrote:
>Don't do this with the assembly in the car. Take it out first with the top
>propped up. After you remove the crossbar, you have removed the axle that
>keeps the spring from separating the upper and lower halves by whatever the
>remaining distance of the spring is, three or four inches. You don't want
>to deal with getting that back together in the car. In fact, you don't want
>to deal with it at all by yourself, but in no case in the car.

Jim, with the brace unfolded there's no spring pressure.  I did the
complete job from diagnosis through making ends on the lathe and
installing them by myself in a couple of hours before I left to catch
a ferry 150 miles away that I'd paid for already.  That included
taking those pictures and figuring it all out on the fly.  I
supported each side of the roof separately while I worked on that
end.  Supporting the middle could well be better, I just didn't think
of it under the gun.

I certainly cut the tube before removing the discarded end
piece,   Rotating the stub piece while trying to remove it will give
bearing support in any needed direction to nudge the bearing edge
into alignment. <-- Jeff Palmer

Yours,
David