Bongo Fury

James6666 wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 9:17 pm Right so I feel as though I must be missing something here I lifted up the back of the roof after undoing the correct 14 nuts (in the picture above I'm looking at the wrong ones) and it felt as though only the back was lifting and the front of the roof was jammed shut. I eventually got it up enough to just get my hand in but couldn't work out how to get the plastic covers off the motors, do they just pull off? At this point it was raining and getting dark so I packed it up for the night and tried to bring the roof back down... At which point the rear two 12mm bolts didn't line up with their holes and as a result I can't get the roof down... It's like the whole roof could do with a knock 1mm backwards. Does anyone know where I'm going so horribly wrong as this is causing a bit more grief than I hoped.

I use Adrian at Japandirect in Bury for all my Bongo work and he's used to fixing roofs (like mine!) that don't raise. If you have no luck i'm sure he wouldn't mind you calling him on 0161 763 3003 for advice. Tell him Mike O'Neill suggested you call. He's a great guy and a Bongo expert of many years standing. Good luck and keep us posted.

At risk of being told off for bodging it I post all the photos I took.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xXLt2rCVncVJ0FNs2

Yeah will give a call and report back tomorrow if nothing else comes, thanks for the help Mike.

Okay so to keep this updated and provide a bit of information to everyone reading.
I called up BongoMad, absolutely lovely chap, has proven himself with his knowledge, Anyway further to what the help sheet said in the member only area he said I needed to remove 4 additional 12mm bolts which hold the struts in, thus the roof isn't connected by anything to the bongo, then with the help of two additional people I can lift the roof once up the hinges at the back need to be reconnected so the roof has something holding it to the bongo and then with the roof chocked the motors can be removed and serviced.

Anyway past that theory and to my practical work, I removed the 4 12mm nuts and had a go at lift the roof, still stuck at the front... I believe what is happening is the threads of the bolts are getting stuck in the holes for them in the bongo roof and holding the struts in as if there was still a bolt in place so I need to work out how to lift them out without cracking the roof next...

Finished off the roof so thought I'd finish off the thread.

So the issue I had was actually that I hadn't removed all the nuts which hold the rail in . Instead of the 10 (5 a side) listed in the helpsheet there were 12 (6 a side) and the last two were hidden requiring a box/socket spanner to remove, similar to the hinges at the back, I don't know wether this is specific to my Bongo 1997 and that's why it differs to the help sheet, but it's worth noting to anyone else who does the job there might be more than 10 10mm nuts for the rails, and if it doesn't come up easy there is something wrong. Another thing to mention is while bongomad said to do it, I think because he thought I had removed all the nuts holding the rail in and still couldn't get it up, you don't need to remove the gas strut nuts. I did have tremendous hassle getting these back in as well as the hinges at the back, back in. Try to at all cost avoid taking these out of their holes. Anyway regards to motor servicing they actually looked in pretty good condition with only some rust on them, tried to open them up but the screws were completely seized, connected the one that wasn't working up to a 12v transformer 10amp and blasted it with some power got some sparks from the connection between transformer and motor... held it on for about 15 seconds then flipped the polarity, suddenly it burst into life. I put some silicone around the join between motor and gearing, and they have been fine ever since. Onto the next job now

I have this problem. I have read this thread and may others which mention that they had referred to the help sheet/ factsheet to lift the roof after undoing 10, 12 or 14 nuts. Does such a publication exist as I have spent a long time searching for it but not found anything of the sort? If it does exist would someone kindly point me to It please? It would be much appreciated,
Thanks

It is a member's only document...time to pay your subs to the site owner to gain access

Thank you for your reply, unfortunately, it has not helped.
I have renewed my subs this year and have been a member continuously for over 12 years. I have searched through the members area and still have not been able to find this elusive document. That is why I asked if someone could clearly tell me of it's exact location.

Where are you based Colyn? When my roof went AWOL I got my excellent Bongo specialist (Adrian @ Japandirect in Bury) to sort it. Maybe you gave a similar specialist near you?

The Factsheet is here https://igmaynard.co.uk/download/aft.pdf make sure your signed in with the latest password before taking the link to the members area.

Thank you Geoff, that is just what I needed. I can see that the reason I could not find it is in the title 'Auto Free Top'. I was looking for a title which included the word 'roof'.
Having now read the factsheet I find it is not specific enough which bolts need to be freed. Having already lifted the rear of the roof by trial and error by also using info from posts in this forum, I was expecting the nuts to all be in a straight line only to find having struggled to lift the roof by about 20 mm that I still had two nuts to undo. These are the second rear hinge nut and bolt about 100-130 mm in front of the ones with the long bolt and not following the line of the other nuts which hold the rails, but over slightly towards the centre of the roof on each side. Having undone these it was easier to lift the roof up to about 60mm where I can get my hand in .