Hey All

Just put a new resevoir and pump motor in my 68. During the bleeding process, the motor pushed the top up but stopped and would not turn on to go down. I leet it sit for a few seconds and it started down, then during the 10-15 seconds you keep it going down, it stopped again. Would not go up, until you waited a few seconds. I am not an electrical kinda guy, but any thoughts or suggestions? It was a new motor in the OEM style. :beers:

I had this problem a number of years ago. Its been so long ago though, I can’t remember exactly what I did to fix the problem. A number of things come to mind that it might be though:
1) I’d make sure the system is fully bled & the fluid it up to the level it should be.
2) If you have a totally original system there should be a breaker on the firewall kind of behind the break’s master cylinder. This breaker might be tripping if its getting too hot & taking a few seconds to cool down & work again.
3) If you had an older motor behind the back seat, I’d think it might need a rebuild. The instructions on how to do so are in the “Body by Fisher” service manual. I did this once to a motor back in the 80’s & it work great for years & years afterwards.
4) You might have a short somewhere, but I doubt it.

i would say if your pump is spinning the entire time then your probably low on fluid.....

The top motor has an auto reset circuit breaker. It's located on the firewall, near the master cylinder. 1/2" by 1" by 1/2" silver thing with a mounting tab and 2 screws to hold it on, 2 good sized wires attach to 2 threaded studs.

What's happening is your breaker is blowing.
In 15-20 seconds, it resets itself and the pump will run again.

This could be caused by a lot of things, including a bad breaker. a bad pump/motor, the pump could be working too hard due to all the air in the lines, or the top frame itself could just be too hard too move.

I'd keep bleeding until you're certain all the air is out. Popping the breaker isn't hurting anything, at least not unless the pump is getting really hot.

If the breaker doesn't stop popping once it's bled out, I would check and lube all the pivots in the top, might even do that first if it's not all ready done.

The bleeding will go faster and easeier if you disconnect the top of the rams from the frame, but you'll need 3 people, one to guide each ram and another to hit the switch.

you do need some air in the lines to prevent hydraulic lock....thereby blowing seals.....

Thanks for all the info. I ran it today up and down and it did fine. I'll try it again a few times tomorrow to see what happens.