Soft top cover latch positioning

Since I have owned my car I have found that the left side soft top cover requires much more pressure to close than the right hand side. Today I investigated.

From the pictures you can see that the latch on the right hand side is ~5mm higher than that on the left, however I don't know which position if either is correct.

My feeling is that the left side is too low and the right side is too high, so I would appreciate if someone could have a look at their car and compare how theirs is set up.

Left side.







Right side





Note the position of the screw in the slot on this side.

Hi,

I just checked it on my 350SL from 1973. The ledge on both sides is the same, i.e. the chrome is approx. 5mm deeper than the[strike] leather[/strike] latch.

I hope this helps. Best regards,
Recardo

Hi Jim,
Thanks for posting this. I noticed the same on my 300SL. The right side locks pretty smart, the left side needs some motivation.
I already tried to adjust, cleaned, greased etc. No change. I am keen so hear what others say...

Thanks for the advice, I raised the latch on the left side and lowered it on the right, now both are even and both close easily.

Racediagnostics wrote: Since I have owned my car I have found that the left side soft top cover requires much more pressure to close than the right hand side.

Hello Jim,

what exactly do you mean?

Do you mean the driver's side (left) where you need the higher "pressure / force" to close the lid than on the right side?

If you mean exactly that, then I would say that this is so normal, at least with the newer models (Mopf).
If I am not mistaken, there is a kind of "spring" on the left side, which you have to "overcome" with a higher pressure when closing.
There is no "spring" on the right side and therefore this side closes more easily.
I have read this somewhere, many years ago.

But I'm not sure, if you mean this case.