2005 Mini Cooper Convertible Top won't close

Tom · 2006-07-15T18:45:37+00:00

I have a 2005 Mini Cooper Convertible. Top was down. When the top wasraised, it stopped after pushing the roof frame forward to thewindshield frame. Then it stopped, and the red light started flashingrapidly. That was repeated again a day later.This morning, I went to the garage to see if the top could be latchedand sunroof closed manually. I found the screw and turned it accordingto the Mini Owners manual. I could not however, figure out how to removethe cover from the center of the cross-bar so the manual crank could beused. Three of us worked for almost two hours to decipher the poorlywritten instructions in the manual and correlate those to the actualproduct and could not figure it out.Has anybody out there got a suggestion for closing the top for the tripto the dealer as rain showers in middle America are always a possibility?TIA for any advice or assistance.