Thanks Gilly and guys, you guys are as classy as ever. I spoke with my indie this morning and he got it figured out. The wiring harness to the soft top control module was fubared. I didnt get into specifics with him, but he said the STCM was not getting any power and it was a pretty easy fix. I should have my car back tommorrow or Friday.

I will post results!

Well, there's "got" to be more to the story than that. The soft top control module controls the windows, and they worked, and how would the soft top get the top closed that far, without any power? Hope it all works out OK for you, but this makes no sense to me. Anyone else?
Gilly

It's odd for certain, but he had full confidence and he has been working on my SL and my Audi successfully for a couple of years. He has solved some weird electrical problems that the dealer had no clue about, he has saved me from purchasing an ECM for my SL and saved me from a new transmission on my Audi, both items the dealer wanted to replace.

Initially he bypassed a relay to get the top to fully close. After that, with the top closed the windows would go up and down with the window buttons, I do not know if the express feature worked or not.

This was only a quick conversation on the way to work, so there may be more to it. The main things I got was the wiring harness and that the STCM was fine.

Yeah, I didn't want it to sound like the guy doesn't know what he's doing or anything. Would be interesting to find out the full story, I'm sure you realize "no power to the control unit" can't be right. The main thing is it's fixed and didn't cost an arm and a leg.
In case any other 129 owners are reading this (I hope assume there are), I am really considering buying an early 129 next year (hopefully). 300 though, the six cyl will keep me off the side of the road with blinkin' blue lights behind me, I've always liked the early 300SLs.
Gilly

GREAT, welcome aboard Gilly :)

The 300 will keep you on the side of the road with mechanical problems ;):D .

You're right in that the limit switches were dropped on later models - There were three revisions of the Soft Top ECU and sensors - the latest for post '96 cars. The resyncing works for the Hall Effect sensors in the motors.

After having owned a corvette it has left me wanting just a bit more out of my 500. I don't think I could live with a 300. The R129 is a very heavy car and the V8 is just enough for the car to feel peppy. You should at least drive both and make a decision then.

Either way welcome to the SL family!! I'll post how my repairs go, hopefully my indie pegged it, but until it runs right I wont put all my eggs in one basket.

Ah ha, I've wondered why I've never had to re-sync mine :)

Cheers stats, now I know.

Lea

Oh, I've driven both of them alright, you can trust me on that! I'd LOVE to have the M119 for sure, just thinking fuel mileage, cost to buy, insurance, etc etc. My wife and I will just be using it for easy touring, maybe commuting, summer fun and vacations, that sort of stuff. This will be replacing our Sprite after all, will be a quantum leap in, well, everything. Will miss that little Sprite tho, that's for sure.
Gilly, Spriteless in the Spring.

Oh wait, the 129 is heavy? No, no, that's "SL" for "Super Light", remember that always, LIGHT!
Gilly

how about this one
 

http://www.autopicsjax.com/buy.php?make=50&modelid=265&lyear=1983&hyear=2007&lprice=0&hprice=01996 SL 500 Panzerwaggen $15,995.00
SL Sport light?
Attachment 38147

SL is Sport Light as a direct translation.

DID YOU GET YOUR TOP TO WORK? I HAVE A GOOD USED CONTROL MODULE. IF YOUR GUY IS DISCONNECTING THE MODULE. HAVE HIME WRITE THE PART NUMBER DOWN. AND LET ME KNOW WHAT IT IS. THEY DID CHANGE THESE MODULES OVER THE YEARS. SO THE PART NUMBER IS VERY IMPORTANT. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED I PREFER A DIRECT E MAIL TO ssLAWRENCE62@frontiernet.net THANKS STEVE

Thanks again guys. Just picked up the SL and the top works perfectly now. My indie replaced the entire wiring harness and I'm good to go.

One last quick question, Ive had this problem for probably a year and was just too lazy to fix it or ask. The left front latch seems to be off, when the top closes the top right latch is fine, but it seems that it "misses" the left one and I have to back off the top a hair and with my hand sort of guide the left side until it catches. Really no big deal, an extra 3 seconds of time, but annoying a bit. Any ideas?

They are fully adjustable - though not something I'd get involved in unless you have a day for trial and error.