This issue has had a lot of great posts with very helpful info and I'm about ready to tackle replacing my spoiler drive unit with a used working unit that I found at a reasonable price but the missing info is how do you raise the rams (posts) manually to twist them free of the wing? Mine are in the down position. Any help will be highly appreciated.

 

You, my friend have some scary moments ahead of you.
The electo/hydro pump works to about 30bar max or nearly 450psi on those little cylinders to counter those big springs.
I just did mine, but if you read any of my recent posts, I had only one side down. You can pull the wing up, and I used towels, microfiber cloths, and hockey pucks to shim the wing up. once it was up, and I put the tool in and rotated the cylinder to unlock it, it SHOT back into the declid and fired the tool off to east jesus. Thankfully for me, not a scratch anywhere, just some damaged sheetrock where the tool hit the wall. The other side, extended... was cake.
I think you need some kind of strap wrench, or two giant clothespin type apparatus. I'd probably use two yardsticks, and 4 bolts/nuts. Pull the wing up, and shim it with pucks/towels at the outside edges. Lay the two yardsticks, predrlled with holes on each side of the lift cylinders. Put in some bolts and nuts and squeeze the two yardsticks together, tight enough that the cylinder doesn't drop, but it'll spin.
You may need something beefier than yardsticks, but you get the idea....
Undo both wing hold downs, remove wing, then loosen the yardstick bolts slowly and let the cylinders back down.
Good luck and let us know.

 

Did you try hooking them up to 12v power to raise them if the motor assembly is still attached? I used a craftsman 12v 10 amp charger to raise them. Just touch the leads to the motor positive and negative and it will raise or lower depending on which one you have it on. Don't leave it attached as you can see in another post, some parts can break if it is left fully extended or retracted with power applied. With the battery charger, when the amp gauge starts to max out and the motor slows and strains, that is when you are either fully extended or fully retracted. According to the factory service manual, it is fully extended or retracted when you see 10 amps if that helps.

 

Thanks to jjBravo and D_Nyholm for the help. Much appreciated. My system is in the down position and inoperative due to leak and lack of fluid and not due to lack of power. I think I will try to refill with fluid and see if the system will operate for at least long enough to raise the wing to enable me to twist the cylinders free and then to lower the cylinders as normal for removal to hopefully avoid jjBravo's experience. We'll see.

 

Did the replacement install this weekend and all turned out fine. First connected relacement drive (before installation) to harness to check if it worked and left it in the raised position using the manual switch in the car. With help from two friends, raised the wing by hand and while they held it up twisted the cylinders till they slammed down. Since we knew what to expect it was no problem. Disconnected the harness and removed the cover and old unit (time consuming but not complicated) and installed replacement unit in reverse order. With the cylinders up we twisted them till they locked; connected harness; installed cover,etc. and done. Took about three hours. Thanks for your help.

 

Scary how much force in the springs isn't it?
Congrats on the fix !

 

Good to hear people are getting results.

My wing works perfectly but I get wing failure light EVERYTIME. The wing goes up evenly.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe the wing up switch isn't being activated?

 

Check to make sure the upper limit microswitch is plugged into the ram. Otherwise, the microswitch may be bad, or the wing isn't extending up enough to even reach the microswitch. You can tell this if the motor doesn't 'click' off. It'll just get to its upper limit and grind to a halt and give you a spoiler error.

 

Where is the microswitch? which side? is it near the top or bottom of the actuator?

Schematic anyone

 

Right side here is a pic from the PET

 

The microswitch attaches to the passenger side ram. It is on the back side of the ram, just follow the wires and you will see it. They are maybe 1/2"-3/4" long and you should ahve 2 of them plugged into the back of the ram. One for the upper limit, and one for the lower limit. I've taken mine out numerous times and they haven't broken, but they do seem very delicate, so be careful!