I'm fed up with the auto top on my 97 328i and want to change to a semi-auto. Does anyone know if it possible to remove all the motors and drive mechanisms and simply bolt in the manual lever mechanism? Does the controller need to be changed out too?

it might be possible, but i doubt theres anything simple about it. if youre really savvy with this kind of stuff, you might be able to look at wiring diagrams, parts diagrams, & part numbers and figure it out. as far as i know, no one has done it before. its just easier to sell the car and get a different one.

Why are you fed up as most problems are related to anything but the part that makes it fully-auto.

The motor transmission is fouled up so it will only pull back a few inches, not enough for the main top motor to take over. The receptacle for the manual hex tool is all stripped out, so I can't even manually clamp down the top. I'm sure a new motor will fix it, but I never have this problem with my 94 325iC (which has semi-auto). If something goes wrong, I can operate it manually.