1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Most likely your shock bushings have worn out. You can replace them but to do the uppers, you have to remove the shocks, so you might as well replace them. Get a socket that fits the top of the shock piston rod before you replace to make job tolerable.
The next culprits are the ball joints. Jack up the car, with spacers between the upper control arms and the body (I use old spark plugs). the first time you do this is tricky, so you might want to jack up the car and remove the wheels first, to get a look at where the spacers go. Then put another jack under the lower control arm and compress the suspension enough to get the spacers in. Then lower the jack under the control arm to relieve the pressure on the ball joints. then squeeze each balljoint with a big channel lock pliers to check for any play. You can also pry them with a big screwdriver back and forth. If they show any play replace with real Saab cast joints. Check your tie rod ends with the same big pliers.
If you don't know how old the balljoints and the tie rod ends are, I'd do shocks , tie rod ends and balljoints and get the whole thing done on a Saturday. sobstory has all the stuff at reasonable prices. Front shocks are under $50x2 and the ball joints(4) and tie rod ends are under $30 each. Total for parts, less than $280 and your car will ride much better.
The last thing it might be are bad control arm bushings. Look for shiny spots on the bushings. Lowers aren't too bad to replace, but the driver side uppers are a bear. Frozen bolts are a problem and you'll need to press out the old and press in the new with a bench press or a cobbled together giant c-clamp press. There are some old posts in the archives on how to do the uppers with the engine still in the car...it's ugly but the bushings are about $5 each and you need 8.
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