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Finally! A roadworthy popper
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Posted by pauldridge [Email] (more from pauldridge) on Fri, 29 Jan 2016 17:30:40 Share Post by Email
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my 96 3 cylinder has fought with me ever since my acquisition back in May 2015. I tried everything to get this thing to run reliably, but until just about a month ago, most of my drives wound up being a big adventure.. sitting on the side of the road waiting for it to decide to run again, or waiting for the tow truck.

at the end of the day, it turned out to be not one, but a multitude of issues all conspiring against me.

I replaced both mufflers, went through 2 fuel pumps, repositioned the pump (electric) from engine compartment to back near the tank; blew out the fuel lines; drained the tank and cleaned it; replaced float needle in a flooding carburetor (no solution.. finally replaced that carb with a spare I bought and rebuilt); tried all manner of different ignition timing settings; checked the points; changed the condenser and coil; went through any number of brand new spark plugs, and it still kept fighting me.

When replacing the coil (with an identical Bosch unit), I discovered some previous owner had used an internally ballasted coil, but had connected it through the original external ceramic resistor (likely reducing overall voltage to 4-5 volts), and to make matters worse, they had gotten the polarity reversed on the coil (which I've read can require 45% more voltage) That explained why I got such anemic spark to the plugs.

Still with all those fixes, the car would run great for a bit, then power would just taper off, as though it were running out of fuel.. let off on the throttle for a bit, and power would come back.

On a whim, I pulled out one of those cigarette-diameter sized inlet filters at a carburetor, and when I held it up to the light, I couldn't see through it at all! I pulled all three filters out, ran them through my hydrasonic cleaner for about 2 hours, blew them out, reinstalled the filters, and, voila... my little Saab is running and performing like a champ! It starts easily, idles smoothly, has strong power through all the gears, and will cruise at 70 all day long (well, at least the 15-20 mile routes I normally frequent).

I am just amazed at how much spunk 47 horsepower can provide. Honestly, this car seems to have just as much acceleration as my MGA roadster, with some supposedly 76 HP.

It seems to be getting about 18-19 mpg, not quite up to MGA specs, but I'll take it!

Phil

I am a happy camper!


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