1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
After the vehicle has been sitting for a while, perhaps an hour, look under the front of the car. Look for a drop of oil at the drain dimple on the bottom of the bell housing. If there is a drop there, now you need to know if it is the engine seal or trany seal. Reach and get that oil onto your finger tip. Engine oil should appear amber, and smell line engine oil. It also should smell like gasoline from components in the blow-by gases. Gear oil smells different, and is often dyed red.
The Haynes manual is totally bogus. The engine does not need to be lowered, and the O2 sensor does not need to be removed, and the downpipe does not need to be removed. The down pipe is disconnected at the turbo, 3 nuts and studs. The cable clamp for the O2 sensor is removed to get some slack, and the exhaust is lowered slightly. The LH suspension needs to be dismantled to allow the LH drive shaft to be removed from the trany, drain trany first. Then the starter motor and bel housing bolts are removed. I suspect that the trany is rotated somewhat then pulled. The LH fender lining and some other stuff needs to be pulled. Haynes also stated that the turbo hoses needed to be pulled, and the engine oil drained. If someone followed Haynes instructions for this work, it would be horror show. Hanyes wanted the complete sub frame removed!
After the trany is out, the clutch and fly wheel are unbolted. The engine seal is punched or drilled, and sheet metal screws are put into the holes, and those are used to pull the old seal. The new seal probably cannot be easily fitted without a purpose built tool. The seal costs $16. So far you are in for some major labor expense.
So those are the major points as far as I know. I did not do this work myself, so you can count on some serious omissions in my description.
When the trany is pulled, one end of the clutch cable is free. The other end is tricky, as about 10 fasteners need to be removed to get at it under the dash. The cable cost $45.
The old clutch throw out bearing is in great shape. It turns freely and does not appear to be dry or stiff. The bearing to finger spring contact points while appearing burnished, did not indicate any wear. Folks who rest their foot on the clutch or holt it down at stop lights might not be so fortunate.
I was told that the new oil seal has new materials in it, and that hardening and stiffening of the seal is a known problem. The replacement seal has a new partnumber to avoid using new-old stock with the old material spec. That is great news.
My labor was not itemized, and included drain/fill and resealing the trany as well. So I cannot quote that for you. So with the real seal, reseal trany, Saab synthetic gear oil, clutch kit, clutch cable, remove the four suspension arms, press out the old, press in the new, fit the lower frame brace, everything came to $1320 plus sales tax. Take off about $240 for the Abbott intall labor and the job would have cost less. The Abbott parts costs are not part of that total.
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