1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I'm somewhat reluctant to try to add something to what GregD said as he seems to know more about these than I do, but here goes.
I recently bought a '83 turbo 5 speed and drove it 200 miles to get home. Transmission seemed fine to me and to a friend who was a long time 900 owner. Only problem was a "clash" going into second on the first shift of the day on a cold morning. I pulled the engine and trans to fix several oil leaks and decided to tear down the trans as long as it was out. I planned on seals, second gear synchro and of course pinion bearings just for insurance as long as the car was apart.
What I found was second gear synchro was shot. Pinion bearings were about to go even though there was no noise. The other synchro rings were somewhat worn. First - Second shift fork had a pretty good grove in it. I could have stopped there but also replaced three gears with erosion on teeth (got 2 of them used) and had all of the gears hardened.
My conclusion and advice: Get a Saab manual on the five speed and pull it apart before putting it in a car. Plan on synchro rings, seals and gaskets, a first/second shift fork and pinion bearings. Even if you find worn gears, you can put it back together with worn parts and those parts won't be any worse than if you just changed the trans. If you do the work yourself, you are probably into this for $350 in parts above. The only special tools I found I needed were snap ring pliars and a brass drift. A good local shop set up the pinion in my case for me. Pinion bearings are the weak spot on these transmissions and they can be pretty bad and still sound good.
That's MHO.
Gregg
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