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C900 Bulletin Board
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Anyone know of a cure for Achilles Heel? (long)
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Posted by McMike (more from McMike) on Sun, 15 Apr 2001 00:44:10 Share Post by Email
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After having the seals replaced on my oil pump, driving home from the mechanic, my coolant, fuel, and tach gauges died, the battery light came on and a horrible sound came from my engine bay. Ends up that when the mechanic fixed the oil leak (the pump seals replacement) he had to move my alternator out of the way and all the wires that were in the wiring loom that attaches to the alternator apparently shorted together. The horrible sound was due to the starter staying on even when the engine was running and the smoke around the car and my hazard lights on should have given a clue to those stuck behind me in the fast lane of the 101 freeway that I was disabled. Yet they honk anyway...

I've noticed in the past that many of my wires (the ones coming off the top of the APC solenoid are bare as is one of the ones coming off my coolant temp A/C cutout switch) are exposed (the insulation around the wires have cracked and fallen off, leaving EXPOSED wires). I'm told by my mechanic that in '85, '86, and '87 Saab used some sort of glue on the wiring looms (I'm assuming to keep the outer insulation of the loom around the wires) which actually eats through the insulation, causing the wires to short together. Brilliant, eh?

So the mechanic's going to cut both ends of all the wires and solder in new wires. He has to do this for the whole section of this loom. This particular loom in question is one that runs from the big connectors next to the fuse box down to the alternator.

I have been told previously by the same mechanic that Saab only used this particular wiring loom in '85 (in '86 and later Saab got smart, routing the harness through the engine in a much more logical manner, and using a newly designed loom) and to get a replacement costs a fortune (like $500 or something). One would have to find another '85 900 at a scrapyard and do the labor-intensive job of removing the loom. On top of that, all the wires come off that one loom as it snakes through the engine bay, so it's not like I can replace just certain cables that go bad. I'd have to replace the whole thing if I wanted to replace any of it. He told me that it would take so much labor time (he guesses around 10 hours) plus the initial cost of the loom (plus its removal which would probably take as long as the installation on my car). At his labor rate ($70/hr), that would come out to about $1,900 which is really too much for this car (it's a stock car with no mods and probably only worth about $3000 total...).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to improve (or avoid) any potential wiring problems in the future, or do you just wait for them to degrade to the point that you replace them by splicing in wires (by soldering)?

Thanks in advance.

-- Mike Mc Gill
'85 900 Turbo 3dr
Rose Quartz Metallic/Bokhara Red
141,000 miles
Woodland Hills, CA
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