1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
1986 900T: I just wanted to post my small success story to encourage others on the board and to give updates to those that have left advice to me over the past two weekends concerning my problems (chrisx, EdS, Aero 900).
Last weekend my wife was going to be out of town all weekend so like anyone else on this board I saw this as a golden opportunity to work on the Saab. On top of the long list of 'things to do' was changing the exhaust manifold gasket which needed to be done for quite a while. This actually went along fairly smoothly until it was time to remove the exhaust manifold. Bentley says to just slid the manifold off of the studs. Well, this must mean when the engine is out of the car because main was banging into the right engine mount. However, for those of you that want to do this, it wasn't that bad. Just remove the two right engine mount bolts that go into the cyl. head, loosen the big bolt, and jack the engine up a little. This give the bracket just a little bit of play, but its enough to remove the head.
This was also a great time to remove the oxygen sensor since I had that elbow off. I had tried to remove this damn thing last year when it was in the car. This was about the time that Monster wrote that very funny story of removing his. But I gave up at that point. For those of you that want to do this, remove the elbow from the car. I then took a 2 lb. mallet and bashed s**t out of the oxy. sensor so that I was just left with the main bolt thing. It was then easy to put a normal socket on it and wrench it off. Success.
With the new exhaust manifold gasket on, it was amazing the spool up difference for the turbo. Of course this makes since because now my exhaust is just not leaking out.
Feeling very proud of myself, I told my wife that we should go out to eat at this restaurant that's about 45 miles away. It would be a nice fun drive in my fast-spooling turbo. Well it was a nice fun drive going up, but coming back was a different story. As soon as I hit the highway, car starts bucking and then just dies. Its dark, I'm bloated with food, and we're about 40 miles from home. I get out and look at the car. I nice old gentleman pulls up and we start going over stuff. This was fortunate since I had of course left all of my tools nicely organized in my shed. I had spark coming from the coil, but I did not have spark going to the spark plugs. I looked at the Hall effect sensor connection plug on the side of the distributor and noticed a lot of corrosion. But still couldn't get it cleaned and fixed together enough in the dark to get the Saab started. About this time I hear my wife talking on the cell phone to a good friend of mine in San Fran, "...yeah, Wes was working on his car this past week and now it doesn't work..." This is exactly the confidence builder that I needed. Just the excuse that my wife needs to say "let's get a new dependable car."
So I had to leave the car there overnight and called a friend to come pick us up. About this time the kind gentleman that pulled over starts to ask me if I'm a Christian and have I been saved, etc. Then, he tells me about how he likes to pull over and help people out so that he can preach to them. Some kind of serial preacher. But he's was kind enough to help me so I was thankful and told him thanks but I had to get home.
To wrap this up, the next morning was car was actually still intact on the side of the road (after I had nightmares as to want vandals were doing). The Hall effect sensor connector just crumbled in my hand, but I was able to clean and connect it long enough to get home, and not have to spend about $150 towing fee. So if you are having bucking problems, car dies, etc. definitely check this connection out.
Now I've got to fix my dead A/C.
Wes
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