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First off, thank you very much to everyone who contributed suggestions before and during my recent alternator bushing replacement project. This is definitely one of the repairs that needs some additional advice than Bentley has to offer.
Secondly, if you are reading this message (likely archived on Saabnet) with the thought of replacing your own alternator bushings, let me say loudly and clearly, once and for all, DO NOT DO IT. It is my opinion that unless you are an experienced SAAB mechanic, this is a foolish, painful endeavor to undertake. If you do it anyway, you will learn many lessons. You will possibly save some money. But you will regret it. I am a poor college student, and believe me, I can't afford to pay somebody to repair alternator bushings. But I wish a million times over that I would have. It will take a pro a couple hours, if that. It took me the better part of 4 days, and those were terrible horrible no good very bad long days. Take a second job. Sell your old baseball cards. Sell crack. Sell yourself. Do whatever it takes, but pay a professional to do this repair.
-Short Version-
That said... my symptom was simple enough. The outside (closer to firewall) alt/wp belt on my '89 900S was looser than the inside one. It was flopping around if I looked at it while engine was running. Alternator vibrated more than it looked like it should. I purchased new polyurethane alternator bushings and alternator arm bushings with the intention of fixing said problem. I spent a week doing it, with my car out of commission, and riding 4 hours a day on the bus to/from work. Today I drove to work in my own car, with new bushings. However, my outside alt/wp belt is still looser than the other one. @#$!@% Spent close to $200 on parts, tools, etc, and have same problem I started with. Girlfriend has forbidden me ever to work on cars again.
-Not-so-short Version-
Friday June 29, armed with the mass of Saabnet knowledge on alternator bushing replacement. ChipJ, Charles Stoyer, Tom Townsend, and many postings on this board had given me a wealth of information that would allow me to do this repair. I went to Sears and bought tools. I went to the garage and opened the hood. The adventure began.
-Disconnect negative battery cable: cool, no problem
-Disconnect wires from alternator and remember where they go: slightly awkward, but again, no problem
-Some said to remove the heater hoses at this point. I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to get the alt out w/o removing these hoses. As it would turn out, I did have to take the hoses off..and it's the least of your troubles. Very little coolant spills... no worries... should have just done it at this point... "some" were right.
-Loosen alt arm adjusting nut, push alt toward engine, remove belts: adjusting bolt a pain in the ass. 2 zillion flips with little wrench is correct...but just requires patience. Belts kind of a pain to get off the pulley, but that's ok too with patience. So far so good.
-Try to loosen 6mm A/C hex bolts.... they are very tight. Try w/ 6mm bit and ratchet... nope...try with 6mm allen key...nope... try with 6mm bit, ratchet, and BFP (Big F**'n Pipe) for leverage... bit falls out of hole. I conclude I will strip the hole before the bolt comes undone... at later stages, I will try at least 10 more times to loosen these bolts and move the A/C, but I always reach the same conclusion...oh, almost forgot...also try to loosen A/C idler pulley adjusting bolts. One near the adjusting screw is fine...other one bolted to block will not come undone... also stripping the bolt trying to loosen it... conclude that there is no way I'm getting the A/C off... this significantly complicates matters.
-Attack 12mm bolt holding shared A/C and alt brackets. It is evil and hard to reach. Townsend says use 12mm swivel socket and long extension. That would work. However, a 12mm socket, a swivel, and a long extension will not. Not enough room for all that. You need a swiveling 12mm socket. Got that? It is possible with a regular 12mm 12-point box end. I did it. Another 2 zillion little turns. It will come loose, but not come out until later when we mess with the big long swivel bolt.
-Attack front (i.e. toward front of car) 6mm hex bolt holding alt bracket. 6mm bit, swivel, and long extension make this easy. Nice, friendly bolt.
-Attack 17mm evil swivel bolt from hell. First off, it's not 17mm on my car. It's closer to 16mm or 5/8, but it's not 17mm. This is where having your heater hoses disconnected might help with access. I didn't, but got box end wrench on firewall side, and ratchet on other side...tried to turn... nope..that thing is tight... put BFP onto ratchet and tried to turn... OUCH... bolt doesn't rotate, whole alternator instead swivels toward engine. All force on BFP transmitted to crushing my arm (holding the box end wrench) between the alt. and the block. Try this some more for a while...crush arm some more... decide I will take a break and start again in the morning.
Saturday, June 30. Go out, look at evil swivel bolt from hell. Rename it evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell after it crushes my arm some more. Get brilliant idea. Retighten alt. adjusting bolt. This will keep alt. from swiveling up and crushing arm. Idea works good. Alt. adjusting bolt is my friend! Evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell comes loose... "rahahahahahah, I have defeated you". Proceed to loosen evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell until it is near firewall. 12mm A/C & alt bracket bolt comes out now. Try Townsend swivel trick to get evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell out. Not rotating..."why not?!"... struggle some more... not moving. Realize I need to disconnect my friend the alt. adjusting bolt...DOH... ok, do that... now try to rotate... not rotating.. "why not?!" ...struggle some more..not moving. After thinking about it a lot, I realize that the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket doesn't allow any room for the alt bracket to rotate freely. I'm sure the swivel trick would work very nicely with the A/C moved, but my A/C isn't moved, and the swivel trick isn't helping me when it's 100 frickin degrees outside and the mosquitos are eating me alive.... calm down.. ok... contort arm in previously unknown positions to manage to remove remaining bottom 6mm hex bolt holding alt. bracket to block. There's a ground wire attached to it that nobody mentioned... what a stupid inconvenient place to put it... on reinstallation I move it to the "easy" front 6mm hex mount bolt. Anyway, back to the problem at hand... all alt. bracket mount bolts now removed. Must only get evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell out and then remove alternator. Curse the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket. Apply much brute force and rattle the hell out of the alt bracket/alternator/evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell assembly. Curse the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket. Repeat many times. Throw wrenches on ground, kick wall. Apply much brute force and rattle the hell out of the alt bracket/alternator/evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell assembly. Curse the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket. Repeat many times.
Pause...use brain again... Get out BFP. Wedge it behind AC bracket and pry it to give wiggle room underneath for alt. bracket. Even millimeters of wiggle room help.....Apply much brute force and rattle the hell out of the alt bracket/alternator/evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell assembly. Curse the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket... at last the alt. bracket rotates enough to yank the evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell out. Ok, now finished attacking swivel bolt.
-Remove alternator. Hahaha... once again, I'm sure this seems much more straightforward with A/C moved. This is where I conceded and moved heater hoses. Tried to move brake MC, but it don't move much with those metal brake lines (and I wasn't gonna disconnect them) Oh, did I mention I dropped one of the nuts holding brake MC to vaccum boost down into depths of engine? Well I did...no problem, I thought. Take other one to hardware store two blocks away..get a spare.. while unscrewing other one, it falls into oblivion as well...$#%@! Fortunately, my friend the adjusting bolt has the same size nut... go to store and buy 3 spares. Stupid throttle cable is in the way too... and that damn A/C hose. Of course that's probably not in the way if A/C is moved. Try to carefully lift alternator and maneuver past hoses, throttle cable, and brake MC...being very careful with MC..don't want to break it. Can't get it out... disconnect vaccum boost hose thingee... still won't come out. Girlfriend comes out to garage...very sick of hearing me complain about it...ask her to help by holding hoses, etc. out of way while I lift alternator. She gets mad, tells me to hold the hoses, and yanks the bloody thing out herself. She wasn't quite so concerned about being delicate and careful...ah well, it worked. Alternator now out of car. Scream and yell and wiggle the hell out of bracket until I can get it out from underneath the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket. Quit for the night.
Sunday, July 1.
Try to take out alt. arm. Loosen bolt w/o too much trouble...but there's some wire held on to the arm with a plastic garbage bag tie thingee....arm won't come out. Cut plastic garbage bag tie thingee.... get arm out... replace arm bushings..reinstall arm.
Alt. now on kitchen table. Clean everything...replace bushings... reattach evil %^# swivel #@$% bolt from hell, this time backwards (in case I have to do this ever again, HA!) Unscrew voltage regulator, check brushes... one is short, one is long...DOH! Should replace it while the alt. is out..will be much easier that way... no reassembly today. Tell girlfriend, "yes I like you more than Kajsa (the car)".
Monday, July 2
Call eeuroparts.com... order VR, along with new set of belts. Should be here by Friday... ah well, will have to ride the bus this week... will reassemble on Friday night.
Friday, July 6
Shipment does not arrive. Check tracking # with UPS... not due to arrive 'til Wednesday July 11.... $#^%! need car! Decide I'll have to put the sucker back in w/o new VR.... go out to garage.... open hood... drop alt/alt bracket assembly in as one piece... gravity helps...much easier going in than coming out. Spend some time manipulating bracket to get it under the evil godforsaken piece of garbage A/C bracket. BFP comes in handy once again. Struggle for a while to line everything up and get the shared 12mm bracket bolt back in... get the easy front 6mm hex bolt in, with ground wire. Attach arm and adjusting bolt. Swivel alt. all the way toward engine...contort arm again to get bottom 6mm hex bolt in.. can't get it real tight, but I do it the best I can. Try to put belts back on... much much effort....finally get one on...spend much time feeling/looking near crankshaft pulley to see if belt is on there properly..finally determine it isn't...that's why it was so hard to get over the alt. pulley. Getting very angry and frustrated, and have many large open wounds in hands from feeling around and struggling to get belts on. Stop for the night.
Saturday, July 7.
Get up in the morning, spend much effort getting off misaligned belt I had spent so much time getting on last night. Finally manage to do it...with much more effort manage to get belts properly aligned on crankshaft pulley and they slip onto alt. pulley much easier this time. I'm sure this whole belt business is easier with the A/C out of the way as well. Adjust adjusting bolt to tighten belts...
$%^&!!!!!!!!!!! The outside belt is still looser than the inside one. I have spent a week of my time and have the same symptom as before.... oh well, hopefully car will work like before...that's better than I've had the last week. I'm sick of this stupid project and want it over with. Reconnect everything I'd disconnected. Double-check that I've reconnected everything I disconnected. Have an interesting experience when reattaching negative battery cable. Accidentally complete circuit between positive and negative terminal with ratchet...lots of sparks... melted ratchet head. yikes...won't make that mistake again.
Start car...bleed air out of coolant system... everything looks to be working ok...go for test drive...everything seems to be working ok.... outside belt still flopping around though... hmm, guess it wasn't the bushings after all. A new set of belts is on the way, and I'm hoping that's the problem. I'll be paying a pro to install them though.
'Roo
, Tue, 10 Jul 2001 08:27:19
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