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My spring SAAB saga (pictures)
Posted by White Vampire (more from White Vampire) on Sun, 4 May 2003 22:28:16
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1985 SAAB 900S (8v, 2dc)
(Link to pictures of my car below.)
After my last 300 mile trip, I had my car start vibrating and my exhaust start rattling again. Once I returned home, I started working on my car. I did have one odd episode of clicking, but was never able to reproduce it and the drive axles look great.
I start out with the basic maintenance. New spark plugs, rotor, distributor, O2 sensor, fuel filter, and air filter. I clean the throttle body, AiC (auxilary air valve), and lube the throttle linkage.
After tearing apart my front end, I discover that my passenger side wheel bearing is going out. I had already swapped the driver's side wheel assembly from my parts car. After spinning the driver's side freely, it made a slight noise too, and I ended up deciding to have new bearings pressed in. I ordered wheel bearings and a rear anti-sway bar from Sobstory, which is a great company. The used anti-sway bar was cleaned up and painted, which highly impressed me. I replaced the front lower-shock bushings while I was waiting for the parts to come in. I ended up having the passenger side lower shock mount bolt strip, the one that's welded to the a-arm. I go through hell trying to get the nut off, hours wasted. I ended up cutting it off and swapping with the parts car a-arm.
They came in a few days later. I pulled instructions for installing it off of SAABnet in addition to referencing the Bentley, and have at it. I get all the bolts loose with ease, except one. I have the car fall off of the jacks in the middle of the night. Got it back up, and went to bed.
The next day, I discovered that the rear driver's side .. "lower mount" (what the shock, spring, etc bolt into) was hanging off of a bolt. I go to Advanced Auto, buy spring compressors.. spend a couple hours trying to get them to work, get pissed off. Try so many different tricks trying to get it out, even my magical bottle jack fails me. What I end up doing, amazingly enough, is unscrewing the bolt. The next day, I get the anti sway-bar mounted properly.
Whew. I decided to remove the shock, as I wanted to replace the rear lower bushings too. I wasted a great deal of time on that thanks to the metal piece with the teeth inside the bushing. Find out the bushing is fine, go through more hell getting it back on.
I flush the radiator with Super Flush, refill after putting in an 82C fan thermo-switch, and an 82C thermostat. I end up deciding to use the green stuff, as I have some around, until next flush. Keep on getting air, still need to bleed the coolant completely. Been somewhat lazy about it, as buck said it would work itself out. I change the oil sometime around this. I also put in a new electric antenna at some point.
I end up taking my wheel assemblies and new wheel bearings to Classic Transit in Stephen's City, VA off of rt 11. Pretty nice guys there. I pick them up the next day for $50, and they're perfect.
Replace all the ball joints, the tie rods, and the front calipers. I had swapped the driver's side caliper front the parts car before, as I had it lock previously. Then I had the caliper fall apart, main dysfunction was a dysfunctional e-brake. The passenger side looked like it had rotting rubber, so I did them both. I bought a bleeder cap off of eBay to make flushing the system easier, and I think I have it done. The pedal feels weird, goes to the floor. Bleed it manually with my brother three or four times, still get air.. give up. (Castrol LMA Dot4)
I test drive it, brakes work better than before. I say screw it. I've put 500 miles on the car since, and have had no problems. I'll probably work out the kinks at the next opportunity, perhaps new green brake lines and rubber brake lines.
I discovered that my exhaust had come apart from the muffler to the pipe that runs to the cat, re-clamped it. It keeps on coming apart and rattling, I'm almost tempted to weld it now. It's driving me nuts. I've been procrastinating it after repeatedly working with it. Patched a hole in the muffler, keep on patching a crack in the cat. I found another exhaust leak from no apparent source on the other side of the cat, I've not even tried to bugger with that yet.
Oh yes, I even have a slight oil leak at the oil pan thanks to a bolt screwing up the threads. I fixed them slightly, but still have a bit of a leak. Tried some gasket sealer with little success. Gave up until next oil change.
My lights come on when my car is off, the lights are on, and I hit the brakes. The stereo comes in too. buck and saabdood recommended rear tail light circuit board ground, and I discovered that they had already been modified. Due to a previous water leak around the tail light that had been fixed, the circuit board was corroded. Tried the parts car one, different problems but not the aforementioned problem. Ended up going to Classic Transit and getting one off their part's cars for $20. Swap that out, it works fine. A couple hundred miles later, same problem. So now I get to play with that some more.
I ended up with new used tires that I won on eBay, Michelin MX4s. I had a local general shop swap the tires and align them to Bentley's specs. A lot of my parts came from eEuroparts too, good guys.. they've always treated me well.
I pulled off the trim and sprayed it with some bumper paint. I discovered rust under the trim, so I touch it up with the rust stuff. Front's worse, rear's not bad. I get them all cleaned up, put the trim back on. Start going through my car looking for rust spots to touch up. A little rust starting in the wheel wells around the a-arm. Found a little hole that goes all the way through the passenger side floor board, and a similar hole in the rear driver's side wheel well towards the bottom. Beyond that, nothing too major. Rust is depressing stuff, but at least there's not too much cancer eating my car. Finished up the detailing and I'm close to done.
At least my car's clean and it runs incredibly well. All in all, it looks good, and doesn't have too many problems. It's reliable and treats me well going on 150,000 miles, with 31,000 being the first year I had it. I got it at 107,000.
I have been pretty bad about updating the board, but perhaps this will be of interest or help to someone. I've left out details, as it's incredibly long as it is. If there's questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help. Thanks SAABnet! You all have always been most kind in assisting me with the obscure problems that would drive someone nuts. Gotta love the Bentley too.. beats the Hanes, by far.
Best regards,
White Vampire\Rem
posted by 170.215.145...
http://monolith.projectgamma.com/~whitvamp/images/saab/
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