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You're right - assuming you have a lift, pulling the engine is best. I bought a '92 in August with bad pinion bearings, so I am doing what you propose. I'll share with you some of the logistics, too, since they are important.
I ended up doing the following:
Logistics
I bought an engine crane & load leveler ($175), ball joint forks ($10) & spring compressor ($10) from our local harbor freight tools. They are all the Chinese made stuff, but the price is exceptional. The forks are actually a set and quite nicely made. All three are tools I can re-use on the next 900 project.
I bought the rebuilt 5 speed from Andrews of Princeton ($850 + $150 shipping).
Since I don't have an adequate garage, I rented a storage facility unit next to a self serve car wash - very handy to take stuff over & spray it off. Since I have a pick -em up truck, it was easy to use the crane to drop the engine/tranny in the truck, drive to the car wash & blast the grease off. I also was able to tow the car with the engine removed to the car wash and, with all of the sensitive stuff wrapped in plastic & sealed with zip ties, blast the entire, empty engine compartment spotless. This was more important than I would have expected, as it uncovered some surface rust that was hidden by dirt in the axle pass troughs to the wheels.
Other parts:
Andrews of Princeton
Bilstein touring shocks
Control arm bushings
Alt. mount bushings
Steering rack bushings
4 ball joints
Clutch kit
F&R engine oil seals
eEuroparts
water pump
valve cover gasket
engine – tranny gasket
pilot bearing
new coolant hoses (bought hoses for pre- Coolant By Pass configuration – eliminates an unnecessary part of coolant plumbing
air filter
82 degree coolant fan switch
One Stop Saab (local Shop)
Belts
Oil filter
Seal for around oil seal cover plate.
Inner CV grease
Other necessities:
NAPA
Loctite 518 anaerobic sealant – water pump, engine to tranny, valve cover
Loctite anti-seize (ball joint pass through bolts)
Loctite blue thread lock – control arm to body, tranny to engine bolts
Thread sealant – flywheel bolts
Suspension
The hardest part was getting the lower ball joint bolts out. They are invariable rusted. Do the following:
a. Crack the nut off - it should come free.
b. Try and turn the bolt - if it won't budge, then don't kill yourself - take a dremel tool with a carbide disk and cut both ends of the rusted bolt flush to the control arm. This should only take a few minutes. Buy a pack of carbide disks as they can break.
c. Using a drill bit that is just larger than the threaded hole of the nut you removed, drill in about 3/8" on each end of the cut-off bolt. There should only now be a small lip of metal holding the ball joints. You should be able to remove them by tapping out from the inboard side of the ball joint body.
d. Use ball joint forks to remove ball joints from steering knuckle & tie off knuckle with zip ties.
I then removed all four control arms and took them to my indie Saab mechanic. He pressed out all 8 bushings and installed my new ones - for $150.He used proper silicone grease too. I sanded & painted the control arms & spring seats with POR-15. This is great stuff. I bought new bilsteins and sway bar end bushings from Andrews and installed these too. Basically a new suspension in front with new rear shocks now.
Engine
On the engine, I replaced F&R oil seals. I was also able to make friends with the local Saab indie, and I drove the whole engine to their shop in my truck one Saturday and they installed the front & rear oil seals, and inspected the rear harmonic balancer for me. These guys loved doing the seals with the engine on the back of my truck – so much easier than crawling below a filthy car and reaching up where you can’t see. I also bought a bunch of stuff from them - new alt & water pump belts, oil filter, etc while I was there - the total cam to about $175. This is much better than buying the tool to press the seals.
I replaced the alternator mount bushings (easy), valve cover gasket (fastidiously cleaned all traces of silicone from last install first), new water pump (old was beginning to seize, and it’s so much cleaner to do an install with engine out.
I had flywheel resurfaced ($30) and installed new pilot bearing. I will install the clutch before the engine goes back. I will also do some POR-15 touch up in the engine bay first. I didn’t install the steering rack bushings, as they looked good.
Driveshafts
I cleaned these by hand & regreased – I think these will have limited life, though. I noticed a pinhole on one boot. I’ll listen for noise & replace as warrants with rebuilds rather than buy new boots for a worn driveshaft.
I am reinstalling the engine tomorrow. Wish me luck.
posted by 12.20.127...
, Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:51:13
, Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:34:18, Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:51:27
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