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I bought a 1987 900T Convertible about 6 months ago, from Saabnet classifieds. It was cheap but it was a freakin' basketcase.
Today I attacked wiring/electronics. These things were all broken:
- temp gage
- clock
- instrument lights
- dash lights/switch lights
- mirror, ignition, and rear interior lighting
- trunk light
- power locks
I spent about 4 hours with my DMM and the Bentley manual, here's what I found:
Light switch in front of key (0-1-2) was completely inop. The metal contact plate inside was bent badly, and did not touch any contacts. Got that working by bending it back, then...
Ground wires for all interior lights are butted together between driver's seat and hump in floorpan (main harness). Some of the wires were actually broken inside the shrink tubing, entering the butt connector. I cut that out and made new connections. Only the ignition/key light turned on.
Power wires for all interior lights are butted together between driver's seat and hump in floorpan (main harness). Same wire breakage!! I cut that out and made new connections. Now the lights turn on w/ the #2 switch position. Still nothing from the #1 position (doors opening).
I mucked around with the door switch contacts, and they were filthy but seemed to work OK.
Then I got back to the relays under the rear seat. The timer relay seemed to be working because the seatbelt warning light in the dash would go on for 10 secs or so (after I replaced dead bulb).
The other relay in the system is the buzzer for door ajar/key in the ignition, and seatbelt warning. I opened up the relay and found a bunch of melted looking crap. I pried on the part that looked like it should move,but it was frozen. Luckily, I had 2 more in my parts bin. One was totally functional, including the annoying buzz. The other was functional but someone (not me) had put a small piece of paper between the buzzer contacts...I tried this one and voila! The interior lights turned on with the door opening(s) and turned off with the timer as intended. No annoying buzz either.
At some time I must have fixed a wire to the trunk, because magically that light just came on while I wasn't looking. I'll take that freebie!
I moved on to the power locks. Once I removed the center console and lower knee bolster, I could actually hear the control unit clicking when the driver's door lock was moved up and down. More testing identified bad actuators in both the passenger door *and* the trunk. I popped in a couple spares (thanks Justin, if you read this) and now the locks are working too! Yay!
My dash lights aren't actually on yet (except the seatbelt one) because I took out the whole fascia & instrument panel, and that is still missing. Funny driving without anything but wires hanging out!
Thanks to ANDERS because I learned from several of his posts that if you just keep testing methodically you can find weird failures...like wires broken right in the middle of a harness!
The vert is a blast to drive, but unfortunately still a basket case, and next on the list is 1) finish up instruments and dash 2) pass smog 3) fix the hydraulic system in the convertible top 4) recover the thrashed interior & carpet...on and on I tell you! :)
posted by 65.78.13...
, Fri, 22 Jul 2005 20:17:15
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