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Sorry to balance your experience with a good one... Posted by Saana88 [Email]  (#207)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Saana88) on Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:39:52
In Reply to: What a day..., Keith85spg, Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:44:00 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I bet you're glad as anything you had the front-wheel emergency brakes, eh?
I'm hard at work on my '92 convertible as Tuesday is the big day. First task was to soak the bleeder screws and cross my fingers, maybe do a mystical chant, and all the bleeders opened up! Maybe you can relate in New York.
The backstory... This car hasn't been driven very far (once every few months to knock the cobwebs out and burn the rust off the rotors) since going into hibernation in late November 2005. I've been driving my favorite winter car ('88 900 with 216k currently) through the past two winters. A year ago, I thought I wanted to roll out the convertible for the nice weather; this ragtop is not going to see salt with me. Problem was, the '88 was running so well I decided the convertible would snooze all last summer too. So, a year and a half in storage. I've built up quite a list of things to do since then.
First task: see how many bleeders are frozen. NONE! All five (slave included) broke loose after sitting saturated in penetrating oil. The last time this happened to me was after changing the master cylinder in the '88 in 2004. Technical note: that was after three caliper replacements in the past year. I cheated.
Second task: replace the slowly-failing ABS accumulator, now that I can bleed everything when I'm done. I'd imagined the part would take a lot more torque to break loose (it's only running 1200 PSI inside!) but it popped right off. Even better, zero brake fluid leaked anywhere! 30 full pumps of the pedal did the trick after sitting overnight. One 8 mm hex socket, a short extension, an adapter and my tire-changing breaker bar made that break loose with ease. I tightened the new part to the right torque (thanks, Anders!) and put the coolant expansion tank back.
Next task: start bleeding everything. Since I haven't bought my turkey baster yet (tomorrow) I only bled the slave, just to flush out some of the gunk, then I'll finish the job with new fluid tomorrow. This made me extremely nervous since the last time I tried I overpressurized the line and the slave seals let go. No such luck this time. I didn't use any pressure yet, I just opened the bleeder and let the fluid dribble out into a container, ever so slowly.
Tomorrow: suction out old fluid, bleed the brakes (LF first), re-bleed the slave, move on to Slow Window Syndrome (RF), and begin reinstalling everything.
Hint: the entire interior is out of the car. If anyone wants any pictures of "where does that (heat shield, etc.) bolt go?" now is the time to ask. I'm going to post a bunch of pics in my Saabnet gallery from this one.
Reinstalling the interior (everything except the dash and gauges; lower pad and everything else is in the basement) is going to take a while. I have all the screws and they're kind of organized; now I just have to remember where they all go. Ouch!
The bad news: my local dealership is not in my good graces right now. I ordered a bunch of parts and called them today ("Yeah, they came in on monday, you should get a card in the mail sometime next week") so I made a special trip to pick it up. Uh-oh. Empty lot. They kind of moved 15 miles south and forgot to mention it. Maybe the receptionist answering the phones got sick of saying the whole thing, or what I think it should be. "New Salem Saab of Halfmoon In Colonie" really doesn't roll right off the tongue.
I can relate. We're strange creatures. These cars are usually so dependable and we care about them, so any downtime is a big letdown. When that slave let go I ended up doing the entire clutch and it took ten days I could have been working instead of bumming rides off of people. I got plenty of exercise when I rode my bike to work (53 miles round trip, that's my other obsession) four times over the course of a week.
Get yourself a replacement flex hose from Europarts, try the union with the metal line in case that's frozen, slap it on there, bleed it, and put more miles on the car. At least you've got some semblance of mass transit.
Even better, they're playing "Video Killed the Radio Star" on the stream. Good days and bad days. They happen. I worked and I worked on the '88 all winter and she repaid me by blowing a hole in the over-axle exhaust pipe the month she's due for inspection. Frell. I guess it's a good thing I got my tax return back, forget saving it again. If you're ever headed up 87 look me up.
, Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:40:31, Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:39:52 <-- Viewing This Message, Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:50:25
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