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See Dennis' advice about high-performance engines. I think there are a couple of things that account for most of this transaxle's reputation for 'weakness':
-- The freewheel causes a lot of problems for people who aren't used to it. You have to bring up power somewhat gently or you risk fracturing the freewheel hub; this happened to me at an open-track day, just because I got careless. The old 6-roller hub is supposed to be stronger than the newer 10-roller one. Also, you've got to be careful that the freewheel is either fully engaged or fully disengaged -- if you switch when the car is moving, you can shear teeth off the locking sleeve. Unfortunately, the T-handle on a Sonett is pretty close to the gas pedal; if you've got big shoes, you can hit it by accident. (Guess how I found this out...) If you're involved in performance driving, you may want to 'neuter' the freewheel by locking it permanently in the non-freewheeling position. This can be done by replacing the nylon freewheel lever with a metal plug having an eccentric hole to hold the freewheel fork in position. I've got a picture of one around here somewhere if you want to see this.
-- The Sonett has a different final-drive ratio than the 96; it gives a higher top speed and lets the engine turn at slightly lower revs on the highway. However, because it's got more finely spaced teeth, it's a little more prone to strip. As Dennis notes, this isn't likely to be a problem unless you've got a fairly seriously "built" V4; if you do, you may want to swap in a 96 gearbox to go with it.
Overall, though, I think the main reason these transaxles got a bad rep is that for a long time, people didn't know how to take care of them. Once the cars got old enough that people stopped taking them to Saab dealers for service, and once Saab stopped carrying their special transmission oil, the boxes would get neglected and people started saying "This is a weak gearbox."
You need to change the oil often (I change it every time I change the engine oil) and make sure you don't use an oil that's too thick (I like Redline MTL.) There's an oil catcher on the rear cover that lubricates the rear bearings; if you use too heavy an oil, not enough of it gets slung up to the catcher and the bearings go dry.
If you maintain it and don't abuse it, I don't think there's anything weak about the Sonett tranny for regular (or even brisk) driving.
posted by 68.13.13...
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