1989 Saab 900 Build

[MattHatCat]

Notice the lack of headliner and dash piece.

I notice the no fuel light!
this is awesome !
definitely subbed, i like an old saab

[E.Three.0]

this could get very interesting...

[erik74]

Sorry for the lack of updates, as I'm sure you guys really cared haha.

So, the Saab has been sitting since June. The CV's died after we successfully drove her 3500km to Nova Scotia and back. I was away all summer on training so I wasn't able to work on the car.

And with that, the parts Saab has been sitting, not on my property, and the owners are not too happy with the collection of deceased vehicles piling up. So I have until the end of September to take anything else I need...not much time. I'll end up breaking even on the value of the parts and scrap value for the price I paid.

And finally, the CV's are in the mail and I'll be able to do that soon. Thankfully I've had the trusty old GTI to drive around!

Hopefully good things to come over the winter!

[erik74]

My buddy and I went to look at this 900 Turbo today. Definitely a parts car, I do not see it driving again. However, there are a lot of good parts on it and many of them just happen to be the bad parts on mine - especially that turbo.

And a picture from today. Because pictures.


Notice the lack of headliner and dash piece.

Pictures of the car to follow!

[tba]

wait. . . I thought these were FWD.

All the sudden I understand why people LOVE these cars now. Please go on, you have my full attention.

They are FWD.

[white out]

wait. . . I thought these were FWD.

All the sudden I understand why people LOVE these cars now. Please go on, you have my full attention.

[JRodigan]

I'm really excited about the idea of rotary 900. Please do it.

[erik74]

Well, yesterday the signal stalk shorted and started smoking. So that's pulled out. Electrical issues everywhere!

Also, I was talking to an older gentleman I know today who told me he has an old 900 turbo that he doesn't know what to do with. Going to look at that on the weekend and see what to make of it, but I think that really opens things up for the rotary project idea. I can strip it and have a shell while having a functioning 900 Turbo. Expect to see a rotary 900 sometime down the road.

[Bumblebi]

Go for the rotary, so freaking cool to see a rotary 900!!

[erik74]

I would support a rotary Saab. In fact, I'd love to see a rotary Saab, because my friend has been wanting to do it forever. But a 12a might not have enough power to move a 900... lol Great engines but they've only got around 100 (?) horsepower.

Yes, they don't make a lot of power, but the 13b can be fitted to the same transmission. It would probably make sense to get all the electrical sorted with a carbed engine after doing all the necessary modifications, then throwing in a 13b....with a turbo.

[JRodigan]

Update: the car has successfully driven 300 miles on the new clutch. However, the check engine light comes on occasionally resulting in a loss of power, and the engine shakes under load above 75km/h.

Right now I'm trying to decide if swapping to a 12a rotary with the entire drivetrain (including strut towers, steering rack, etc) from a SE RX7 is worth it. Thoughts? Why the rotary? The SE has almost an identical wheelbase and track width.

I would support a rotary Saab. In fact, I'd love to see a rotary Saab, because my friend has been wanting to do it forever. But a 12a might not have enough power to move a 900... lol Great engines but they've only got around 100 (?) horsepower.

[erik74]

Update: the car has successfully driven 300 miles on the new clutch. However, the check engine light comes on occasionally resulting in a loss of power, and the engine shakes under load above 75km/h.

Right now I'm trying to decide if swapping to a 12a rotary with the entire drivetrain (including strut towers, steering rack, etc) from a SE RX7 is worth it. Thoughts? Why the rotary? The SE has almost an identical wheelbase and track width.

[erik74]

Finally she runs again! That was only the longest clutch job in history. No pictures, but here's the point form of the issues we encountered:

-Input shaft was seized in place. Conventional removal techniques were replaced with ingenuity. Cost an extra 2 hours.
-While removing input shaft, dropped a bit inside the primary drive case. Fetching this required opening up the case, 8 hours extra work.
-As so did not have the proper tool to keep the pressure plate depressed, and the fact that the slave was dead, this process took extra time to make everything work.
-After removing the clutch assembly, we had to mount the new assembly. 4 hours were required to prepare the new assembly and figure out how to insert the clutch plate, pressure plate, and slave all at once.
-Getting the slave to fit into place required 2 hours of hammering on the pressure plate, slave, rotating the flywheel, and actually hitting the edge of the clutch plate itself.
-Due to lack of clearance, we couldn't get the pressure plate onto the dowel pins. Ground them shorter and used steel plates to shim everything so that the pressure plate could be rotated into place.

Those were the major problems, not to mention the time I backed a ratchet against part of the frame of the car and could barely access the switch on it. So many little things like this that just didn't work. That's the downside to not having your own place to work!

As the snow clears, expect some pictures! I've got some ideas in the works for getting her a little more to my taste.

[erik74]

Long time no post. It's been rough getting up to the shop to work on her, the weather has been absolutely crap and I prefer not to walk 30 minutes in a blizzard.

Update: I've been slowly trying to get the clutch torn apart, but every time I go to the shop I have to dig her out of the snow. And then of course things go wrong. If you're familiar with the 900, I've encountered every issue possible with the clutch removal - my slave is dead, the input shaft refused to move, and I lack dealer tools. She's currently at the final removal stage, but I dropped something into the primary drive case...oops. Gotta pull the bumper off, and the rad. Could be worse though right? At least this whole job is done with the car on the ground!

[JRodigan]

Ya, last night I realized that. Is there any particular reason that you know of as to why they mounted like that? To date, that's the only reason I can think of...and I'm not complaining.

I think it was for better weight distribution and balance. They wanted the engine and transmission to be parallel to each other as kind of one unit. But I can't be sure about that. I know they're designed to have a 60/40 F/R weight balance for aided FWD traction in snow.

/Saab nerd