Saab 900 restoration/maintenance

[DennisCA]

I think that was the 9000 actually, but at the time it had the same engine and turbo as the 900. I'd love a later model 9000 myself as a year round car, manual gearbox with the 2.3 turbo engine. One of the best last true Saabs.

Marlinspike I found the seals leaked even though they looked fine. Eventually I gave up and I put butyl sealant in the places I identified leaks where the light meets the boot and car, with some masking it came out looking fine. A bit of a kludge solution but AFAIK the seals just go bad, might be worth trying to fabricate new ones from a different material I've thought.

 

[marlinspike]

You can still get the seals but it has other issues atm so the leak will have to wait a bit longer.

If I remember correctly the advertising claim was that a c900 turbo was quicker from 30 to 70 than a Porsche 911 at the time.

Edit: It was the 9000 that Autocar claimed was quicker than a Porsche, not the c900T.

 

[Rannsachair]

I think that was the 9000 actually, but at the time it had the same engine and turbo as the 900. I'd love a later model 9000 myself as a year round car, manual gearbox with the 2.3 turbo engine. One of the best last true Saabs.

Marlinspike I found the seals leaked even though they looked fine. Eventually I gave up and I put butyl sealant in the places I identified leaks where the light meets the boot and car, with some masking it came out looking fine. A bit of a kludge solution but AFAIK the seals just go bad, might be worth trying to fabricate new ones from a different material I've thought.

I had a 1997 9000 CSE 2.3 turbo manual with grey Scottish leather seats in Scarab Green metallic, was a brilliant car with massive boot space.

 

[DennisCA]

I got my hands on a pair of Bosch fog lights a while ago, very cheap and old enough to lack CE markings. Photos after cleanup, they didn't look this nice when I bought them.

Put yellow headlight film on them since I want yellow fog lights. IIRC I am testing a 24V light here at 12V. I got some ideas about that, will elaborate later.

I decided to make my own brackets from scratch. I removed the front bumper, which took a while because extensive rust on fasteners. Impossible to loosen and I had to cut them loose, that is what 33 years of salted winters does I guess.

The bumper has a lower portion held on with screws, also rusted beyond saving. I had to disassemble the bumper completely to be able to remove them.

Finally everything is apart, it was destructive to the fasteners, cut them out.

I cleaned up the parts while I was at it.

I looked at all sorts of fasteners to replace the originals but I went with Saabs original solutions which were a type of "plus nuts". I go up a size from M4 to M5 bolts. I did not find stainless just zinc plated, but I guess the originals survived 33 salted winters so I guess it'll do for summer only driving. I do know stainless plus nuts exist however.

Creates a very solid connection, the problem is if the bolt rusts in place then the nut will just spin on the plastic like what happened with the originals.

Finally with the bumper reassembled I can continue with what I was supposed to do. Mostly I am just figuring it out as I go and making double parts. Everything is just tacked together at the moment.

Not exactly factory style I think, but close and beefier steel.

Last night I finished the brackets (still need painting and the wiring needs to be done, probably should get shorter bolts).

Yeah one chrome strip is gone, I got replacement strips ready.

 

[marlinspike]

Good work. It's annoying that the chrome bumper trim replacement stuff only comes in a shiny finish, whereas the original is more matt and a flatter profile. You end up having to do it all because one bit is missing.

I think the last c900's came with the fog light wiring pre installed but not sure about your year. I have some Hella Comet 550's but haven't got around to even thinking about putting them on yet.

 

[DennisCA]

Yeah the one who is missing was the last original, all the others are the newer, shinier ones. It hd rust discoloration and was brittle as heck too.

 

[DennisCA]

Little progress here. But progress. I've removed the knee bolster and started running the wiring yesterday.

After removing the knee bolster I went looking for suitable places to run a new wire from the fog light switch, I found a vacuum line here that was about the right place. Ran a bit of mig wire thru first, then I soldered the mig wire to the electrical wire and pulled it back out.

I think the new relay can sit here abouts. I will ground the relay coil through the high beam bulb like Saab did. That way I get correct functionality (fog lights switch off when high beams turn on). I will take the current for the fog lights directly from the battery, via a new fuse.

Now to save on wiring I could run wiring from the battery straight to the fog lights, to the relay and from the relay to a ground point and complete the circuit that way. But I also think this would reduce safety, risk of getting a shock when working on the lights then if I accidentally complete the circuit. So I'll maybe not do that... Even if it's just 12V.

Inside the cabin I made a "T-splice" on the switch for the fog light, the blue cable gives power to the rear light (disconnected at the back). Peeled off a piece of the insulation and opened a loop in the strands, then I threaded the other wire through and spun it around several turns. Almost like sewing or tying a knot. I chose to solder everything together, I don't think there will be a problem as the solder joint "floats" in the air and is then not as affected by vibrations as it would be if rigidly fixed to the frame.

Self vulcanizing tape over the joint.

As a test, I have rewired the fuse to the switch so that it receives power from one of the parking light fuses. Otherwise, you cannot switch on the fog lights unless the low beams are already on.

I want to use the fog lights low beams turned off so this change needs to be done for desired functionality. It's illegal to run with fog lights and half beams unless it's actually foggy out. But you can use the fog lights with parking lights as daytime running lights.

There's an actual thing you can buy for this purpose so it won't keep looking like this. I could also rewire the fuse underneath but I think this is the better way to go. All that switch needs to do from now on is to power the coil and indicator lamp.

 

[jenki]

Having owned a 2 door 99 Turbo and a 5 Door 900 NA in the past; SAAB's of this era remain one of my favorite cars. One thing if you work on the dash the securing bolts are different lengths make sure you keep them in order needless to say I did'nt.
Good luck with your one.

 

[marlinspike]

Yes, the bolts vary in length. I use a piece of card and push them through it in order L to R as I remove them so they go back in the right place. Whilst the dash is out you could replace the old bulbs with leds if you fancied it.

 

[DennisCA]

I didn't remove the dash for this operation, just the bolster was enough, but I've been replacing bulbs with leds for a while now. This gave me easy access to replace the seatbelt warning bulb

 

[ms08]

I still have my '95 9000 Aero with stage 3 mods so around 300bhp so an interesting drive

 

[DennisCA]

I've been wiring up the fog lights, actually I was wiring it up, then figured nah. Then pulled the wire another way. Rinse and repeat a few times until I thought this was the best way to run the wires.

Now I need to buy some kind of suitable connectors to actually hook up the lights and they need to be easy to disconnect for service. Looking at Amp Superseal connectors but open to alternatives.

I also removed the the side indicators and opened up a new hole since I discovered I have the wiring already for front reverse indicators:

Front reverse indicators are a really cool thing that Saab designer Björn Envall came up with in the 60s because due to not seeing he almost backed over the family cat one evening. These reverse indicators help light up the sides when reversing:

Saab Put Reverse Lights At The Front Of Its Cars And It's Actually Brilliant - The Autopian

Saab revolutionized the reverse light game with reverse lights in the front lamp clusters. Here's why they're absolutely genius.

www.theautopian.com

 

[DennisCA]

I bought an indicator light from a scrap yard to get extra sockets, I asked if it had both light sockets and they said yes, so of course when I got it, it has only the one...

I've been reassembling the car in the meanwhile most of the work was reassembling the interior, lights are temporarily hooked up and everything works as it should. Due to legal issues I had to ground the relay coil via the dipped beam on the left side, that way it turns off automatically when the dipped beam is turned on, thats a legal requirement here apparently.

I need to drive it outside for a spell and get my Mazda in to weld some rust on the underside. And to get at I needed to buy jackstands and a floor jack. My old one was a bit small but it had done well for tire changes.

The first lift I attempted with this floorjack, I got the beam I was gonna lift on off-center and it slipped off before I really had a chance to lift it, fortunately! A closer look showed that the beam is oily and putting the rubber against the oily metal results in a no friction situation. So I decided these things are probably bad outside a specific situation, and I removed them. Instead I position the beam I lift on between the "teeth" on the metal lift pad and this made a rather positive lock, I could pull and shake on the floor jack without it letting go. Sure it mars the metal a little but it's on the bottom of the car... Better that than an insecure lift IMO.

 

[DennisCA]

I took the opportunity to work on the cassette player while it was removed from the car. I want to install an aux input so I can connect the phone to it.

The first thing I did was build an audio probe. I connect it to the phone and play something on it. What is wrapped in duct tape is a capacitor.

Then I put the probe on the outputs of the radio tuner unit and if I hear a new sound from the car stereo, I have found where an audio channel goes to the amplifier. I found and then cut off the right and left channels going to the main board.

Then I solder in two pairs of cables instead, one pair to the tuner and another to the main board. If I connect these back together then the radio works as usual. I drilled a hole in the back and lead the wires out there.

Using a 3.5mm socket like this with a built in switch. It means the radio channel is connected when it's unplugged, but it cuts the connection automatically and instead feeds sound from whatever you plug into it.

I will probably install the aux-input on one of the blanks next to the cigarette lighter.

 

[Bobupndown]

I took the opportunity to work on the cassette player while it was removed from the car. I want to install an aux input so I can connect the phone to it.

The first thing I did was build an audio probe. I connect it to the phone and play something on it. What is wrapped in duct tape is a capacitor.

Then I put the probe on the outputs of the radio tuner unit and if I hear a new sound from the car stereo, I have found where an audio channel goes to the amplifier. I found and then cut off the right and left channels going to the main board.

Then I solder in two pairs of cables instead, one pair to the tuner and another to the main board. If I connect these back together then the radio works as usual. I drilled a hole in the back and lead the wires out there.

Using a 3.5mm socket like this with a built in switch. It means the radio channel is connected when it's unplugged, but it cuts the connection automatically and instead feeds sound from whatever you plug into it.

I will probably install the aux-input on one of the blanks next to the cigarette lighter.

Ingenious.

 

[DennisCA]

Now installed and it sounds really good. But I ran into a lot of problems with static and horrible noises... So I've been troubleshooting this setup for quite some time. In the end I came to the conclusion that the phone was the problem, something in the software in the phone tries to match the impedance of what is plugged in. It wasn't able work as intended when you connected the phone directly to the stereo's amplifier, just too dissimilar to any kind of headphone I guess. The solution was to put a 100 ohm resistor on each channel to add some impedance. I also added a 1uf capacitor after each resistor to stop any potential DC from getting into the amplifier fro the phone. It solved the problem completely but I was going crazy for a while before that…

I've temporarily misplaced the missing plug to the left it seems...

Today I started the Saab and drove it out, first time since October, need to get another car in for welding.

One chrome strip is gone, broke into pieces when I took it off. But has a replacement strip that is glued on, yes it was the last original strip on the car that disappeared, now all will be the glue version.

But the car does well in the snow, it's a natural environment for a Saab.

 

[DennisCA]

I washed the Saab since we had above freezing temps because it had a lot of grinding dust on it from being in the shop. Of course afterwards I find two pools of water in the trunk. Leaks coming in same place as last time it appears, from the tail lights. I've tried to seal them up before but it's not taking. The old seals are scrap I believe.

Tear them out, lots of old butyl sealant around there as well showing earlier repair attempts:

Cut of a bit and look at the profile and take some measurements. I don't know if the profile lookedd like this from the start, or if it changed into this from being compressed, but I think an O-profile might do here, 10mm.

This one is trickier, this seems to be a short, custom piece, now where to get something like this. I've used a phone app and 3D scanned it, I am working on it in blender to try and get a model I could 3D print but I am not sure. I know there's a 3d printable material called TPU that would make good rubbery gasket material.

I might also just make some molds from plaster and cast new ones using silicone or something like that...

 

[DennisCA]

Been chiseling, grinding and scrubbing and cleaning on the trunk as well! All while standing bent over into the trunk area, my lower back isn't happy.

The dark patches are bare metal that I've applied a rust converter to. The majority of the trunk area is rust free actually, the right side is the worst because of the main water ingress being there at the rear taillight.

As I've worked on this trunk and traced the path of the water I can see that with a few very small changes from factory this problem would have been eliminated. Make the the sound deadening layer extend 5 centimeters back and the dripping water would have fallen on that layer instead of behind it. Or apply seam sealer over the join between sound deadening and body to prevent water from getting under it.

They did design this car with the idea that water could get into the truck, because it's shaped as two valleys with drain plugs on the lowest points, so all water that gets in drains away quickly. But they did not consider that water could get under the sound deadening layer. Still a good design effort overall.

Once I get it further degreased I can scuff it up and apply 2k epoxy primer. Then I will apply several thick layers of stone chip protection. I got this as a tip from another saab fan who says it's a great sound deadening material with the advantage that it's oil based, anti-corrosive properties and paintable when dry.

 

[Popcorn]

Might be worth a look for the trim on the Phoenix Trim website, I know it's the wrong country but I'm sure they'll post.

Angle & Block Seals

THIS AREA IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION To download a printable to scale version of our catalogue please click

phoenixtrim.co.uk

 

[DennisCA]

I did order this from the UK (Vistaprint.co.uk) but I am not sure it's a UK company or that it was shipped from there.

Room for 17 more oil changes, at my rate it's 1 per year, car is 34 years old, 50+ should be doable.