Another Saab C900 thread

This is my 91 Saab 900 non terbaux.

I’ve had it for three years now I guess.  A good few (mostly) trouble free miles were put on it.  Then it sat for close to a year.  Then last month it was brought out of the cobwebs to rallycross!

And it did so rather admirably.  There were a couple things that needed to be addressed before that event, but time/parts/money availability put a damper on that.  So yet again with the help of friends here and a handful of panicked emails (from me), those items were kludged together and worked.

So I actually have to work on the car now, hence the build tread.

At the Mayday RallyCross, after changing tires I started the car to putt over to tech, and was greeted with an oil warning light.  That was a new one.

There was no other indication of a loss of oil pressure, so berk it was said and I went for it.  Besides, this car has a tendency to eat electrical switches so I was pretty confident this caused the warning light.  Well, fairly confident.

Testing at home did indicate the oil pressure switch failed, so here we go...

Out with the old, in with the new, and it works for now.

While I was at it, a new valve cover gasket was installed.  And a quick clean and repaint of the valve cover itself.

Coming up next, some rear suspension bushing replacements, wheel studs, then pads and rotors.

:-)

Nice to see your build thread. I'll be interested to see your rear suspension work - I spent a fair bit of time back there on mine, but I didn't replace the bushings (they seemed serviceable for the time being). Are you doing all of them?

The torque rod bushings for sure, they were shot.

The more I look at the rear upper shock bushings, the more I think I should do them too.  Started soaking the fasteners in Kroil today.  Maybe after a week of soaking them I’ll be able to get them to move.

An impact gun is your friend, at least where it fits. When I did the shocks I ended up having to cut them out - both top nuts were totally seized, and one of the bottom bolts was fused to the bushing sleeve, so the rubber negated the effect of the impact. And of course both top mounts were rusted through. I hope you have better luck.

It's probably worth doing the brakes while you're at it - they're easy enough to do, and every little bit of access helps.

A small update from the last week...

Removed old bushings from torque arms and put them in the bucket of wonder for derustification.

Primed them, painted them and pressed new bushings in.

Then new rotors and pads on the rears.

I have the pads for the front, but am waiting on the rotors.  Last I checked UPS has them in Nevada, I’m sure for a good reason.

Then finally, a thought experiment with wheel studs.  Having never installed them I made my best guess on the correct length and picked up these super cheap ones locally.  After test fitting, I learned I guessed wrong.  They are too short for my rallycross wheels.

Now that I know what length I actually need, I’ll order a proper set from Motorsports Hardware and put those in.  These can then go live in my bin of crap that I’ll likely never use but won’t throw away.

Tomorrow i hope to get the torque arms installed and take the interior apart to adjust the parking break cables.  They need more cowbell thanks to the new pads.

**edit- I forgot I have the video from my first rallycross.  A work friend made it for me.

Those control arms look really good. You're making me feel like I need to do mine. Where did you source the bushings?

Your video has me wanting to get my car on the road and in the dirt. Soon....

The bushings are from eeuroparts.  I think Pro Parts Sweden brand.  They were out of stock a month ago when I needed them.

Got a little more work in yesterday.

The parking brake is adjusted to a relatively happy medium.  I believe the passenger side adjusting mechanism in the caliper is partially  borked, so that process took longer than it should have.  And, of course, there being several “layers” to be addressed to get to the parking cable adjusters.

Otherwise rebushed torque arms went in.

Then a nice test drive at dusk.  For the record:

• oil light on the dash is off
• the annoying occasional clunk in the rear is gone (it wasn’t the exhaust)
• the valve cover gasket is not leaking (preemptive repair)

In reply to paranoid_android :

I used poly sway bar link bushings. I was in a pinch and could not wait.

neat! I'll enjoy following this! 

In reply to stan_d :

Oh my goodness did I want to go poly!  But SF rules sez must be OE replacement, so ok...

In reply to paranoid_android :

I thought about poly for my car too, but the prices I found are crazy. I can buy a whole axle's worth of poly bushings for my 2002 for the price of one pair of bushings for the C900.

I decided while doing the front brakes, gearbox and engine oil changes were in order.

Starting with the gearbox, I wanted to see how much oil was in it.  Nope, can’t get the dipstick to break loose.  So I took the dipstick cover off to properly remove the dipstick on the bench.

While doing that one of the cover bolts broke.  They were all *really* tight, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  Sigh...

Instead of going H.A.M. on it I walked away for a couple days to plan it’s removal.

Whipped up a “cover” out of scrap to keep weld spatter out, and went to town.

Found an uncoated steel nut and booped some weld in there.

And by golly it came right out

Now waiting on a gasket to arrive I hadn’t planned on changing, and then I can finish the oil changes.  And I have yet to unbox the front rotors and pads.  Ooh- and I ordered proper wheel studs.

The next rallycross is July 6!

Good job getting it out. That method has become my go-to option for remove broken bolts, and it usually works unless access to get a decent weld is a problem. I guess I got lucky - I pulled all three covers (two side plus the rear one over the diff) to replace the gaskets and the bolts were pretty cooperative. And I have the proper dipstick rather than the little screw-in one.

When you refill I highly recommend Honda MTF for the trans fluid. I used it on mine and the shifting is notably better.

Front rotors and pads are done.  I’ve never used the terms “easy” and “brake job” in the same sentence, but these on this car are by far the easiest I’ve ever worked on.

No close up, but proper wheel studs are in too.  They are glorious.

(Yes, I have two tires on the wrong way, I’ll fix that)

And a father son joint venture:

The PO put a new headliner in, but didn’t do a very good job.  The Joann Fabrics headliner material he used did not stand up, most of the fabric separated from its foam.  So we removed all traces of it and put this in.  Very happy with how it came out!

If you want some spare wheels i have a set of xr4ti wheels sitting in my basement. 

In reply to EvanB :

Wow, thank you!  I’ll take you up on that offer.

Was just looking at the WOR event July 20.  Not sure if I can make it yet or not...

In reply to paranoid_android :

That is a long drive for a single day event but you should come if you can. Our events are a bit different than the Detroit region ones. 

The Detroit Region Rallycross scheduled for tomorrow was canceled earlier today, so I won’t be going to that.

Instead I’m going to head down to Ohio on the 19th/20th to race with friends there.  It will be a fun trip- as long as it doesn’t get canceled too!  

That headliner might be the single best interior modification I've ever seen 

What sort of fabric did you use for the headliner? Mine is going to be dealt with soon, along with the pillar coverings and the door card inserts. I was planning to order some boring light grey headliner fabric, but why be boring if I can find something more interesting?

"Day 2:  The Volvos that I have infiltrated still do not suspect me, but I must be wary of that Miata.  It seems to know more than it lets on."

In reply to 02Pilot :

914Driver used Swedish Tartan for his.