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Saabnuts Assorted Shite Blog - A Shite Week Lacking Progress


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In other news, I am looking for a smoll economical runabout and tonight was offered a 2.2 litre motor that will universally be considered shite, so going to have a look at it tomorrow as it resides at the same place as the oxy-accetalene resides which is required for the Saab bleed nipple!

Omega or Vectra?

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Another update without photos as I am bloody rubbish at remembering to take any! Returned to the Saab this morning and fitted the ball joint with no hassle, sometimes a break is the best plan. Tightened everything up and put the wheels back on. Drove it out of the shed and found there was some brakes so headed to my friends. A bit of the blue nose spanner soon had the last bleed nipple out and the brakes bled. Job jobbed.

 

Had a look at the possible future shopping trolley and all looks better than expected. The seller (who is a friend) will not sell it to me until he has MOTed it. There are a few electrical issues and a broken spring so far, and if it turns out to need lots, then it will just be bridged. Would be a shame though as the bodywork looks good.

 

The fleet reduction is* going to plan, having only sold the P38 over the last few months. Fortunately* the only increases have been the forklift and the above possible shopping trolley. So, tonight I was speaking to a friend and I have opened negotiations on not one but 2 Swedish Estates, both of which require work having not moved for several years, after all, I really need* more projects.

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No progress on any of the possible new additions, but today the Saab c900 Convertible passed its MOT, despite me getting the dates wrong so I missed the 10day deadline for a retest. As a result it had to go through a full retest, but that is it done for another year. Next job on it is to fit a tow bar, but before I can do that, I have to remove it from the scrap convertible I have. Before I can do that, I have a couple of minor fixes to do on the Holden as that is booked in for a test on Wednesday.

 

I certainly had a better day than the young lad before me whose 02 plate Focus was in for test. It had the most extensive fail list my friend has had for many years, rot in 3 corners, flapping wings and bumpers, EML, 2 broken rear springs, binding rear brakes, rotten brake pipes, headlight aim, sharp edges on the front wings, emissions (12.50 instead of max 0.50, hydrocarbons of 12000!), missing heat shield,  tyre internally failed and visible smoke are the ones I can remember! Give the lad his due, he had had the car 4 years, and due to 3 dangerous failures left the car there to be scrapped. As he lives about 4 miles from me, I gave him a lift home in the Saab.

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No progress on any of the possible new additions, but today the Saab c900 Convertible passed its MOT, despite me getting the dates wrong so I missed the 10day deadline for a retest. As a result it had to go through a full retest, but that is it done for another year. Next job on it is to fit a tow bar, but before I can do that, I have to remove it from the scrap convertible I have. Before I can do that, I have a couple of minor fixes to do on the Holden as that is booked in for a test on Wednesday.

 

I certainly had a better day than the young lad before me whose 02 plate Focus was in for test. It had the most extensive fail list my friend has had for many years, rot in 3 corners, flapping wings and bumpers, EML, 2 broken rear springs, binding rear brakes, rotten brake pipes, headlight aim, sharp edges on the front wings, emissions (12.50 instead of max 0.50, hydrocarbons of 12000!), missing heat shield, tyre internally failed and visible smoke are the ones I can remember! Give the lad his due, he had had the car 4 years, and due to 3 dangerous failures left the car there to be scrapped. As he lives about 4 miles from me, I now have the car sat in my field as a project for another day .

Ftfy

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Well, it looks like I have struck a deal on the two Swedish estates, one of which has not moved for 2 years and the other for at least 4 years! The first, more modern one, should be collected this weekend.

 

In other news, the temporary Hyundai has left the fleet and been returned to its owner. A shame I could not get to like it, but the lack of vision, jiggly suspension and lack of heardroom meant we did not gel. Driving the c900 to its MOT the other day sealed its fate, and it was returned with thanks. On the plus side, the L200 returned today with a new starter motor so at least I have a tow car again, and the little jobs done on the Holden ready for MOT tomorrow, I am sure* it will be fine.

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Well, it looks like I have struck a deal on the two Swedish estates, one of which has not moved for 2 years and the other for at least 4 years! The first, more modern one, should be collected this weekend.

 

In other news, the temporary Hyundai has left the fleet and been returned to its owner. A shame I could not get to like it, but the lack of vision, jiggly suspension and lack of heardroom meant we did not gel. Driving the c900 to its MOT the other day sealed its fate, and it was returned with thanks. On the plus side, the L200 returned today with a new starter motor so at least I have a tow car again, and the little jobs done on the Holden ready for MOT tomorrow, I am sure* it will be fine.

 

May I formally request pictures of the endeavour.

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As per my post in the Grumpy thread earlier, I took the Holden for an MOT today and the test had to be abandoned. Basically, the bodged up perfectly repaired fuel line gave up half way through the test whilst in the air on the ramp, covering the tester in finest unleaded! Fortunately, after calling me a few choice names, he saw the funny side and bodged up another temporary repair to enable me to get home. I knew it was not going to go well when one main beam headlight refused to come on, the bonnet would not open and a rear light bulb blew whilst we were looking at it! The headlight then came back on and has worked perfectly since, the bonnet changed its mind and opened fine. Looking at the fuel lines and a complete section of both lines need replacement, so I have added that to the list.

 

This afternoon was busy as I have been given a back actor for my Kubota in France so had to collect that and the forklift came in useful for the first time. I then had to fetch a mini-digger as my friends tow van lost the trailer electrics, and he is going to sort out the worst of the potholes on my track. I am now knackered and fancy a kip, but it is car club meeting tonight.

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Probably got you here with false hope - not that sort of track day! :-)

 

A couple of weeks ago, my farmer neighbour had a 14tonne digger in to do some work, so whilst he was there got him to grade the top section of my track, which certain big yellow bus drivers would have appreciated before SF18! This just made the bottom section of my track appear even worse, so when my friend who has a 2.5tonne digger said he was working in the area, I persuaded him to spend a couple of days on my track, and today we started on it. I had a small pile of chippings left over from when the track was done about 8 years ago, but we needed to get these to the areas which needed building up.

 

So, I found the nearly dead battery removed from my Saab 9-3, my heavy duty jump leads and the afore-mentioned Saab and fitted the battery to the Pikey truck, last started and moved (though not far!) at SF18, before that it was parked up about 4 years ago due to a lack of a cab floor! Amazingly it started first try and everything important (ie steering, brakes and tipper) all worked, so it was driven out.

 

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Loading was undertaken by my lawnmower:

 

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Unfortunately, the years sitting had seen my pile of planings set into a single lump, and the Kubota lacked the weight/traction to break them up. The choice was call my mate from the other end of the drive with the digger or use something handy! Fired up the MF forklift and used the forks to break up the lump, after which the Kubota loaded the truck no bother

 

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So far we have about 60% of the track done and we will finish it on Monday.

 

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Last job of the day was to move the spares Saab c900 'vert a few feet forward before jacking up the rear so I can remove the towbar. The spares Saab has very good bodywork, an excellent interior and excellent mechanicals. I decided not to repair it when I found some fairly serious corrosion but every time I walk past it I kept thinking I may have been too hasty. I went to move it with the Kubota, but all  wheels had seized their brakes, so it refused to move. I put a heavier duty strop on the towing eye and connected it to my friends digger arm and we gently pulled. It started to move, just before the entire front, bumper, slam panel etc parted company from the rest of the car. It is seriously rotten!

 

This made jacking it up much easier as I wrapped the strop around the towbar and used the digger to lift it and placed the rear wheels on a pair of ramps, ready to remove the towbar.

 

Surprisingly, the front coming off the car has cheered me up no end, as now I know I made the right decision in not treating it as a project.

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First job today was to go and fetch the first of two recently purchased Swedish estates. The first was the modern replacement for my 07 9-3 diesel auto estate - and is a Saab  9-3 diesel auto estate. This one has 50k less miles, is an 08 model facelift and has grey rather than black leather, but otherwise is the same. It has failed an MOT on a binding front caliper and cracked rear shock absorber mounts Will get on with ordering parts tomorrow.

 

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On another front, the rest of the day saw little progress. Returning home, as I drank tea, it started to rain which prevented me getting the angle grinder (240v) out to remove the bolts from under the spares c900 that attach the tow bar. Decided that I could probably undo the rear bolts as they go into the boot, providing it has not been too damp in there. At this point I discovered the boot release handle no longer works! The convertible has a rear bulkhead so you cannot go through via the back seat. There is a way in, but the part that needs removing has also rusted solid, so it is not coming off. The boot lid itself is rusty, so I have decided that a subtle* approach is called for, and have asked my friend to bring his Stihl saw tomorrow so we can cut through the boot lid and the lock!

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Tonight I am knackered! I am getting too old for this shit!

 

In two weeks time I have to be at the NEC with two cars, easily sorted, remove towbar from scrap Saab and fit to good Saab, then tow second car with Saab. Easy, I have 2 weeks to sort it and today I was going to remove it from the scrapper. Of course, I completely forgot my friend was coming back today to carry on with the track, so first 30 tonnes of crushed stone had to be moved, so the pikey truck again earned its keep. Of course, being a cheapskate the crushed stone came from a cheap (ie cash only) supply a few years ago, and so has large lumps of rock mixed in as they do not care about that for forestry roads! As a result, the large lumps had to be removed after spreading, so that was my job. Approximately 2 tonnes of large lumps were lifted onto the truck so I am aching in places I did not know you could ache!

 

In between, I had a towbar to remove so under the scrapper with Mr Angle Grinder I went as I was expecting a fight with the bolts. What I was not expecting was the tow bar to be so extensively rusted that in places it is less than half its original thickness - it is so bad I would not trust it for towing! Aaargh, into the house and on to the net to see if I can buy a new one. All the usual suspects (PF Jones, Witter, Towsure etc) no longer list the classic 900 and the only place that says they have one is in Belgium, but there phone number is dead and they have not answered my email so that looks good*. I did find a supplier who will make one to order, but the lead time is a minimum of 4 weeks so no use for the NEC.

 

This called for plan C, get the old bar off and use it as a template to see if I can persuade my local steel fabricator/blacksmith to make me one. So, back under the car, and off with the bolt heads at the front, the amount of rust under there was quite scary. This left the two bolts at the back and one in the spare wheel well, which neatly returned me to the non opening boot! Despite copious quantities of penetrating oil, it still would not open, and my limited patience ran out. Out with my mates stihl saw and a foot square section of boot lid including the lock was removed. This enabled me to easily trip the catch and get in to the boot. The spare wheel well bolt head fell off as soon as the grinder touched it, and my heavy duty air impact gun soon had the nuts off the remaining bolts.

 

The towbar is still firmly attached to the car as the bolts are rusted into position, and by this time it was too dark to see what I was doing, so called it a day. Hopefully another hour in the morning will see it off and I can see if I can get one made.

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Have you tried Watling and Tow Trust for a towbar? They usually have obscure stuff on the shelf.

 

Need more info on your Astro. Always wanted one, and have a Vito shaped hole in my life, :)

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Have you tried Watling and Tow Trust for a towbar? They usually have obscure stuff on the shelf.

 

Need more info on your Astro. Always wanted one, and have a Vito shaped hole in my life, :)

 

Will put up some details in a day or so, once things settle down! You are not far* away - why not pop up and have a look at it!

 

*by Scottish standards

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Will put up some details in a day or so, once things settle down! You are not far* away - why not pop up and have a look at it!

 

*by Scottish standards

That sounds like a fine day out! You wouldn't have a dog guard for a 9-5 estate would you?

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