Topless Swede - sticking fingers in holes

1,673 · May 4

When I procured this fine steed from here, back in November, I vowed to document my ownership in detail.

6 months later and I'm making the first post, that should give you a flavour of the speed I work at. Taking your time usually means doing a better job, but I reckon I'll shatter that myth here.

I bought this from @Alan_Green, and gent that he is, he delivered it during one of the many winter storms we had. This proved two things:

-it was fundamentally reliable

-Alan really wanted rid of it

Only joking, only one of those is true.

It was an immediate hit and got pressed into family and commuting duties, here it is collecting a turkey:

Running a car daily is the best way of developing ~~a list of reasons to sell it~~ a repair list, and after only a day I had two pressing tasks,

Firstly, removing these horrors,

These aero blades are too stiff to cope with the Saab's curvy windscreen and they juddered terribly whilst also leaving half the screen unswept.

Fixed and vision restored.

Secondly, there was a chronic misfire from cold that disappeared by the end of the road. I thought it was going to be some complicated 5th injector nonsense, but rarely for me I started with the basics before spending huge amounts of money.

Hmm, that would do it. Never seen a plug fail like this before, wonder if it was a counterfeit one?

Running better I couldn't ignore a weird tapping noise from the back I was getting every time I changed direction. It sounded like something rolling around, but I searched everywhere in vain. Eventually after swinging the back end of the car violently from side to side on the drive (neighbours must have wondered what the hell I was doing, not for the first time), I tracked it down to the rear light cluster

Yes, that is the remains of a bulb that was rolling around inside the cluster. I couldn't believe how noticeable it was!

To be continued...

1,673 · May 4

To expect a 34 year old soft top to be watertight is somewhat unrealistic and despite the Saab's original high build quality, things were wet that shouldn't have been. Supplied with the car was a pragmatic solution, a margarine tub for baling out purposes. The water was gathering in the tub that holds the hood when it's down. Eventually it would leak out of this into the boot and from there to the outside world (more of the consequences of that later...).

Primary culprit was the back window which was no longer attached at the bottom. Also supplied with the car was a tube of Sikaflex so I duly applied that to the window, and everything else I touched or brushed past in the process. That stuff gets everywhere and never lets go.

Fixed, mostly. A clean and coat of waterproofing solution to the rest of the hood has the rain beading pleasingly on it once more.

As mentioned, all that leaking water had left it's mark on the boot floor, and the last MoT had handily marked up the areas for attention.

As these were only advisories, my normal approach would be thus:

Fixed

However, the need to move this,

With this,

Meant I was going to have to do something more permanent*.

Chop , chop

CAD

Several small fires and lots of swearing later,

Seal sealer hiding all the sins,

Of course, I'm ignoring this corner as it looks a lot trickier.

Anyway, I could now bolt this up and marvel at a genuine period Saab accessory.

It was a cold day, OK?!

That's better!

Still to do:

- grumbly clutch release bearing

- one headlight wiper MIA (critical feature!)

- lumpy idle when hot

7,009 · May 4

Oooh, much towbar envy here.

1,673 · May 25

This steed has a collection task planned for half term, so I thought I had better work my way through the rest of the to do list.

Obviously the priority was the broken headlamp wiper, however the spare motor I had was sadly for the wrong side, so I've had to park that one.

On to the noisy clutch bearing then.

900 clutches are a strange beast, you can do the whole job without ever even having to bend down, let alone grovel on the floor. This means it is a job I'm willing to tackle these days!

Plastic cover off and this is what you see

All looks original, not bad for 34 years and 112k. The bearing in question is in the middle.

Fortunately the hydraulics still worked (turns a simple job into a right pain), so with the assistance of my 11yr old I could compress the clutch and insert the special* tool (might look similar to a bike brake cable).

Everything unscrewed and eventually pried out - one dowel on the flywheel put up a bit of a fight but eventually lost to the crowbar.

Obviously I am going to change the slave and clutch too whilst in here, and just in time as the original friction plate was just about on the rivets.

Whilst it was off I couldn't resist sticking my finger in the spigot bearing hole, must be a man thing. This had unpleasant consequences, instead of a nice smooth action it felt dry and crunchy, not what you want. I think this was the source of the nasty noises.

Fortunately I am a hoarder and knew I had one in stock somewhere. A mere half day of searching later and I found it. I wasn't sure how to get the old one out and after watching countless videos of people filling orifices with bread(!) and grease and things I had resigned myself to removing the flywheel. One last look and the algorithm threw this up

It only bloody worked! Whipped it out in seconds and new one tapped in.

I was dead chuffed and decided to celebrate by treating the car to more new parts (in for a penny...).

1,673 · May 25

From bitter past experience I've found that replacing a slave cylinder on a neglected hydraulic system often leads to a premature failure from crud in the master cylinder, so I decided to change the master and the clutch hose whilst in here.

Access is needed from under the dash so some brief* disassembly later and most of the dash was in the back seat

Another worthwhile job, this hole on the clevis fork should be round, that's probably about 20mm of excess pedal travel accounted for!

New one in and all back together, but just time to fix one of the cars endearing* idiosyncrasies

This was the ignition key supplied with the car

Less than ideal, and one of the reasons my other half refused to drive it (it's operation wasn't guaranteed!).

This was cause the original key had broken in the barrel and a bit was still jammed in there.

The barrel was eventually extracted (once again thanks to internet advice) and I was able to extract the key remnants.

I proceeded to blast 30 years of grit, crisps, bogeys and skin cells out of the barrel and was rewarded with a lovely smooth action with a fresh key. Result!

5,128 · May 25

My solution to having a key break off in the ignition barrel was to just use the rest of the broken key to start the car and have a complete key on the keyring for the other locks.

1,673 · May 27

Realise I forgot to complete this. Following the rather satisfying key resurrection, I bunged the rest of the bits back together under the bonnet taking the opportunity to replace the water pump and rad as the pump was a little noisy and the rad looked original.