Topless Swede - sticking fingers in holes

[Surface Rust]

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...

[Surface Rust]

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

[cort1977]

Oooh, much towbar envy here.

[Surface Rust]

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...).

[Surface Rust]

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!

 

 

[DSdriver]

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.

[Surface Rust]

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.

Quite a pile of old parts!

Nothing like breaking in a new clutch gently, I hitched up the big rig and headed north, it had a job to do!

And successfully collected!

Cheers @bangernomics!

Saab kept all fluids in the right places and towed beautifully in some pretty horrendous rain.

I am now forming my very own shite display in the campsite (next to an LDV as well!).

 

 

[Surface Rust]

Time for an update.

Did over 4k miles on this over the summer and since I bought this last November. It has been great fun, a firm favourite with the kids and the daily driver of choice for me, the rest of the fleet has been languishing.

Anyway, the MoT date came around far too quickly, in fact I forgot about it, enjoying the Indian summer we had until it finally dawned on me to check the date.

Yes it had expired. Arses.

I bought this knowing it had a slightly checkered MoT history but that was offset by it being the cheapest one on the road in the country.  A brief poke at the bits mentioned as advisories last year soon developed into something more serious (we all know how this goes!).

Handy yellow chalk from last year. That should be an easy fix!

Err, hang on, what's that in the background. 

Zoom, enhance!

Double arses, that looks crusty!

Anyone who's had a 900 knows that this bit around the driveshaft is their Achilles heel, renowned for being a bastard to fix. Looks like this has had some previous attention in this area, maybe just a tidy up and fresh underseal?

 

 

[Surface Rust]

Of course not!

It's had an MoT standard* repair previously and the more I probed, the worse it looked.

Ended up getting medieval with the grinder after some minor* disassembly of the front suspension.

[Surface Rust]

When you've chopped that much out of a structural bit of your car, you start to question your sanity. In order to avoid the descent into madness and signing up for a PCP on  the latest Leapmotor Squirrel or whatever, it is essential at this stage to start gluing bits of metal back in.  

That way I can tell the wife it's nearly* fixed.

I thought it best to start with the bottom of the inner and outer wing as at least they weren't holding the wheel on and I could get my eye in again with the sparkly stick.

I'm glad I did as I was having loads of trouble with the wire burning back to the tip. It made for slow and frustrating going and I was at the point of getting on the phone to Clarke to give them a piece of my mind about their welder as it's only a few years old....

Quick bit of maths, actually it's 25 years since I bought it, where the hell does time go!

So, a brief interlude for a new tip and shroud and I was back in action with a lovely controllable welder again. Oops.

Enough procrastination, on to the tricky bits.

I had to do quite a bit of cleaning up before I could work out my approach. That inevitably led to a few more holes and a few 'thin' bits. All got chopped out - I don't want to have to do this again!

That bolt you can see dangling down in free air is one of the captive* wishbone bolts. Obviously it's position is pretty important if you want to retain any kind of directional control.

This meant fitting and removing the wishbone so many times my ratchet eventually gave up!

After a brief memorial service (I'd had it since I was 15!) progress resumed.

By this stage I was starting to feel confident I wouldn't totally stuff this up.

Don't worry, it's meant to be that shape underneath. No, I don't know why. Probably the reason they bloody rot out really!

Anyway, that's where I'm up to now. 

[beko1987]

Amazing work!

[Dobloseven]

25 year old welder.A mere child! My BOC Migmaster Turbo(rebranded Cebora) is 36,and still doing its stuff.Good feelings though,when you've cut all the rot out and cleaned everything up ready for welding.And when you sweep all the debris up.And when all the welding and grinding is finished,ready for filling,sealing, painting,etc.You know then,that what can possibly go wrong,already has.

[vtec-e]

Well persevered! As you say, I would have had many doubts cutting out so much.

Looking forward to the next updates.

[Surface Rust]

Managed to squeeze a few hours in this afternoon.

The eagle eyed will have noticed a bit of a gap that needed filling between the vertical panel and the bit I welded in previously. This required a couple of small sections letting in which was quite fiddly due to limited access.

Eventually it was ready for the closing sections, these were really pleasing to fit.

Does anyone else work like this? I honestly don't know what is wrong with me.

I actually stood up yesterday and immediately tripped up as the wire for my sander had got wrapped round my ankle. Don't be like me, FFS tidy up your work area!

I digress, the final* bit!

I've smeared around some seam sealer and will slap some paint on tomorrow.

Then I get the exciting task of reassembling it all.

I really hope it fits!

[Andyrew]

2 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

Does anyone else work like this? 

Yes , Always end up with a messy workshop. I'm trying to change my tidy up after mindset but it's not working too well.

However when doing welding work I will always tidy the tools into a pile for the next session as it just ends up like chaos, wire tangled up, Sharp metal and shite everywhere.

Nice repairs BTW!