In reply to Aaron_King :
Oh damn! I forgot about that one. Hmm..... I'll have to do some research real fast. What yard did you say that was?
In reply to Aaron_King :
Oh damn! I forgot about that one. Hmm..... I'll have to do some research real fast. What yard did you say that was?
Its in the Dayton LKQ yard.
Well, son of a... If what I'm seeing on teh interwez is correct, that car should have the "948" ECU which should maybe work. Looks like I'm putting on my boots and going to Dayton.
On the way home with a 948 ECU, a headlight assembly, a new trim bit for where the window switches go, a new fuel level sender, and a couple other bits.
In reply to wae :
Seems like you may as well tweak the APC while you're at it? Just sayin'... 
In reply to wae :
You didn't grab the wheels?
In reply to Aaron_King :
I didn't... I thought about it, but I assumed they'd charge me for the wheel plus the core charge (which is complete bullE36 M3) plus the disintegrating tire. That'd make the whole thing about $300 or so. I guess if I would have known they were only going to charge me $150 for what I already had, maybe I would have...
In reply to procainestart :
That is still on my list of things to do!
In reply to wae :
I have learned when buying from LKQ to be sure and tell them I don't want any of the warranties or anything like that. Saved my butt right before I went to Texas, my boys and I went down and grabbed the rear axle and both front hubs off that car. Even with no warranty and my Military discount it was still almost $400.
In reply to Aaron_King :
Yeah, I noticed when he was ringing it up that all the warranties were pre-selected for my convenience and I nipped that in the bud right away.
berkeleying aye! It worked!
In reply to wae :
Brilliant!!!
Excellent.
Alright, so I have a little more time now to document what I did for posterity.
The link above from Townsend Imports was the process that we followed to troubleshoot the issue. Since we were getting spark but the fuel pump wasn't running, I was suspicious of the ECU since it uses the same signal for spark as it does for fuel delivery. And unlike other cars that I've worked with, the Saab does not give a priming pulse of fuel when the key is turned on, it must see rotation of the crankshaft before it will fire the fuel pump relay. Because jumping the fuel pump worked and brought fuel up to the rail but the car still wouldn't start, my assumption was that the problem wasn't in the fuel pump relay part of the system. If that was the fault, then once I bypassed it and got the pump running, the car should have started right up.
Following the steps, we checked voltage and signal in several different places - the fuel injectors were not getting powered up and were not firing when cranking. Disconnecting the ECU, we checked the pins and found that we had good voltage and good ground at the ECU and by jumping the power to the various pins on the connector, the fuel pump would run and the injectors would power up. Using the multimeter, we watched the incoming tach signal from the ignition module during cranking and saw that we were getting a signal, so that meant that the various systems were telling the ECU that the engine was spinning, and if the ECU were to act on that information the various components would start operating. But the fault was either that the ECU was not able to "see" the tach signal or if it did see the signal it didn't know what to do with it.
The ECU was a Bosch 0 280 000 585. I replaced it with a Bosch 0 280 000 948 and it fired up right away. I also used the system and fuel pump relays from the donor car. My thinking there is that if the problem was that whatever they have that's supposed to protect the ECU from voltage spikes has failed in the original ones, since these match the ECU, it's less likely that they've also failed. I've got two brand new ones coming tomorrow from FCP Euro, though, so I'll swap those in when they arrive.
Today we put the car up on the lift and cleaned up the underside as best we could. It appears that the majority of the leaking fluid is power steering fluid, not engine oil. I think there's a little bit of a leak from the pressure sender, but it really seems like most of the fluid is coming from behind the engine. We've also noticed that the oil doesn't need to be topped off very often, but we're going through ps fluid pretty regularly - I was under the impression that she was adding engine oil frequently, but it turns out she's just checking it and verifying that it's okay.
Of course I couldn't get it to drip right away, but I'm sure that by later this afternoon, there will be plenty to see.
Once that was done, we put in the new hydraulic cylinder for the top. The only real problem I had was that the replacement cylinder had the top fitting pointing down and that causes the plastic line to want to kink. I pulled it back out, removed the fitting, spun it 180°, and reinstalled it. After a quick bleed of the system - and spraying hydraulic fluid e v e r y w h e r e because I'm an idiot - the top is back to functioning. I'm going to see about rebuilding the old cylinder so I've got a spare on the shelf.
Tonight, we spent some time carefully diagnosing and solving the oil and power steering leaks so that it won't leave a puddle everywhere it goes.
Ha! Just kidding! That sounds like it would require effort so we put a new radio in it instead.
The ultra-cheap single-DIN unit that we put in for the challenge stopped working a little while ago and you really just can't drive a convertible without tunes. Plus, I'd rather have the screen for GPS display and voice control available for my daughter to reduce the chance that she's screwing around with her phone while driving. I've put a couple Boss units in cars before and they're not high-end, but they're pretty decent for the money. This one is a single DIN with a screen that's mounted on a ball joint. It actually works pretty well and does the Android and Carplay stuff for under $165 after tax.
We did work on one actual problem while we were over there, though. The steering wheel had a ton of up-down and side-to-side play. I ordered up a new steering wheel bushing and lock ring for under $20 to solve that problem. First we removed the 33 year old bomb:
Then we taped up the clockspring and pulled the wheel off.
Turns out that the bushing wasn't damaged. It was just gone:
Pardon the terrible focus from my potato there, but if you look down the shaft you'll notice that it's just sitting loose on the bearing. Using a bit of PVC pipe, I hammered in the new bushing and then the new lock ring. It's a whole different driving experience now.
I swear I'm going to get around to the leaks. My current plan is to first swap out the oil pressure sender. Then I'll get it back up on the lift with a couple cans of brake cleaner and spray it down real well. Once it's cleaned up, I've got some UV dye I can put in the power steering fluid and then we'll just run it on the lift until we see fluids. Hopefully the UV dye will make it easier to see from where the leak is originating.
The driver's side windshield wiper stopped working today. And of course it was a day where I had other plans and didn't have time to fix it. I screwed around with it for a bit, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet. The problem is in this part:
The spindle on #14 has splines on the front for the wiper arm, but those were seated just fine. The other end of the spindle is also splined and is apparently just pressed in to the round bit there which is actuated via the cable represented by #9. The back bit came off of the splines so the wiper wouldn't turn. In the process of trying to angle it into place to try pressing it back on, the cable came off the wheel. And I cannot get that cable back on. I'm wondering if the whole damned linkage needs to come off the car and maybe a little bit of brazing needs to be done to secure that wheel. It seems like a really stupid design, honestly.
Well, that was a pain in the ass.
In order to get that cam reinstalled, I removed the 8mm nut (#10) from the end of the cable while holding the cable still with a pliers. Then I wrapped the cable around the cam and taped it in place so I could secure the non-bolt end of the cable in the linkage arm. The whole thing gets pushed back and the tape comes off as I slide the cam back onto the shaft. Then the bolt-end of the cable gets fished through and the nut is put back on. Finally, I held the back of the cam and used a block of wood to press the shaft back into the cam.
If I ever have cause to remove all the linkage, I'm going to either install a roll pin or braze the cam to the shaft because that design is awful.
Apparently the Sysco delivery truck at my daughter's work did a little hit and run to the Saab:
Not much damage, but it's sort of the principle of the thing.
A couple problems have cropped up recently. First, while I was dealing with the water heater, my daughter came home and said that the car was running really poorly. Turns out that the #2 injector came disconnected from the wiring harness, so that was an easy fix. I took that opportunity to put the new PCV parts on as well. It's a really good thing I tested things out a bit, though. Part of what I had to replace was this:
I managed to break that top nipple off so I needed to replace it. Many moons ago, I thought I had no idea how a wastegate was supposed to work because the vacuum tee that I was using to provide its reference signal was not really a tee - the tee part was solid on the inside due to a manufacturing defect. Turns out that the upper nipple on the new part I got from Pelican was the same way! I had to get in there with a pick and bust out the plastic to open it up. Good thing I checked that before installing it!
After I did that, the daughter noticed that there was a little wisp of steam coming from the general area of the radiator. I rented the pressure tester from the parts store, but it turns out that they don't have an adapter for C900s. Because of course they don't. When we went to investigate, however, we noticed that the upper hose was leaking a pretty fair amount right at the radiator. Turns out that a Dodge Neon upper radiator hose has almost the exact same curve, so I trimmed an inch or so off of an old one that I was keeping "just in case" and got that problem solved.
And this morning, on her way to school, the stupid windshield wiper arm came disconnected again. What an absolutely stupid design that is. Looks like I get to figure out how to braze that together.
wae said:Not much damage, but it's sort of the principle of the thing.
There bumpers were sanded with 1000 grit and 250 on damage and dings, then rattle canned with black, I would use satin.
Oh, I like how that turned out!
After a liberal application of RainX, I was able to drive the car home from the university's parking garage. I guess the upside is that it only took me about 45 minutes or so to get the cam back on the shaft this time. Next time it should go even faster because I figured out that if the wire isn't arranged correctly, it'll just pop itself right back off. When wrapping the cable around the cam, the end that has the threads on it and goes to the right needs to pass in front of the end of the cable that comes from the left.
The only way to put some sort of pin into the shaft to keep that cam attached would be to remove the entire linkage from the car and I've heard that's a pretty tough job with the AC compressor where it is. So I'm trying someting a little different: I worked some JB Weld Steel Stik into the splines of the shaft after it was all together. Perhaps that can provide enough resistance to keep it from coming loose. In retrospect, I probably should have used some of that Loctite 620, but I suppose if it comes off again, I can try that.
If you need to remove the wiper mechanism, it's pretty simple to move the AC out of the way.
Remove the two button hex (or 10-mm) bolts on the mounting bracket at the head, and loosen, but don't try to back all the way out, the 12- or 13-mm bolt behind the alternator, at the base of the bracket. Okay, that one is buried and can be a hassle, but once loosened, the bracket, which on your car is slotted (but not on earlier models; thru MY85??), can be pulled out, with the compressor. Rest it on the RH side of the engine bay (on a towel/blanket). For additional info, look for headgasket R&R instructions, as this is a step in that process. (I suppose you could remove the compressor from the bracket, but I haven't done it that way and IIRC it can be tough to get a wrench on all the bolts.)
For bumper paint, search Saabnet c900 board for SEM bumper, which will turn up a part number for rattle cans that match the bumper well, will remain flexible, and are said to be durable (made to flex). Hopefully, they're still available.
There's also a PPG paint, called Anthracite Gray -- the paint code is probably on Saabnet, too. Search anthracite PPG. Not sure if you can get rattle cans or if it's got flexy stuff added, however.
Well, as detailed in this thread, this project has either come to an end or has reached a whole new jumping off point. There was a little bit of black ice on my daughter's way to work this morning.
We picked up the car from the tow lot this afternoon and I was able to get a little better look at it once it was on the trailer.
One thing I noticed at the site of the crash was that the passenger door didn't want to open. I was pretty sure it was just conflicting with the hood, and this confirms it. My assumption is that the hood is moved over a little bit since it hinges in the front.
The subframe and control arms and everything in that general area seems to be unaffected, which is encouraging.
I didn't notice that the quarterpanel had taken a hit before. Looking at the picture from the crash site, I can see it pretty obviously now, but I didn't notice it until today. It looks like it got folded down a little which may make fitting a new taillight tricky, but that's not a pressing concern.
When I get back, I'll get in there and take things apart a little more, but I am cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to get it back on the road. It won't be as pretty as it was, but it'll be a car to get people to work and school.
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