well.. my saab is dead

my $300 Saab that I bought back in september has been diagnosed as terminal. After she ground to a halt last month, I had her in the garage while I thought of what to do with her.

237,000 miles, rust on both front fenders, rust on the spare tire area, badly in need of paint, and an interior...

I pulled the head off today.. and found no damage. Confused by this, I took a good hard look and noticed that the outer ring of the number 3 piston was shiney (as opposed to all the other pistons that were uniformly carboned up). After turning the engine over by hand, I think the wrist pin bushing/bearing or piston is gone. I can easy push the piston down beyond what the travel of the crank allows.. this would explain the taptaptapping in the head area.

I have decided to pull anything of value and start over. This time I am going to wait and find myself a nice 900.. a nice turbo, perferably an SPG

are you going to send the corpse to Valhalla?

AngryCorvair wrote: are you going to send the corpse to Valhalla?

Sounds like it was a great warrior.

I seem to have already found a nice looking Turbo 900. Trying to find out what the lady means by "damaged transmission"

edit

Just got the email

"The car will roll for a short distance than front wheel will bind up, havent checked it but have been told the pinion gear has probably broken. The transmission shifted fine up to that point."

This sound like a run away moment?

Weren't the transmissions on the OG 900s easier to work on/replace because they are north-south instead of east-west?

yes and no.. the top of the trans is the oilpan to the engine. So to remove the transmission, you need to pull the engine too.

mad_machine wrote: sound like a run away moment?

Yes.

RexSeven wrote: Weren't the transmissions on the OG 900s easier to work on/replace because they are north-south instead of east-west?

Not really. You still have to R&R the whole package to do the deed. IIRC from working awhile at an old SCCA buddy's shop, the old school Saab tranny is actually laid out in a case that also contains the sump for the engine.

From what I can remember, that's why they're so fragile in the first place (y'all who have actually worked on old SAABs, please feel free to correct me!). That being said..I'd still like an old 900 one day. I'm thinking 5-door, just to be different.

mad_machine wrote: yes and no.. the top of the trans is the oilpan to the engine. So to remove the transmission, you need to pull the engine too.

Eh, ya beat me to it! I'm leaving my other post, though..because it's got a pic.

But..dude! If you already know that..you know what somebody means when they say "transmission problems" in the ad..

EDIT: Hell, I just forget that those cars are now so old. As great as they are, it seems they'll all need some attention to the tranny these days..

I'm going to go ahead and jack this thread for a moment .

procainestart and/or FGC, what sort of gearbox oil do you recommend for a 900 5-speed? The Saab forums are full of many, varying opinions.

Also, once I drain the old oil out of the sump, will some remain in the primary housing?

Saab transmissions were trouble prone when they were new. I can't imagine the reliability problems now that they've entered old age and no-maintenance hell. I was, however, surprised to read the OP and that the engine is toast. The one thing Saab did build well was engines...I can't recall ever having replaced one for anything other than owner abuse/no oil change in 60k miles.

well.. to judge by the oil that came out of my saab's engine when I got it... abuse was something it suffered. So say that the oil was thick... would be an understatement.

Luke wrote: procainestart and/or FGC, what sort of gearbox oil do you recommend for a 900 5-speed? The Saab forums are full of many, varying opinions. Also, once I drain the old oil out of the sump, will some remain in the primary housing?

My local indy, the largest Saab shop in Seattle, uses Redline MTL in customers' cars, and I have run that a bunch. (They have rebuilt hundreds of c900 transmissions and are as knowledgeable as anyone.) However, if you drive the car aggressively, the Redline thins and the synchros feel like they're working very hard. I currently am trying a 2:1 mix of Redline MTL and MT-90 to see if that'll help with the heat but I haven't had a chance to drive the car like an asshat to see for sure. I've also run Honda MTF, which works fine, too. My indy recommends annual gear oil changes.

Yes, you'll get a bit left over in the primary case, a pint, perhaps. You can try jacking the car way up when draining; the truly anal will drain-fill-drive-drain-refill. If you have a 90 or newer, note that you'll need to drain by removing the diff cover, as Saab nixed the drain in '90, presumably due to too many people thinking they were draining motor oil, toasting the tranny. You don't need a paper replacement gasket if you've got some Loctite 518 handy.

Another vote for MTL. I've gotten to the point where I put it in damn near everything. The only thing newer than 93 in our fleet is SWMBO's Exploder (99), and it's autotragic anyhoo.

mad_machine wrote: I seem to have already found a nice looking Turbo 900. Trying to find out what the lady means by "damaged transmission" *edit* Just got the email "The car will roll for a short distance than front wheel will bind up, havent checked it but have been told the pinion gear has probably broken. The transmission shifted fine up to that point." This sound like a run away moment?

Manual or slushbox?

If it's a slushbox, run away. They're better at exploding than a live grenade with the pin pulled.

The manuals are still fairly fragile on the turbos, especially on tweaked turbos, but they're probably worth rebuilding.

Bad pinion is BAD. The gurus as the Saab shop I worked at said so, at least. I'm pretty sure it condemns the entire transmission.

well.. I have a known good transmission in my dead saab. Just need to pull it out before sending it out for new bearings and syncros (just in case, while it is out)

Just a small matter of pulling the drivetrain, sliding the new trans into place, and putting it back into the car...

A known good NG900 trans does you no good for a c900 (unless you're going to build some ridiculous mid engine thing).

On second thought, I guess I just assumed that you drive an NG for some reason so you probably already know that.

nope.. the NG is in pieces and will be gone as soon as I pull a few more pieces from it (like the head)

I will be taking the trans out of my Classic 91 that just croaked.