Definitely not a crack:
Definitely not a crack:
EastsideTim came over and helped me wail on it some more. The core support is out and looks not so bad. Slowly but surely, I'm bending the bumper supports back in place. We did discover that the charcoal canister didn't survive the crash, so add that to the parts list.
We tried to get the hood lined up without the center support installed but the stupid hinge is in the way and I can't get the rollpins out easily. It sort of looks like the left pin on the trailing edge of the hood is bent a little, though, so I'll straighten that out.
It isn't perfect, but the bumper is basically aligned. That's all the energy I have for today, but tonight I'm going to start ordering parts.
What's the deal with the parts car in CT? (I'm in CT.)
In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :
On FBM, there's someone in CT that's advertising Saab parts from a parts car they've got, but it's a "come pull the parts yourself" sort of deal. I kind of feel like if I wind up doing that, I'd rather try to get my own parts car though.
wae said:In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :
On FBM, there's someone in CT that's advertising Saab parts from a parts car they've got, but it's a "come pull the parts yourself" sort of deal. I kind of feel like if I wind up doing that, I'd rather try to get my own parts car though.
If it's "SAAB Parts For Sale," they're a known scammer that's been banned by many groups, but not all. If it's someone else and you need some help, let me know.
When you figure out exactly what you need, shoot me a message with the list (if you're interested in another jaunt to my place). I have a few cars with imperfect, but serviceable (aka cheap) parts. I'm happy to help keep this thing on the road.
I just got an alert from Row52, a PNP in Carson City NV just got 3 900's.
I decided that since the cooling system is 34 years old, and any used cooling system I get will be in the same age range, I spent the $160 to get a new radiator and it arrived today.
I have new radiator hoses coming as well. I'm not too worried about the upper one since I replaced one half of it with a slightly new bit of hose and it's easy to get it, but the lower hose is probably original and looks a lot harder to get to when the radiator and bumper and all that is installed.
After another 30-45 minutes of gentle persuasion, I have the fender looking a little bit like it might take the corner light:
No, it's nowhere near perfect or even "pretty", but the general shape is a little more correct.
Meanwhile, I've also been working on the headlight bucket.
I bought new hoses for Tylers car, and added water cooling to the Turbo. He was not happy with me for giving him that job at all.
In reply to Aaron_King :
I am actively resisting an extremely long list of things that fall into the category of "gee, while the front end is off I could easily get to the...." I'm in a position where I just need to get this thing back on the road as quickly as I can.
Okay, well, about that radiator hose. I know that I really "should" replace that hose. But holy crap, it appears that they hung that hose in mid-air and then wrapped an engine around it. So... I think we're going to live dangerously and just let that one be for now. I did clean things up a bit and throw some paint on it. It isn't particularly pretty, but it should slow the rust down a little. I put the bolts in the ultrasonic cleaner and ran them through the thread cleaner and now have the new core support bolted in.
The lower hose doesn't fail often, as coolant is coolest in it. The 90* elbow hose at the head is the most likely to ruin your day.
Re-assembly is looking good. Glad you're keeping it on the road, new warts and all.
That's good to know! And, bonus, if it does fail I've got one on the shelf now!
With the center support in, I can see the next problem. The left side bumper support is still pushed back about a quarter- to a half-inch. I don't see a good way to pull it forward given the equipment I have at my disposal, but it looks like I could put some spacers behind the mounting bracket that's on the bumper itself to take up the slack.
Except some genius decided to use an aluminum bracket with steel studs and the new bumper's bracket is essentially welded to the studs. I have a good bracket from the original bumper so I'm in the process of cutting the stupid bracket off of the studs.
With judicious use of the deathwheel and an air hammer, the bracket's corrosion is finally defeated!
I need to shim up the bracket still, but I went ahead and mocked things up to see how close I am.
It is far from perfect, but it's pretty close.. The fender trim is just sort of hanging there right now and needs to have some sort of physical attachment done. I didn't notice until now that the little bit on the right side marker light that provides a mounting point to the headlight bucket is broken off, so I'll need to find a way to attach that. As mentioned, I need to shim up the bumper bracket a bit more and I think the mount also needs to come down just a little bit - the left side of the bumper is pushing up into the headlight and marker a bit. The radiator needs to be connected up and bolted down and the hood needs to be put on and aligned. I have to get the intercooler, APC, and the other things I removed to gain access to the inside of the fender area re-installed. The charcoal canister needs to be figured out, because I think some lines got broken in the crash so they'll need to be replaced and/or patched up. It's really coming together, though.
Getting closer!
The daughter and I spent most of the afternoon making some headway.
Between what I already had and what I got from Powar, I had six of the black headlight mounts. These things:
In the process of getting them moved around to attach to the right headlights, three of them just shattered. I didn't even put that much force on them and they basically exploded in my hands. I guess 34 year old plastic parts just doesn't have the resiliency it used to. There were a couple other of the adjuster bits that I needed and those .stl files are on the internet, so I'm printing them now. The mounts, however, are not anywhere to be found so I'm going to see if I can model them real fast and print some up.
Left to do:
I figured out what I'm going to do with the charcoal canister! They appear to be the same, it's just the lid that's different. But the lids are the same size and the original lid isn't in terrible shape. With a little bit of JB Weld, I'm putting the nipple back on the purge solenoid:
While that cures, I swapped the lids.
And put a little JB Weld on the original lid to make those nipples work again.
Also, the charge pipes are all attached again. While the JB Weld cures, I'm going to go figure out how the vacuum pump is supposed to be plumbed. Basically, I need to get it running enough that I can get it off the lift so I can bring der Scheißwagen into the garage to do the tranny service.
Sigh. Looks like I'm not done with the oil cooler yet. About 10 seconds of running begat me this:
You may know of this place already, but last Wednesday I got a set of seats for the wife's convertible and a set of 900 louvers from this place:
Talked with the owner for a bit, he has a lot of cool stuff, but is looking to slim down his stash and has quite a few 900's around for parts.
In reply to Aaron_King :
I've heard that he's got a pretty awesome repertoire of parts and knowledge for the c900s. I may have to go see him because I am 99% sure that the replacement oil cooler also has a split in it somewhere. I might be able to braze it shut but the oil is coming up from the side between the cooler itself and the mounting tab, so I may not be able to get to it.
wae said:Sigh. Looks like I'm not done with the oil cooler yet. About 10 seconds of running begat me this:
This is kinda odd. The filter boss has an integrated thermostat that opens a valve to send oil to the cooler -- looks like it's stuck open. Not a big deal, just not working properly.
If you're not certain that the cooler has a hole:
It's been a while, but I believe there are two kinds of fittings for the cooler hoses - one has seals; the other doesn't (tapered fittings), IIRC. If it happens to be that the leak is at a fitting, then maybe that's the problem, or if it's the type with seals, they're bad, or missing.
And, finally, the hoses commonly leak, so have a look. If you're re-using the ones already in the car, maybe the accident damaged them...
In reply to procainestart :
I was pretty excited when I pulled one of the fittings off and found that there were two rather flattened o-rings in there instead of a single one that was still round. But after replacing the o-ring and tightening the fitting again, it was still spraying oil. I cleaned everything up and set my phone to record it when I started the engine. It's definitely coming up from the side of the cooler and not out of the line or the fitting. Since I can't really make it any worse, maybe I'll take the bracket off with an angle grinder and see if there's an opportunity to braze it closed.
Aaron_King said:You may know of this place already, but last Wednesday I got a set of seats for the wife's convertible and a set of 900 louvers from this place:
Talked with the owner for a bit, he has a lot of cool stuff, but is looking to slim down his stash and has quite a few 900's around for parts.
Greg's a nice dude. I delivered a Viggen to him a few months back and got to peruse his shop. He has a bunch of interesting stuff sitting around up there.
Bill: I'm sorry to see that the oil cooler is leaking. I never ran the SPG parts car that donated it. If it appears that you'll not be able to make that one work, I can walk the yard to see if there are others to be had.
In reply to Powar :
He showed a red 78 99 Turbo he is trying to sell, so cool.
I put a call in to Hacker Automotive yesterday and left a message. In the meantime, I'm working from the shop today and am going to try to find some time to sneak out there and grind that bracket off to see if I can braze it shut.
Trying to print the headlight adjusters did not go well. This new printer is pretty freaking whiz-bang and I bet it would do an awesome job but it came with ZERO instructions on how to set it up, other than where the power switch is and which way to turn the leveling feet to raise and lower them. I suspect that the thing needs to be calibrated and doesn't know where the bottom of the vat is, but I don't know. At any rate, instead of getting headlight adjuster bits, I got two round discs stuck to the release film at the bottom of the vat. While we try to unberkeley that thing, I went ahead and ordered up the headlight adjuster set and the grille clips from Modern Classsic Saab and it looks like they should hit my mailbox today.
Powar, thank you! I am not sure if it was already broken or if I managed to break it in the process of removing/transporting/installing. There wasn't any evidence of massive oil loss on the car when I took it off so I really can't rule out that I did a dumb somehow. That is my specialty, after all! I appreciate your offer to look for another - I'll let you know what I find out with either sourcing one locally or getting this one sealed up.
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