SAAB 99 EMS

Per

I would like to know if you can give me some guidance. I have just purchased a 1975 Saab 99 EMS. its a Midwest car with almost no rust. It came with its maintance history from 1980 on. the car was only driven 500 miles in the lasst 10 years. It arrived yesterday and starts and drives but has no power. I will give it a tune up- Plugs - wires - cap- rotor ( does it have points?) Fuel filter and belts.

So my questions are..

If I cant find parts locally where do you get them?

I see under your engine rebuild area you mentioned using MG parts. Is there a cross referance guilde somewhere?

Is you new engine a 99 engine or does one from a 900 fit. Should I want spares.

Is there a shop manual in PDF form?

Here ae a few Photos of the car.

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/bam2002/Saab/

Thanks

Barry

No power? Hmm...check timing. It does have points.

As far as parts, I've been using online parts vendors like eeuroparts.com and a few others. The MG timing chain tensioner does work, but that's the only part from them that does work.

The engines from all classic 900s will fit...some will require firewall work. I'd recommend you spend some time over at www.saabrally.com as those guys have tried just about everything.

there is no shop manual in pdf form. Haynes makes an ok manual and factory manuals pop on ebay occasionally.

Per

Wow, nice looking car, good find!

That is a sharp looking car! Good luck.

Ill have all the tune up parts tomorrow. Its been a while since I gapped points and set timing. But I remeber since I have had it to do it on my BMW 2002.

Does any one make front fenders , Metal or Glass? One has some filler in it. Other than that the car is solid.

Also where is the timing mark. Yea I need to find a manual. Is it between the fireall and engine where the belts are?

I am also looking for seat skins. The drivers seat has a bad seam. Any one re making them?

Thanks

front fenders: they're welded on. NOS ones are very, very hard to find. You'll have to remake. You can use some pieces cut out from a 900.

900 seats bolt in. cheaper than recovering.

Yea but I want to keep the 70s look.. So Ill recover with that funky 2 tone seat skins.

Also I edited the posts above.. Re where the timing indicator is? Is it by the belts?

Did you know the rotor and cap is the same as a VW bug? I have a bug pertronix ignition laying around Im going to see if it fits.. The point part # is different than a bug so may not.

Thanks

there's a hole at the top of the bellhousing that points to a line on the block right below the distributor.

Yea, I believe I used an 1849 or an 1847 on mine, I just had to grind down a tab to make it work.

Per

I was corrected by myself, it was an 1843

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/project-cars/1977-saab-99/saab-ignition-and-a-little-sander-repair/

What a cool car. I love the Bosch fog lamps.

I've wanted one of those for as long as I can remember, have fun with it!

Nice car!!

In addition to saabrally.com, Saabnet's 99 forum is another good resource.

Take care of that front air dam; unless someone's making replicas, I doubt you'd be able replace it.

Re: 900 seats -- I'm pretty sure the only ones that might bolt in are from very early 900s (79-80, maybe thru 81-82??).

procainestart

I have the spoiler off the car now. I am fixing some body work on the front fender. I have a friend that works at a Glass company. he is already made molds off my BMW E30 body kit.

Ill have to see if he can make molds off the SAAB spoiler. Its only ablut 8 bolts - screws to remove.. Im guessing there would be a market for such a thing.

thanks I had found the Saabnet forum. I also have joined the saabrally one. Of course its Rally specific. not where I am going with the car. This car would be used for Auto crossing, maybe a track day as Sebring.. Mostly around town to car shows etc. I like "Different" cars. I also have a Citroen DS 21 and a few vintage BMWs.

Congrats on picking up that supercool 99. Is it the same one that sold on eBay recently? I was watching that auction. Looks like the same car...

You're getting me excited about working on mine when the weather gets a bit better.

Yea it was on Ebay but never met reserve.

It was not running and I wanted to make sure it didnt need fuel pump - fuel system for the $$ he was asking. So the prev owner agreed to drain the tank and make sure it ran. Once that was done I purchased the car and made shipping arrangements.

I will have the tune up done this weekend and the fender repair started. I found a 1/2 by 2 inch rust hole under the filler. So I ll weld it up and then re apply the filler and paint.

Ill get photos on the repairs up later..

thanks

BTW if any one has a set of the front blinker - side marker lens's let me know. One of them is cracked.

Is glass still available for those? There are so few left that if new windshields arent available it would probably be a good idea to have a couple of spares if you ghet the chance. lol I know the only one i have ever seen ( in the junkyard) someone took the windshield.

bam2002 wrote: procainestart I have the spoiler off the car now. I am fixing some body work on the front fender. I have a friend that works at a Glass company. he is already made molds off my BMW E30 body kit. Ill have to see if he can make molds off the SAAB spoiler. Its only ablut 8 bolts - screws to remove.. Im guessing there would be a market for such a thing. thanks I had found the Saabnet forum. I also have joined the saabrally one. Of course its Rally specific. not where I am going with the car. This car would be used for Auto crossing, maybe a track day as Sebring.. Mostly around town to car shows etc. I like "Different" cars. I also have a Citroen DS 21 and a few vintage BMWs.

Well, a double-wishboned FWD car with the engine in backward certainly qualifies as "different." :-)

Most of the saabrally.com guys know plenty about the cars, regardless of whether they're being used for rally. There are some folks there who do stuff on tarmac only, too.

The market for the spoiler would be small, I'd imagine, but the cars certainly have a fervent following, so you might do all right selling them in forum classifieds & eBay.

@ Travis_K: I seem to recall reading that windshields are still sort of available from Sweden but they are hard to get here. It's definitely worth grabbing one if you see it in a junkyard. Unfortunately, the 900 windshields don't fit.

Per I just ordred the Pertronix kit.. thanks.. Do you recall what had to be modified? the ring that goes on the center. Or the pickup itself?

Found another rust stop under a bubble on the back passenger quarter. Looks like ill be taking the gas powered cutting wheel out to the U pull this weekend and chopping up a 900 for some metal.. then a bit of welding.

I think I just ground down a rivet a little bit. Once you place it in there, you'll see what I mean.

Sharp looking car BAM! Looking forward to seeing it out and about.

Excellent! My '77 EMS was one of my favorite cars. Unfortunately in 77 (and possibly other years) they apparently assembled the sunroof cars (or maybe just the EMSs?) in Belgium after shipping the unprotected, unpainted raw metal body sheels by rail from Sweden where they were painted and assembled.

Mine had rust everywhere... but until the rear suspension actually rusted loose from the body it was an awesome driver!

Bill

If the car has been sitting for a while, check the water pump. You do NOT want to have it seize up in the block.

I had a '77 EMS back in the early eighties, I drove that thing everywhere.

Yea, I just wrote off a block that had a seized wp. Rebuilt the engine using my spare block and now have an electric wp.

bam,

If the power is down I would almost guarantee the mechanical distributor advance is frozen. For some reason, those distributors are prone to that. While you have it apart, clean and oil the advance weights. Make sure they're free to move.

Thank for the info.

I have started driving it around town. It has a stumble when cold then is Ok when warm. I swapped over the points for a pertronix unit.that seemed to solve alot of the power issues. I also timed the car.

I now am working on the front fender. It had a rust hole and some bondo. Got a graft from a 900 at the junkyard. Welded it in, now working on the filler.

I also had the radiator recored and added about 1/2 inch of thickness. I need to get a new switch for the fan.