Ownership Verified: Time for a resurrection: 1994 Saab 900 turbo convertible

Labcoatguy

Labcoatguy

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Joined
Mar 27, 2005
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Location
New England region, USA
Car(s)
#Jaguar #XKR #XJR, #Saab #9-3 #9-5 #900
So this basically fell into my lap. A Saab collector the next town over from me had a few 900 convertibles that had been sitting for a while but otherwise were in good shape. I picked the one with the most solid bodywork, and had it delivered to my place. The hood had been dented while it sat, but I am supposed to get a replacement sometime in the near future. At the moment, my focus is on disassembling and cleaning everything, including anything rubber. Proof pic to come.

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Been steadily disassembling it when I get a moment. Findings:
  • Almost all metal is solid with just a few bits of surface rust that needs touching up.
  • Got to keep an eye out for random stereo wiring, including wires going to a CD changer.
  • The ignition key barrel is rather stuck and I managed to break the key off in it, so that's gonna need to come out and get a good cleaning.
  • Wow there's a helluva tight squeeze of hoses and wiring under the hood; kinda makes sense considering that ABS and air conditioning had to get crammed into that engine bay, along with turbocharging and intercooling. It does end up with funny things like the coolant tank being different sizes for ABS and pre-ABS cars because of the space taken up by the ABS vacuum accumulator.
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Body and paint look really good from here, I presume just the usual surface bubbles under the wheelarch trim. Is it 5spd or auto?

Edit: wait what, 2.3-liter engine in an OG cabrio?
 
public said:
Body and paint look really good from here, I presume just the usual surface bubbles under the wheelarch trim. Is it 5spd or auto?

Edit: wait what, 2.3-liter engine in an OG cabrio?
Click to expand...
Manual; even the wheelarch trim isn't hiding anything nasty, which is frankly amazing. Apparently the engine is the originial 2 liter and that valve cover is incorrect, which raises the question of what happened to the original one. I happen to have a spare correct ribbed cover lying around that I'm going to refinish and put in there.
 
Spider? Time to burn the car to cinders. It's the only way, I'm sorry.
 
WDWBen said:
Spider? Time to burn the car to cinders. It's the only way, I'm sorry.
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Nah, Saab never called it a Spider, just a convertible. Oh that thing, I'll keep it around as security against other creepy-crawlies.

Proof pic:
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Labcoatguy said:
  • Wow there's a helluva tight squeeze of hoses and wiring under the hood; kinda makes sense considering that ABS and air conditioning had to get crammed into that engine bay, along with turbocharging and intercooling. It does end up with funny things like the coolant tank being different sizes for ABS and pre-ABS cars because of the space taken up by the ABS vacuum accumulator.
Click to expand...
Be thankful it isn't a diesel! That would add a whole other tangle of hoses to the mix, the engine bay would be more like a bowl of noodles.
 
Re: the ignition barrel: my dad once tried to fix the ignition lock on granddad's Saab 99. He bought the parts from the Saab service desk nearby and the parts guy told him "It's a pretty tricky job so don't be afraid to come back if the work stalls." True enough, he ended up driving the car there in the end for them to finish the job. Hence, following with interest :D


Edit: comment from dad: "Tell him to try it himself and then take it to the garage with the parts in a plastic bag"
 
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Ignition barrel is fixed and the broken key is out! Nearly thirty years of gunk had jammed the thing up, and now the spare keys work in it too. Now to put it back in the car and make sure the shifter goes back together properly.

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A clutch master that's seized solid is probably not rebuildable, is it? Not that it matters, I have a new part ready to go in.
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Yeah, sounds about right. Incidentally, I'm experimenting with a Fox-body wheel, which uses the same bolt pattern, but there are hub bore and offset mismatches that make it not quite a straight bolt-on.

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The Saab bore is about 1.7 mm bigger.
 
I think Saab wheels use an offset around ET33, which means anything from an RWD car will just stick out too much. If you had bosozoku flares they could work, though.
 
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