In reply to wae :
Tim is a wizard with a curtain rod
In reply to wae :
Tim is a wizard with a curtain rod
We spent about 4 hours taking the back apart, removing the seat belt retractors, shooting the spring clear across the garage two or three times, winding and rewinding the spring, and knocking the ratcheting pins sideways in an effort to make the front belts retract better.
After all that, it's the same as it was before. Oof.
In reply to wae :
I've had good luck with washing the belts with warm soap/water, drying, then spraying with a dry lube. I use McLube Sailkote.
In reply to procainestart :
Sailkote is the shizitz!
What a whirlwind.
We replaced the bulbs in the dash, checked ball joints and wheel bearings, secured the exhaust a little better, vacuumed things out, flushed the brake fluid, polished the trunk lid, foamed the engine bay, checked the oil, and we are on the road for the $2000 Challenge.
I'm calling what we're doing compectating. That's spectating while technically being entered in the competition in a car that is wholly uncompetitive. But it will be fun!
Quick stop at Summit Racing and back on the road.
Never stopped in there before, although I've always wanted to. Wicked cool place,
We have arrived! Got all unloaded and checked in and went out for tacos. If you've been to the Best Western Gateway Grand, you know that the left turn out to the main drag is a bit tough to make with all the traffic. So my daughter was driving us and found a spot in traffic to pull out. Seeing an Audi getting awfully big I instructed her firmly to "punch it!"
She responded that she was punching it as much as it could be punched. The pedal was all the way to the floor.
This car is not fast.
In reply to wae :
"I'm going! I'm going! I have the pedal to the metal and the thing to the floor!"
Spent most of the day playing with the parking lot build crew, but we're stickered up for tomorrow!
Despite starving for fuel on a low tank and then the tank probably not venting correctly the Saab has completed 5 autocross runs!
Slowly.
But that just means I got more seat time.
Speaking of more seat time... This is definitely not a drag racer. But it's consistent.
In reply to wae :
That's not bad. Was good seeing you guys Thursday. Sorry I couldn't stay longer.
In reply to Stampie :
Good to see you, too! Hope you're feeling better!
wae said:Speaking of more seat time... This is definitely not a drag racer. But it's consistent.
Hey, that is eight tenths quicker than my S40 was!
Whew. Just got back home. Other than the cruise control being a little flaky, she put on the 1600 miles or so without a problem!
Bed time.
Finally, I have a moment to sit down and gather up my thoughts.
Since buying the car, we've put 2,325 on it, total. 1,565 of those miles were getting to the Challenge and back. About 79 miles were spent driving around Gainesville.
That means that before hitting the road, we had driven the car about 680 miles locally, almost none of it on the Interstate, and that was all the car had done for the last 9 years or so. Frankly, I'm quite impressed that we didn't have any real mechanical problems. Not to say there were no incidents, of course.
During the second autocross run, the car cut out a little bit towards the end of the course and then died right before the finish line. It wouldn't restart, so we pushed it off to have a think. Giving it another try, though, it started right up. The fuel gauge isn't the most accurate device in the world, so I really thought the car had enough gas to get through the day. On the way to the track, my daughter asked if we should stop and get gas. I should have agreed to that plan because the car was now running and no amount of fiddling with wiring would get it to sputter or die.
We scooted down to the gas station a few miles from the track and filled up the tank. On the way back to the track, it started cutting out just a tiny amount here and there. It would feel like the driver would just let off the gas pedal for a faction of a second and then put their foot right back in place. The car has never taken well to regular refueling practices - if you put the nozzle all the way in to the filler neck, it just keeps clicking off right away - so my guess was that the vent tube was clogged. We took the gas cap off and went for another drive. Absolutely no problems at all. We got the rest of our autocross runs in and made our drag strip passes without any further occurrences of that problem.
The autocross wasn't particularly fast and the drags were epically slow - the 3 speed automatic doesn't really launch; it just sort of sighs loudly, collects its shoes, packs a lunch, and then sets out on its journey. But it was a lot of fun. We got way more compliments on the car than I could have ever expected and I'm eternally grateful for all the kind words. I don't believe in "taking the 12" at the Concours, so on Saturday night, my daughter wrote up some notes and practiced her speech for the judges. I know it wasn't much to look at, compared to a Corvette-and-Corvair mashup (which was freaking awesome to see, btw!!), but apparently her enthusiasm and excitement for the car and the event was enough to earn her a 12.75 average score.
In the end, my math says that we finished 25th out of 54 cars, which puts us in the top-half of the overall results and left us as 7th out of the 13 GTN$ entries. That is far better than I thought we'd do. The best part, though, is that this was the most fun I've ever had at the Challenge and my daughter had the time of her life. When she wasn't driving on the way home, she was busy tearing through Facebook Marketplace looking for a car to build for 2024. Between that and the fact that we made it all the way home without needing a tow truck, trailer, or even as much as a screwdriver, I'm counting this whole experience solidly in the "win" column.
But the project isn't complete, of course! If anything, this helped us flesh out our to-do list even more.
Okay, well, that list is a little bit longer than I thought it was going to be...
Wow, more fun than the Neon's first appearance at the challenge? 
Too bad the car has a practical use, you could probably sell it for a profit to fund next year's car.
SAAB does that "center vents are fresh air only, from above the heater core" crap, too? I thought only VW infected their cars with that.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The 83 900 my parents bought new did that.
Sigh. Yeah, it looks like the center vent it just a pass-through to the outside air:
That's dumb. But something I can cross off the list, I guess.
You're right, though: Honestly, the car is nice enough that I'd be surprised if I couldn't sell it for $4000 as it sits right now. But at this point I'd rather have the car than the cash.
In reply to wae :
At least you didn't disassemble half your dashboard to repair a jammed door only to discover the awful truth 
A pair of spray can caps to block the passages fixed that. I would rather have no air than zero degree (either measurement) air blowing on my right hand while I drove.
Congratulations on a fine showing with an old, floppy convertible.
Some thoughts:
Potentially related to the above, there's something about the fuel tank vent line that is clogged
If it turns out that the vent is fine, then a common cause of stalling, then restart sometime later, is the ignition control module, which gets hot, flakes, cools, works again. Replacement needs to be from a Turbo; Bosch is preferred vs. aftermarket. It's bolted to the fender on the LH side, near the APC.
The parking brake only works on the left wheel and the right caliper bleeder screw snapped in half. It's closed, at least, and the regular brake works, but that needs to be looked at
The brakes have a small gear in them that takes up pad-wear slack when you use the e-brake. The gear on the right caliper could be stripped. Alternatively, the cable could be way out of adjustment (it's presumably not disconnected).
The cruise control is a bit wonky. Sometimes it seems like it isn't strong enough to pull the throttle cable enough. Sometimes it just won't engage - the system light is on in the dash, but pushing the set and resume buttons doesn't do anything until suddenly it does
The system is electro-pneumatic. In the dash, a chain, not unlike in an old lamp switch, pulls a lever connected to the portion of the accelerator system that pulls the throttle cable. The chain may be too loose and have too much slack, especially if you had the dash apart and had to remove it, but it could be some other component, too. You can get to the chain via the speaker hole.
I don't think the seat heaters work
By now, the usually don't. You'd know it if they did (an old girlfriend said they made her feel like she was peeing in her pants...). You may be able to get replacements, but you can also apparently pull the originals and repair them (I've never tried). Or get some heater elements from another car. If you fix them, don't let anyone put their knee into the seat while, say, trying to retrieve something from the back.
The heat doesn't seem to want to turn off. Sometimes it will, but it usually just blows hot air. Interestingly, the vent in the center of the dash only blows cold air no matter what the dial is set to
If you had the dash apart, there's a connector from the heater switch to the heater control valve, which has one or two universal joints. The connector may have come off the switch or the valve, or the valve is dead. Beena a while, but last I looked, they were NLA, even aftermarket. Hopefully, it's just the connector. Incidentally, even when the control works, there's lag in the system, as temp is controlled by limiting coolant into the heater core, and there's some lag.
(BTW, Saab ran cold air through the middle vents for safety, asserting that cool, fresh air was likely to keep you more alert. I agree that it's kinda dumb.)
I'd like to fix the cracks in the dashboard
This is a really difficult repair. To do it right and not have it look like E36 M3 requires vacuum bagging, expanding foam, and other stuff I don't recall. I doubt you want to spend the $$, but you used to be able to get a reman'd dash for $500, though that was a while ago and it may be more now. Most people throw a carpet-like dash cover over it and call it good; you used to be able to get a dash "cap," too. You may be able to do something acceptable and cheap -- forums have info -- but I've not seen anything up close, and I run on the perfectionist side of the spectrum (read: I want it to look stock.) EVERY dash cracks. If you find one that hasn't, then it's just a matter of time.
Replace the shocks
Avoid KYBs. Boge was OE; not sure if they're available anymore. Not sure how a convertible would do with Bilsteins; Koni makes an adjustable, but once installed, I believe you need to partially remove to adjust.
The front shocks came with two thin nuts at the top. I can't recall the size, but I've had to buy a cheap wrench and grind it down to hold the bottom nut in place. The car may have nylocs now, though.
Poly lower shock bushings get beaten to death; skip them.
Be careful to not overtorque the lower shock mount bolts. If you do, the whole mount can break and you need a new control arm.
Speaking of which, the lower control arms can fatigue and fail, usually when backing up out of a parking space, at which point you suddenly get about 20 degrees neg. camber, there's a pretty darn loud bang, and the car won't move. There's probably something on townsendimports.com about inspecting, or search the web; it's not uncommon.
Replace the suspension bushings (if I can find new ones!)
Unless the lower control arm bushings look cracked, obviously worn, or have been soaked in an oil leak, I'd let them be. They don't really go bad. The uppers on the RH side can get cooked by the exhaust and may be dying. The LH uppers are very difficult to replace with the engine in the car. (It's been a while, but I think you can't do it.) If you do the RH uppers, so you don't have to remove the spring (a royal PITA), slide one bushing bracket out at a time. Don't lose the alignment shims -- I tape them together so they don't fall out.
Front rollbar outers frequently die. Polyurethane, especially the inners, does make a difference, but the outers don't live as long as rubber.
The rear upper link bushings die as soon as they can. Aftermarket stuff is junk, but all that's available. I wouldn't bother with the lower bushings.
In a hard rain, I sometimes get water in the driver's footwell. It's not coolant, so I think it's the fresh air intake drain tube getting clogged
Could be a leak at the base of the windshield, or maybe the knee bolster bolt, or?? When the fresh air intake gets clogged, IME, the water ends up on the passenger floor.
The right horn button is broken. For the Concours, I just taped it on
The horn button tabs on early airbag cars often fail. The same buttons were also used on 9000s, and the later ones are stronger. The plastic on the back of the early ones is tan-ish; later, stronger ones are grey. Not sure when Saab went to the later ones, but it's prolly on Saabnet's 9000 board.
I would like to modify the APC to up the boost a bit
I think this is a good idea. :-)
Also, if with good gas the needle doesn't hit the orange/red line, you're not getting max. stock boost.
In reply to procainestart :
Wow, that's a lot of info! Thank you!
On the topic of the heater control, I already reconnected the linkage to the heater control valve before we left for the Challenge. It felt like it could only go on one way, so I'm assuming it's clocked right. What makes me think that it might be the valve itself - and it appears that I can get those, but I think Powar told me that the aftermarket ones are not very good - is that I can sometimes get cool air from the vents. And, of course, I'm not referring to those times before the car has run long enough to heat up! It's also not entirely unpossible that the air was just warm from the running of the car and if I had some refrigeration working in there I'd be in good shape.
I keep meaning to put a real boost gauge in there somewhere, even if just for temporary, but I'm getting right to the top of the yellow zone and holding, so it seems like it's boosting the way they designed it. But the funny thing about boost is that I always want more!
Up until the other day, I was content to let the dash just be the dash, but I saw a post on one of the facebook groups of a repair job that came out looking really perfect, so I'm a little bit inspired. That's a definite back-burner item that I may never get to. If I need to take the dash out for any other reason, though, I will probably schedule time to tackle that "while I'm in there".
For the seat heaters, I've read about fixing them, but I also have a set of aftermarket bun warmers that I got on clearance a long time ago and put on the shelf. I meant to install them in the Excursion, but that ship has sailed. If the heater grids are getting power and just have breaks in them - which is what I expect - then I may see about putting in the new heaters while also replacing the seat foam. The bucket seats have been rather flattened out over the years. The leather is in good shape, but there's pretty much no bolstering left in the foam.
The suspension info is all good stuff, thank you! For about $180, I can get four corners' worth of Bilstein B4s. For just over $400, I can do B6s. I'm not sure that it's worth 2x. Like you said, it's a floppy convertible anyway. Before I go too far on that, though, I really need to get the exhaust properly secured so that I can better determine from where the various thunks and knocking noises are coming.
I've seen that ignition control module. It looks nearly identical to the one that I was using on the Neon for Megasquirt before I went to the something-something transistors. I'll keep an eye out for that, but I am about as certain as one can be that the problem was some sort of venting. I'm thinking that attacking the fuel system is going to be my first step in all this. I'll run it nearly out of fuel and then I should be able to pop the pump canister loose again, get the fuel level sender removed, and then clean out the venting and fill tubes. I suspect that my fuel smell is related to the pump canister not being tight enough, so I planned to check the o-ring for proper placement as well as any structural failures and then grease it up a bit and then use an actual tool to tighten it back down.
While I was out driving the Saab the other day I realized that I left some time on the table because I'm stupid.
I was trying to get better launches out of the car by standing on the brake while mashing the throttle to build boost, right? (The correct answer there is "right!").
Well, the Saab has this little solenoid in the charge pipe that, when commanded to open, vents the boost back to atmosphere. I assume it's an electromechanical blow off valve instead of using vacuum pressure. What, you may ask, sends the command signal to that valve to open up and relieve the system of its pressure? Why it's wired in to the brake light switch of course! So I wasn't building up any boost pressure. I bet I could have gotten a much better launch had I disconnected that solenoid and potentially gotten myself into the very high 16s.
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