98 NG900 front coil overs

[Crazyswede]

Interested in converting my front springs over to a coil over type of spring. I've replaced both stock front springs once and both broke the ends off within a year. The after market springs are all for lowering the car. My thought is that I can make some alumimum adapters similar to the setup Luke is running on the rally car...only these would be used on the front strut and would allow a greater selection of springs for lenght and rate. Any thoughts? I also don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a racing/rallying coil over set.


this would be a good time to do a mod like this as I need new shocks, strut bearings, and strut bushings.

[Jordan]

You should see what they charge for this.

http://www.genuinesaab.com/catalog/prod ... 19196df4c3

[Crazyswede]

Thats what I am thinking of. They have this little note at the end : "Item only available with in house installation"..hard to tell if they have a setup for the NG900...I think the 900's and the 9-3's have a different strut design....but that is what I am looking for.

[Crazyswede]

found this in the Summit catalog. I'll have to see if Chris Rizzon has any 900 strut assemblies I can use for fitting and measuring:

[Crazyswede]

today after work I went down to Chris's shop to change my oil. In addition I replaced the short rubber hose that connects the boost pipe to the hooter valve with new silicon hose. I found a loose nut on my drivers side sway bar link and tightened it up...suspension clunking has disappeared I also mounted up a used snow tire for a full sized spare for the rally this weekend. And lastly I installed my solid rear motor mount. Shifting is very smooth now and the car feels ever so stiff....there is a bit more vibration at idle but nothing once you are moving. The engine is now rock solid and consequently it makes the car feel slow and gutless

[Crazyswede]

So I went to Chris's last night and changed out my non charging alternator for a Bosch reman one. You can just change the voltage regulator but it still has to come out of the car and you have to remove the back cover to do it. So I got the new one in place and hooked up and everything back together. Started the car and still not charging. I had battery voltage on the main alternator cable and a small amount of voltage on the exciter wire. So the plan is to go back tonight and swap in another unit. Chris doesn't have another 90 amp but he does have a 130 so I'll put that one in and see if it works. If it doesn't charge then something else is going on or I'll have very bad luck.

So to get home Josh let me drive his turbo hatch. While it needs brakes, and has a lot of clunks and it pretty beat, I think it still drove nicer then my 98. The 16v turbo in the older car just has that nice smooth feel and the car handles so much nicer ever in the condition it is. It really makes me want to replace the 98 with a clean 900 turbo hatch.

[Jordan]

Josh has a turbo hatch? I thought he was all 912 or die?

[airsweden]

Its for sale... lol

When the '92 9k died in Nov I traded a guy a couple of old snow tires for a black/tan '91 900 5pd turbo. It needed a slave cyl, most of the exhaust, a cv joint, radio and the pass side control arm welded back on. I found most of what I needed used but still haven't got around to the cv, I'll wait til it gets loud enough to hear over NPR. Right off I did put 4 new studded General Altimax snows on. They're awesome for the price, I think about as nice as the Hakk 4's I has last year. So far the car has been an awesome deal, even if I had paid myself $20/hr for the work I did it would be less than $1k total including the tires and I've probably got about 5k mi out of it already.

[Crazyswede]

Tonight I replaced the alternator...again, changed out the front main seal and oil pump cover o ring, replaced the serpentine belt, and drove the car home. I now have a 130 amp alternator in place of a 90 amp since chris didn't have any more 90 amp units. Nice to be back in my own car....headlights nice and bright. Only downside is my solid rear motor mout seems to be causing a little more idle and off idle vibration...its possible I didn't get the exhaust exactly on as before and it could be rubbing the skid plate more than usual.