85 900 Notchback arrives in Vermont

[Crazyswede]

So I bought Jon Dennis's 85 900 8v non turbo notchback. Friday I flew to Kentucky, spent the night at Jon's house and left for Vermont on Saturday morning. After having breakfast Jon and I set to loading the car with parts, swapping headlights, and attaching an automatic style skid plate. I ended up leaving Kentucky around 1:30 in the afternoon. It was of course snowing.....luckily Jon had put the snow tires on the car and we put the shelbys in the the back of the car. about 12 hours later I arrived at Luke's place without incident. Same deal in the morning....wake up, grab breakfast with Luke and Stacy, look at fun Luke projects, depart for home. 6 hours later I was back home in Vermont. 1 mile from home the local police did there best to try and ram my car in an intersection by pulling out of a red lighted side road and driving towards me as past as possible..1/4 way into the intersection they remembered the blue lights...no incident occurred but had I not slammed on the breaks it would have been ugly....thanks genius.

initial reflections on the car:
1. The brakes feel very nice....ss brake lines and pads are probably to thank
2. the car handles like its on rails even with old studded snow tires
2b. The car rides like its on rails too...I suspect the Jamex springs might be a little too stiff for practical rough driving.
3. while the 8v engine works and ran quite smoothly I only managed about 20 mpg at best. I suspect that the CIS is tuined a bit rich as this engine should be capable of better mileage

.



.

[Crazyswede]

new post....edit window in last post went haywire and couldn't see what I was typing.

The 5 speed in this car worked ok, shifting is a little notchy and there was a lot of pinion bearing noise....would probably last a lot longer under the 8v but short lived under anything else.

First steps for the car are to swap a 16V NA engine in with a stronger 5 speed and pull the CIS from the car. Jon put in a complete AC system....all at once as a complete unit I might have to pull all that stuff out and given that it all works I might just pull it all as a unit.

The headliner came home with the car but needs work. it was broken on one side of the sun roof so we just cut it on the other to fit it into the car more easily. It will have to be fiberglassed back together. I think I am just going to remove the sunroof and weld the hole shut.


all in all the shell in very clean with only a couple of minor holes that need to be patched. All holes are in the underside.

[Crazyswede]

Anyone else have issues with these text editing windows? Once it fills with text it won't scroll down and allow me to see what I am typing...or it will let me scroll down, but as soon as I type the window slides down and I cannot see the line of text I am working on...except that it jumps up when I type a letter and drops back when I stop so you get a nice puky strobing effect.

[Luke]

Yeah I have that problem with the text box too, I figured it was probably something put in place to prevent rambling posts.

[SwedeSport]

It only affects those of us who write books on the forum. Its almost like typing blind. If you continue typing it eventually stops.

Where's the pics of your new toy? Is this to be a racecar project or a street car?

[Crazyswede]

its going to be a Rally cross, hill climb, project rally car for the future. Short order things to do are to get a 16v NA engine in there and a little healther 5 speed. Also want to get my diff into the new box. weld up the sun roof and get a basic cage in.

[Crazyswede]

It only affects those of us who write books on the forum. Its almost like typing blind. If you continue typing it eventually stops.

Where's the pics of your new toy? Is this to be a racecar project or a street car?

From jon's ad

[Luke]

Car has good potential. The exterior body is incredibly straight and clean. The few rust holes are in weird places, but nothing that cant be patched up easily. It needs paint real bad, but should make a nice mixed duty competition car with a few additions.

[Crazyswede]

Car has good potential. The exterior body is incredibly straight and clean. The few rust holes are in weird places, but nothing that cant be patched up easily. It needs paint real bad, but should make a nice mixed duty competition car with a few additions.

now we just have to figure out the components to build the 2.3 motor.

2.3 crank
pistons and rods will of course be the items to determine.

[Scott]

You need to update your signature:

Number of Saabs currently owned: 98

I love the notchbacks. My 86 went 330K before retiring. I sometimes wish I'd kept it, but i ran out of room in the garage.

[notchback]

new post....edit window in last post went haywire and couldn't see what I was typing.

The 5 speed in this car worked ok, shifting is a little notchy and there was a lot of pinion bearing noise....would probably last a lot longer under the 8v but short lived under anything else.

First steps for the car are to swap a 16V NA engine in with a stronger 5 speed and pull the CIS from the car. Jon put in a complete AC system....all at once as a complete unit I might have to pull all that stuff out and given that it all works I might just pull it all as a unit.

The headliner came home with the car but needs work. it was broken on one side of the sun roof so we just cut it on the other to fit it into the car more easily. It will have to be fiberglassed back together. I think I am just going to remove the sunroof and weld the hole shut.


all in all the shell in very clean with only a couple of minor holes that need to be patched. All holes are in the underside.

Sorry about the gearbox, I probably didn't notice the bearing noise since it most likely got worse gradually. Running it hard at Nelson Ledges probably took some life off it at as well. When you swap in the new engine/gearbox be sure to swap over the clutch slave cylinder too, it's only about a year old.

Yes, for the love of Dog, save that A/C system intact, even if you pull it, it still has R-12 in it and blows very cold.

I can't wait to see what you do with this car.

[Jordan]

I can't wait to see what you do with this car.

I see a snow covered shell and lots of overgrown weeds.




Too soon?

[airsweden]

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Snap!!!!!!!!!!!!

That sounds like something Max would say.

[Jordan]

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Snap!!!!!!!!!!!!

That sounds like something Max would say.

I was thinking the same thing. Except Max hasn't attempted a project car so it's just really annoying.

When Seth talks about developing a new engine... If he is planning a light duty race car, cage/roll bar it, do all the maintenance/upgrade stuff, put a standard 16vT in it (if so desired) and paint it. That is a 6 - 8 month project in itself.

I'd like to see a 16v ITB motor on stand alone myself....but I'd like to see Seth at an event as well

[Crazyswede]

This car is a lot easier to use as a project because it is:

1. solid
2. currently running and driving
3. registered and insured and being driven daily at the moment.


Though the car may get parked somewhere it will not be allowed to rust into the weeds. First step is to weld up the Sunroof. Next will probably be to get a basic cage in place. The current engine/transmission wont come out until another setup is all ready to go in. I will probably just put a stock 16v non turbo in first for simplicity and ease of swapping. Build the new engine on the side.