85 900 Notchback arrives in Vermont

[Luke]

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

Too soon?

Lets see the pics!

[Crazyswede]

I'll be down probably on thursday to change the oil in the NG in prep for the winter rally. At some point Jon (who may need a reminder) should be sending me a replacement harness for the 900 as the stock one is crumbling....its an 85. We need to find out the details from Claude on what rods and pistons they used.

[Crazyswede]

installed a new battery today, put insurance back on the car and renewed the registration. Went down to Chris's and got an inspection. checked the frquency valve operation and that looked good...lowered the idle to spec and checked the timing. found the car was idling at 10 deg BTDC and with advance line disconnected and plugged only got to 15 deg at 2000 rpm. set timing to 15 deg and car ran much better. I have to got to connecticut on wednesday so i will find out how the mileage is. now i need to find a speedometer with working odometers and a gas gage that reads properly.

[SwedeSport]

There is a shop in lancaster pa that will repair your odometer. I have used them in the past. its probably about 140 bucks .

[Jordan]

installed a new battery today, put insurance back on the car and renewed the registration. Went down to Chris's and got an inspection. checked the frquency valve operation and that looked good...lowered the idle to spec and checked the timing. found the car was idling at 10 deg BTDC and with advance line disconnected and plugged only got to 15 deg at 2000 rpm. set timing to 15 deg and car ran much better. I have to got to connecticut on wednesday so i will find out how the mileage is. now i need to find a speedometer with working odometers and a gas gage that reads properly.

If you have to go close to Hartford at all you should swing by the shop.

[Crazyswede]

installed a new battery today, put insurance back on the car and renewed the registration. Went down to Chris's and got an inspection. checked the frquency valve operation and that looked good...lowered the idle to spec and checked the timing. found the car was idling at 10 deg BTDC and with advance line disconnected and plugged only got to 15 deg at 2000 rpm. set timing to 15 deg and car ran much better. I have to got to connecticut on wednesday so i will find out how the mileage is. now i need to find a speedometer with working odometers and a gas gage that reads properly.

If you have to go close to Hartford at all you should swing by the shop.

I have an oral surgery appointment at 11:30 in Middletown. probably be leaving there around 1:00 to 1:30. Probably won't be a good day to hang out...usually just want to get home due to the impending pain

[Jordan]

oh yuk.

Well I'm in Bloomfield just off 91 if you're down that way again.

[Hans]

I have fixed a couple 900 odos by removing one of the pot metal gears, crimping the collar and re-fitting (it's a press-fit gear that, over time, starts to slip). The only gotcha is you want to be sure to tape all the numbers together well or they won't align right when you re-install.



Been a few years, but I think I used this page for a little hand holding through the job:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticle ... repair.htm

Of course, there are likely other ways these things can fail, but for $0 you might be able to fix it yourself...

[Crazyswede]

todo list grows:

rear upper links have shot bushings
find source of mysterious clunk when turning up front.
dot 4 brake fluid...turns out the brake warning light coming on was actually legit.
headlight buckets need to be replaced...all adjusters are toast.

[airsweden]

Shoulda bought my 86 when I was clearing out... that thing was 7 kinds of awesome. I think it might still be stuck in a custody battle down western MA way. Man I miss that car, miss big zed too but that's another story.

[V4_guy]

todo list grows:

rear upper links have shot bushings
find source of mysterious clunk when turning up front.
dot 4 brake fluid...turns out the brake warning light coming on was actually legit.
headlight buckets need to be replaced...all adjusters are toast.

I wonder what the issue is with the brakes. During my 8 years of ownership I replaced every single hydraulic component in the brake/clutch system of that car except for the front calipers and hard lines. I always used Castrol LMA and changed it out every two years.

[SwedeSport]

the problem is that it has the early calipers. They Just plain SUCK!

I use them on my 86 900 in combination with HAWK HP+ pads on the early solid rotors. I run ATE Super Blue fluid. The stop OK , but if the car sits for any length of time they want to freeze up, and don't dare use the E-brake when its cold out.

Im putting them on the 85T project as well. Running EBC Redstuff pads. But this one with vented crossdrilled rotors.

They are going to be hard to get soon, so I hoard old calipers. Tear them down, bead blast the castings and paint them, pick out a good set of pistons, and save the best hardware. Put a 13.00 seal kit in it and its good to go for a while again. Just so long as the bores pistons are not all pitted up.

[V4_guy]

the problem is that it has the early calipers. They Just plain SUCK!

I use them on my 86 900 in combination with HAWK HP+ pads on the early solid rotors. I run ATE Super Blue fluid. The stop OK , but if the car sits for any length of time they want to freeze up, and don't dare use the E-brake when its cold out.

Im putting them on the 85T project as well. Running EBC Redstuff pads. But this one with vented crossdrilled rotors.

They are going to be hard to get soon, so I hoard old calipers. Tear them down, bead blast the castings and paint them, pick out a good set of pistons, and save the best hardware. Put a 13.00 seal kit in it and its good to go for a while again. Just so long as the bores pistons are not all pitted up.

Those caliper parts look very nice! You're making me feel bad for recently scrapping a pair of them since I didn't need them anymore. I actually never had any problems with on any of the 99s or C900s I owned with Girling calipers, at least with them sticking. There was the infamous clunk from the worn yolks, though. I did replace one of the ones on Seth's car because it was leaking with a used one I had in my stash.

[SwedeSport]

It's probably good to grab a few sets of new seals if you plan to continue using these calipers.

Service parts are drying up.

I have been waiting 4 weeks to get a clutch slave seal kit, and I have been unable to get a oil pump O-ring. Back ordered... has become synonymous with NLA,... at least when referring to old SAAB parts.

[V4_guy]

It's probably good to grab a few sets of new seals if you plan to continue using these calipers.

Service parts are drying up.

I have been waiting 4 weeks to get a clutch slave seal kit, and I have been unable to get a oil pump O-ring. Back ordered... has become synonymous with NLA,... at least when referring to old SAAB parts.

I don't see myself using those early calipers in the foreseeable future, my only 900 is an '89. I figure if I can get anything older I'll just convert it '88-.

Where were you ordering the clutch slave seal kit from? I rebuilt one about a year ago and at the time I didn't have trouble getting a kit from eEuro but I understand things are much different now. I wonder if anyone on here has the sizes for standard O-rings since that's all the clutch slave seal sit consists of.