Central locking in a 1980 900?

[RadioFlyer]

Anyone ever install central locking/keyless entry in an early Saab? I'm thinking about doing it for the '80. They sell the el-cheapo kits on ebay, but I've heard the AutoLoc ones are a bit better (albeit three times more expensive). I have been collecting things like door lock actuators etc from parts cars in case I need them. Anyone have any advice?

[Crazyswede]

Anyone ever install central locking/keyless entry in an early Saab? I'm thinking about doing it for the '80. They sell the el-cheapo kits on ebay, but I've heard the AutoLoc ones are a bit better (albeit three times more expensive). I have been collecting things like door lock actuators etc from parts cars in case I need them. Anyone have any advice?

why not just get the parts out of a mid 80's Saab at the junkyard?

[RadioFlyer]

I've heard the wiring harnesses are a mess to deal with since everything is braided together with all of the other wiring harnesses. I guess I could just make a new harness from the wiring diagrams, but so far have not been able to find all of the parts that I need. If anyone has the stuff necessary, I would be happy to trade for stuff. Looks like our junkyards out here are suddenly bare of all c900s.

[Jordan]

I wired an aftermarket keyless/remote start to one of my cars. Pretty easy to tap into the existing central locking mechanism. I used a passenger side lock motor in the driver side door , because it won't lock without one. Also then you lose the driver side locking activation.

[RadioFlyer]

I don't think the '80 has any central locking mechanism - so I would be starting from scratch. Not totally even sure if you can hook onto the lock shaft. But I think I saved the shafts from a '90 SPG partout, so I could probably use those. What aftermarket keyless kit did you use and did it work pretty well?

[SwedeSport]

You probably have to swap the whole latch mechanism.


Might be easier to wire in a kit. Use the SAAB hardware with an aftermarket keyless entry kit. Like the shaved door kits for street rods.

[RadioFlyer]

That's what I was thinking too. There are a ton of kits on ebay from Taiwan that are like $30, but I think those would be a huge waste of time. The Autoloc kits are like 3x as much but seem a lot better.