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?

RadioFlyer wrote: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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.