There's been some talk of lifted street cars recently so I figured I'd share my latest little project.
I had to replace the shocks and struts on my daily driver ('97 9000 Aero) so I figured, "While I'm at it..." I'd raise the car up a little bit. I live in an area that gets major frost heaves and gets a lot of snow and though I've hardly ever scraped the underside of the car the front bumper lip has taken a beating.
I already had SAS 1/2" spacers for the rear (same as a C900, though you can only use one set due to the shape of the spring) so I settled on lifting the car 1/2". The rear is straightforward (other than a lot of work necessary to get the rusted rear shock bolts out). To get the front lifted up I had to make a spacer to go between the body and the strut mount. I started by drawing the spacer in SolidWorks
I then cut out the hole patterns for four spacers in a 12"x12" sheet of HDPE on the Bridgeport at work. I could have done it at home on my drill press but the mill is just much more accurate and I needed something to do at lunch time.
I used a circle cutter for the large hole, looks like this:
They're not super accurate but if you just need a big hole they're better than hole saws. They're pretty cheap and you can use them in drill presses if you want.
For the external geometry I just printed out the drawing of the spacer, cut it out of paper, and used it as a stencil. I used a jig saw to cut the spacers out of the sheet of plastic. A band saw with a small blade would have been better but the jig saw worked fine.
The external geometry is hidden once it's mounted
I put elliptical bolts in the struts so I can align it.
9000 Lift Kit
- Geoff
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9000 Lift Kit
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- Crazyswede
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
do you have the dimensions for the strut bolt locations? They look similar to the NG900 spacing
Last edited by Crazyswede on Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Geoff
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
These cars had a zinc ring under the front springs. This prevented the springs and struts from rusting, resulting in broken front springs. I think this zinc ring is NLA or very expensive. I used to work in a SAAB garage in the late '90s and I'd see early 9000s with broken front springs all the time. So I decided I needed to put something under the front spring to keep it from rusting. So I bought a 12"x12" zinc sheet from McMaster
and cut out some rings with tin snips
and cut out some rings with tin snips
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off
- Geoff
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
I set the alignment and took it for a quick drive on some bumpy roads. Its nice to have a stiff suspension again. The original struts and bushings were pretty beat after a quarter million miles. I remeasured the alignment after the drive and it seems to have settled in. It's still within spec but I may tweak it again after some more miles.
I brought it to the local garage and got a new inspection stickah.
I brought it to the local garage and got a new inspection stickah.
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off
- Jordan
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
I looked through the parts catalog, it might be SAAB part # 8957102, which would retail about $20 each for the front. doesn't have material information, but it is a spring seat.
- Geoff
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
Yeah, that PN is on the saabsite for '86-91 and it states "backordered". The part number for '92+ cars is listed as $25. $50 for a pair seemed like a lot of $ so I bought the zinc sheet and cut it myself for $17. Should work
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off
- Jordan
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
by the way I ran across these randomly.. not sure if spring size is the same, but looks to solve the same problem?
https://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/29040/ ... r-4689378/
https://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/29040/ ... r-4689378/
- Geoff
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Re: 9000 Lift Kit
Hard to tell. You'd have to throw it on a 9000 strut to be sure
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off
- Geoff
- Team Turbo Troll Crew
- Posts: 3891
- Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:31 pm
- Nickname: Geoff
- Number of Saabs currently owned: 6
- Location: Nude Humpshire
Re: 9000 Lift Kit
I thought I took a picture after I had done only the rears, but I can't find it. Its too bad because you could really see the difference front to rear.
So here's what it looks like now.
I'll take the snows off in another few weeks.
So here's what it looks like now.
I'll take the snows off in another few weeks.
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off
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