Twins!

[Luke]

So in my search for a new car I had stumbled across two near identical talledega red SPG's about 10 minutes down the road from me. I'd actually seen these in there driveway many times before but didnt know that they were for sale, They were posted on SAABnet and the ad was pretty old, but to my surprise when I called they were both still available. I went to check them out and offered some really low ball numbers for both of the cars and some parts and they went for it!
I ended up picking up a '90 SPG for $700, a '91 SPG for $500 and bunch of parts for $200, including a extra set of SPG wheel with good snow tires, a set of the later bolt pattern ronal minilites.
Bascially the people had two identical cars, they used one for bad weather and kept one clean for good weather. I have almost all the receipts for both cars since new (both were purchased at Clews and Strawbridge SAAB)

Some details -

'91 - 200K miles. Was being used as a winter beater car until it finally failed inspection last year for rust.. It came with Hakka 10's on it and shows signs of its hard life. Major front a-arm rot, driver side rocker panel is um how should we say, um non-existent. Lots of dents, old repairs and windows that don't work, etc. It does however, run like a clock, the engine is really quiet, pulls hard and starts and idles perfectly.

'90 - 250K miles. This car is really clean, it's had a babied life and shows it. The only problem was that reverse would pop out the instant any power was applied. I thought that perhaps I could do the reverse lever mod on it and get it going, but when I pulled the side cover I saw that it had already been done, it was time for a gearbox rebuild... The rear quarter also had a weird area of paint that looked like it had been sprayed with a rattle can at some point and then cleared over with a cheap clear, maybe to try to hide a minor scrap or key....

[SwedeSport]

That 91 would make a great rallyx beater.

[Luke]

Jason came by and gave me a hand pulling the drivetrain out of the '90 and I gave him a little demo on a gearbox rebuild. Anyway, here is the reverse gears that we pulled out, small wonder that it wasnt working so well!

I also pressure wash the engine bay while the engine was out - it was already really clean but now its pretty spotless.

[DrewP]

What are those big tall green things sticking up out of the ground behind your cars?


I was wondering how rough those two cars would end up being from the TSN ad, looks like you did very well, congrats.

[Luke]

What are those big tall green things sticking up out of the ground behind your cars?


I was wondering how rough those two cars would end up being from the TSN ad, looks like you did very well, congrats.

Yeah, I think I did ok, but I keep having to remind myself that I bought two cars, neither of which were drivable as purchased!
I've got the rebuilt trans back in now, and today is the first day I drove that car to work. It honestly a little too nice for daily driver duties, but for now its a really nice car to get to drive everyday! I will drive it until late November or December and then probably store it until the spring and first something else dirty before then. I will probably post it for sale next spring, as it probably worth a little something now that its fixed up and I don't need another fair weather car.

As for the '91... I can't really decide what to do with it. Its 1 of 40 or something like that, so I feel bad parting it out, but its had a good long run and it shows. The idea of cutting all the metal out of my '86 to repair it crossed my mind, but its still got lots of dents and dings, bad paint in areas and 40 other little issues. It would be a good winter beater, but I am having a hard time convincing myself into putting a lot of work into it.

[Luke]

Heres a few more pics of the '90.

I have to say I was never that queer for the red SPG's but they are really growing on me!

[DeLorean]

Looks pretty nice, shame it's one of those larded up later cars with ABS and the airbag... and brakes that work

So the 90 has the old style seats, and the 91 has the 9000 seat brackets, right? Also the 91 should have the 140 MPH spedo, and a few other 91 SPG specific items. Both EGR cars? Check engine light, ABS/Brake, or SRS warning lights on? All easy fixes.

[Luke]

Looks pretty nice, shame it's one of those larded up later cars with ABS and the airbag... and brakes that work

So the 90 has the old style seats, and the 91 has the 9000 seat brackets, right? Also the 91 should have the 140 MPH spedo, and a few other 91 SPG specific items. Both EGR cars? Check engine light, ABS/Brake, or SRS warning lights on? All easy fixes.

Yeah I wasn't thrilled about the airbags/abs/late bolt pattern etc, but it was close, cheap enough and need only a gearbox rebuild to get on the road.... so I was able look past those things. I'm still on the lookout for something without that junk, but this will do just fine for now! I like the later brakes, they work just fine for street use (as do the early ones when they are vented and the calipers are in good shape) I just have a few dozen sets of wheels and tires in the early pattern so I prefer to have those if possible...
The seats in the '91 are the later style. I didn't look that closely at the speedo, but it looked the same as the '90 to me. Both are EGR, the '91 dosent have any lights on but the '90 gets a check engine light on and off, it seems to turn on and off at will? No effect on drivability at all... any ideas?

[Jordan]

Looks pretty nice, shame it's one of those larded up later cars with ABS and the airbag... and brakes that work

So the 90 has the old style seats, and the 91 has the 9000 seat brackets, right? Also the 91 should have the 140 MPH spedo, and a few other 91 SPG specific items. Both EGR cars? Check engine light, ABS/Brake, or SRS warning lights on? All easy fixes.

Yeah I wasn't thrilled about the airbags/abs/late bolt pattern etc, but it was close, cheap enough and need only a gearbox rebuild to get on the road.... so I was able look past those things. I'm still on the lookout for something without that junk, but this will do just fine for now! I like the later brakes, they work just fine for street use (as do the early ones when they are vented and the calipers are in good shape) I just have a few dozen sets of wheels and tires in the early pattern so I prefer to have those if possible...
The seats in the '91 are the later style. I didn't look that closely at the speedo, but it looked the same as the '90 to me. Both are EGR, the '91 dosent have any lights on but the '90 gets a check engine light on and off, it seems to turn on and off at will? No effect on drivability at all... any ideas?

1. Grab bulb socket
2. Twist
3. Remove

In all seriousness It can do diagnostics and pull codes , but i rarely find them all that helpful.

[DrewP]

You can make it blink you the code for the CEL, you ground out one of the pins in the diagnostic connector. For '90 it might be in the airbag connector, underneath the little rubber 'bellows' piece between the shifter housing and the center console storage bucket. It may also be under the hood on pass. side between the inner and outer fenders down by the vacuum reservoir, or under the rear seat. They moved them around pretty much every year and every body style from '90 to the end of production in '94.

The wiring diagram in the Bentley should show where it is, there'll be one 'diagnostic' wire all off by itself somewhere.

The instructions are in the Bentley, but they assume you use the factory tool, except when it tells you to turn the switch on the tool to 'ON' that just grounds that one pin. Very easy to do with a paper clip.

[DeLorean]

Likely something is wrong with the EGR system, probably the valve. All that EGR stuff is NLA now, so your best bet is to get all the plugs from just about any 900-turbo at the junk yard, and remove the EGR system. You will not be able to get rid of the CEL unless you swap the ECU, you want either the 0280000948 or the 0280000585 - both the 90 and the 91 should have the 0280000582.

Occasionally, you may find an inspection station that has a problem with this, because the inner fender emission information states that there should be an EGR system- since this is part of even the "visual inspection" of the emission control system all cars need to pass the emission test, an observant inspector will fail a car for the EGR system being missing. Likely any "saab place" would have no problem with this, because they SHOULD know the deal with the EGR systems.

The 91 SPG should have the 140 MPH spedo unless someone swapped it - who knows why they would have, but 91 SPG's have a 140 mph spedo rather than the 125 units every other post 81 900 has

[Luke]

[

The 91 SPG should have the 140 MPH spedo unless someone swapped it - who knows why they would have, but 91 SPG's have a 140 mph spedo rather than the 125 units every other post 81 900 has[/quote]


Ok you made me go look on that one and you are correct, 140 mph, didnt know that....cool.

[DeLorean]

properly running TE05 cars will max out the 125 mph spedo right quick, should do an honest 140 with enough road if it's running right.

[hutch]

Nice find(s)! I remember seeing those for sale and thinking they could be a good deal if they weren't too rusty. I've always wanted a tally red SPG but with how rare they are they often seem to command a premium so I "settled" with cherry red and it's almost as nice.

My '90 spg had the CEL connector under the back seat I believe, I recreated the proper tool out of an old light switch I found in the garage and it worked just fine. It is actually a mildly useful diagnostic tool and I wish my '86 had it as well.

I also put a 140mph speedo in my '90 and loved the way it looked, much nicer than the standard ones because of the spacing of the digits and I preferred the even number intervals much more than the 5's.