project log...

1990 SAAB SPG

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Date

Description

 

 

11-21-06

Of course, only a few days after upgrading the ICE, the head unit decides to go south. One moment the satellite radio wasn't working, so I put in a CD. Then the satellite started working and the CD broke. Now, the CD is broken and the reg'lar radio is broken. So, I ordered a replacement. Clarion DXZ865MP

11-15-06

Installed and activated Sirius radio. I put in a SIRCL3 satellite recveiver.

04-16-06

After waiting quietly on jacks for a day, I got back on the brake job.

I finished mounting the rear brakes, as they were easy. Moving to the fronts, I realized I was going to have to fabricate some brackets for the intermediate brake tube AND that tube was going to need to be bent a bit to fit. That went OK. Not fantastic, but OK. I got everything on and started filling it up with fluid. There was a small leak at the left front caliper, but refitting and tightening that seemed to fix it. Dad helped me bleed the brakes and that went fine. We are all in the blue with ATE Super Blue Racing brake fluid now.

A short test drive to bed the pads showed that the brake pedal requires a bit more effort than I'd like and feels a little too spongy. Most likely, the brakes haven't really worn in yet and that will improve. However, I think I may still have a leak at the front calipers. I'm not sure how to fix this, but I am thinking it might involve some new-to-me-but-discarded-by-someone-else intermediate brake tubes.

The rear pads were kinda thin, and with the non-perfect surface of the rear rotors, I think I may need to replace them soon. Also, if things don't get better in the brake feel department I may need to buy and install new rotors. As a last resort, new brake lines may be in order.

Of particular note... I haven't adjusted it yet, but I have E-brake again!!! Whee!

04-14-06

A moment of braking in between songs confirmed... It was high time I replaced the brakes.

This had been a long time coming. The handbrake stopped working months ago. At the same time, I'm fairly certain the rear brakes stopped doing anything either. I've know for a year that I was running low on pad material, but I also knew I was running low on rotor thickness too... So I wanted to just run the set out completely. Last month, I pulled the brake calipers and rotors off the parts car '89 9000T with the intention of putting the whole mess on the SPG. Now was the time to put that concept to the test.

I ran down to Sports Car Service to give the 9000 rotors a cleanup cut on the brake lathe. In the process, I found that one of the front rotors was pretty much cone shaped and the other was too thin. So, I had to dig through the pile of used ones to find a useable set. At least the rear rotors had enough life left in them to cut. Unfortunately, the brake lathe has seen better days, and the job it did (or I did) wasn't the best. I may have to replace these again soon. If so, I may do new ones at that time.

Eventually, I got the car up on jacks and got started on the right rear. That was about as far as I got, as the whole brake rotor rigamaroo took too long and I kept getting distracted by SONEAT.

10-24-05

Replaced the front motor mount 'cause it was busticated. Cost was like $125 for the actual SAAB oem hydraulic type part.

While I was at it, I modded the safety bracket on the front and passenger side motor mounts so that there was less travel. No harshness increase is noticeable but smoothness when declutching and putting the power down seems mucho bettero.

06-05-05

This is not done yet, but I am driving it like this so I count it as a step in the project... Viggen (front) seats in my SPG.

March

Purchased new Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (205-50-YR16) tires. At the time of purchase, these are the highest rated "Max Performance" tire TireRack sells.

03-02-05

Yay.
The SPG turns 300,000.

 

Sam gave me his old trunk cover board. IT isn't warped. So that's the one in the car now. It does have some cutouts for speakers (that aren't there) in it, but they are desreet so I'm not greatly displeased.

01-09-05

I was NOT happy with the ride the B&G spring and Koni shock combo was giving me. It was way too bouncy. Harsh I expected, but this was not right. I had to return one of my Konis because its adjuster was broken and it was leaking, but even when it was replaced the ride did not improve. My Dad suggested that I try to adjust the shocks the other way, soft instead of hard. I'd set them at full hard trying to get the shocks to damp the bounciness. When I adjusted them to soft things got much better. I'm still not absolutely happy as there is still too much bouncey bouncy over certain types of road surfaces, but it is liveable now.

Apparently what I thought was undamped springiness from the stiffer springs, was in reality freakishly stiff shocks acting like solid rods and making the TIRES be the springs. Which of course, created undamped bounciness... Damn air springs, that's what tires are. Undamped air springs.
Lesson learned.

12-15-04

I installed my skidplate that I bought from SaabSavior.com a few years ago for a former 900 of mine. I had some bolt-plates left over from a long gone official Saab Sport and Rally skidplate so I clenaed and painted them and got some nice stainless hardware to bolt everything up with. I was eager and the garage was full, so I put it on while it was raining. So long as I worked under the car I stayed mostly dry.

12-05-04

I installed the B&G springs that I ordered way back in October of last year.

There was a suprise here. The rear B&G springs turned out to be almost identical to the original SPG rear springs. By all measurements, they were very very close. The wire diameter may have neen slightly thicker, or it might have just been the difference between a coat of paint and a coat of powdercoat? Anyway, the issue suddenly became a question... The specs for the springs say they will lower both the front and rear of the car by 1.6". That is obviously for the standard suspension, not the SPG suspension. But the front B&G springs were visibly shorter than the SPGs.

This wouldn't be a problem except I'd already installed the front springs with a 1/2" spacer to counteract 1" of the scheduled drop. I have some spacers all set for the rear too... But obviously there's no reason to put them in if there's no drop happening! Now, I have to REDO the fronts and remove the spacers that I spent so much time fabricating out of solid aluminum plate... DAMN!

In the end, it looks nice and mean at the new ride height. It's basically flat with maybe a little bit of rake to it with the nose a little lower than the front.

 

I installed the JT exhaust. There were some sealing issues so I replaced all the U-clamps with some Dynomax stainless-steel butt joint band clamps from Summit Racing.

No, the joints weren't butt joints, but these clamps cost half what the other ones Summit offered cost and in the end, they worked great. No more leaks.

11-29-04

When I pulled the old exhaust off to make way for the new JT exhaust, I found out that the heatshield was shot. Above the catalytic converter there was a big hole. I have a brand new heatshield... In storage 40 miles away!

Rather than delay the job, I decided to patch this heashied. Besides, there is a lot of work involved in the removal and replacement of a heatshield and I wasn't in the mood for it.
So a bit of galvanized flashing, tin snippery, and riveting later I have a nice complete heatshield again.

07-24-03

I install the new Clarion DXZ545MP unit in a hurry this morning... SO COOL!

07-23-04

I am fed up with the skipping and crappy radio reception of that free Sony. I'm ordering a new unit from Crutchfield.

I am going to get this (what I think is a) kick-ass unit... Clarion DXZ545MP $199.99

07-20-04

Installed the Sony stereo that Bill gave me when I bought the car. It sounds good and works OK as a CD player... But as an AM/FM receiver it is pathetic. I can't get but a couple of stations, and poorly at that. I think there may be something wrong with the antenna/connection.

07-15-04

Installed the rear speakers.
It went very well. I simply had to remove the interior panels and cut the holes with a dremel tool and screw the speakers in place. Then I pulled the speaker wires from the rear and spliced in the new connection ends.

 

$440.17. Since my last attempt to weld-repair the exhaust resulted in a bigger hole behind the cat instead of a smaller one and I think I almost set the car on fire...

 

Installed the front speakers. This actually was not a straightforward installation (as the Crutchfield site had led me to believe). The tweeter stood too high in the speaker and interfered with the grille when installed in the OEM fashion. So instead I seriously butchered up the OEM grilles and screwed the new speakers and the grilles they came with all together. It looks OK but not "stealth" like I'd hoped.

 

$85.96. Ordered new speakers from Crutchfield

 

$45.00. Replaced the spark plugs and the spark plug wires with new Bougicords and NGK BCP7EVs.

This GREATLY improved the car's performance.  Those wires must have been really bad because the plugs that came out looked OK-ish.

  $64.00 + s&h. Ordered silicone vacuum line replacement kit from SaabSavior.com in silver. Can't wait to find the time to install them.
 

Checked the compression. They are all OK.

  • cyl 1 @ 140psi
  • cyl 2 @ 142psi
  • cyl 3 @ 145psi
  • cyl 4 @ 150psi

Tried to check the timing but... couldn't locate a timing mark on the flywheel with my strobe. The strobe seemed... inconsistent. So I took a careful look at the plug wires for arcing. I observed a small arc going from the wire-organizing rubber block (where the wires enter the valve-cover area) to the valve cover. It was impossible to tell which wire was causing this arc but surely it might account for my poor strobe performance?

 

Installed the new Konis. Set to "medium" in the rear and "medium-high" in the front.

No more "boing-boing." Yay.

 

Swapped the Air-Mass meter (013 version) with a known OK one from my '89 9000 parts car. No change in running quality.  Worse if anything.

  Installed new Bosch Micro Edge wipers that I had left over from my last C900. They are not performing as well as I'd like. Looking for something better.
  Had SCS replace the steering rack with a rebuilt one. The recently rebuilt one that was in it when I bought it... uh... blew up. What a mess.
  $539.00 +s&h. Ordered a set of Koni shocks and B&G lowering springs from shox.com.

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