My Saab 96

I'm new here and I have to say I love the form.

After say 7 years of work, my rally car is almost finished. I started it under the wing of JVL oh so long ago. Its been a real adventure, they changed the rules I think the second year into my build that excluded my car from group2 and since I was using beechin brakes of JVL's design and a few other none period specific things... I was not allowed to run historic class and being a 73 was to old to run group2. So I lost a bit of steam and then college came and took me away from the car too.

Just a few weeks ago I was able to get it together and put some of the finishing touches on the car. I have a really nice engine that is ready to run but I had been having a hard time tuning with my 44 DCNF carb. I baught every book on webers and carbs I could, I read them over and tried this and that and never got it to run well. (could just have been my stupidity and not the carb seeing as how they have worked in the past)

So I bought a Megasquirt put it together and modify my manifold to work. I used a bunch of old saab 9000 parts I found on some cars in a friends field. After all the sensors were in, fuel system plummed and electrical stuff done, I made a map from what thought would be a good starting point, and fired her up. This was about 3 and a half years ago. The car ran great with out much tuning but I never had time to really tie up the loose ends of the system till about 3 weeks ago.

I was working JVL hours, so all day until I was dizzy from hunger and thirst and a friend dragged me inside to get both. The car came together great and I was soon down at the DMV getting 20 day plates so I could take her out onto the roads. I had a set of stock tires from my XR that I nolonger needed and slapped them on, and off I went.

The car is unreal, after about 50 miles of tuning and a valve adjustment, I can't believe how drivable she is. I'm away for a few weeks in Sweden to see my gf and get a few XR or sierra parts of JVL, so the car is sitting again, but when I get back I hope to have her as a daily driver until I can update the cage and all the other things to accomidate the new rules so I can get her on the road where she was made to run.

JVL send me an email with the stuff you want from here. I'm going to another bilskrot today but I have yet to find a good one that is cheap, the last place I went wanted 700kr a side for headlights!

Anyways just wanted to say there is another rally car up and running, and it may take time but if you really want to get into rallying you can and will.

Oh P.S. I am getting rid of an xr or 2 soon and if anyone needs some parts, and can come give a hand pulling them off and bring a 6 pack to help they are yours. I'm in southern NH about 30 min from nashua in the Peterbrough direction.

Hey Graham,
its a left hand drive 4x4 PS rack (servostyrning) that would be nice to find for round $100
Remember titta under "www.bildelbasen.se"
MORE manual window cranks.
Standard non AC heater fan assemblies.

rubber door seal weltie things for my new red '69 96 street car.

Did you notice the last one Graham?
Comrade Rich Smith put me onto a free 96 in Craigslist which I got so now maybe Graham is going to have to schedule drivingf thee green 96 sitting over at Andrew Steere's out to Sleezattle.

And speaking of which, Andrew, you get the reg and new stickers yet??


See folks its a small world iddnit?
Now in Lyndeborough NH there not one but 2 Saab 96s from SAeattle and me.

JVL spreading joy one Saab at a time.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JVL spreading joy one Saab at a time.

Haha! Awesome. Glad to hear another one is up and running. Being in Prescott this weekend got me fired up again about working on my Galant. It would be cool if mine was up before Moose and then I could be the one talking the shit.

Congrats on a major undertaking, Graham.

---

Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest

Ha! JV's old street car Saab 96 is actually in Greenfield, one town north of Lyndeborough, but with valid registration, I'll put it in my yard between the General Leif 84 900 ice racer (provided we ever have ice in New England again) and the 3 cylinder snapped turbo bolts XR4, which will make my wife happy. My dad would love to have it out of his yard, he keeps mentioning the words "storage fees," "town fines for excess unregistered vehicles," "mechanic's lein," and "crusher" with increasing frequency as the snowy season approaches. Hopefully the tags will be here soon, we had to celebrate Columbus's inability to navigate the seas today, so no mail.

My 88 4Runner daily shitbox is doing the "mystery coolant loss" mambo...I was about ready to forge, I mean get JV to sign, yeah, that's it... a Bill of Sale on that 96, put NH plates on it, weld the floor and other holes, fix the shock and the brake, replace the blown fuses and drive it some so I could tear into the Toiletta and figure out why I keep adding coolant but can't find any puddles (yeah, probably headgasket, but the plugs don't look bad, I guess I should run a compression test). At which point my wife will tell me to get a car that was built after W lost the first election instead of a relic from the Reagan era. Maybe I'll just try some "headgasket repair in a can" and see if I can clog the radiator and finish off the water pump.

Well, with some valid Washington plates, I guess I can drive it around some and get it ready for a trip west. I found a couple of NR09's I can put on the front that'll fit and be much safer than the hopelessly dry-rotted skins on front wheels right now. I've already donated some old Dunlop snows for the back that would be best described as "they should take a sticker, but don't try for two years". I guess I have to find a wide-5 adaptor for Ted's balancer now...

With a baby on the way in less than two months, and the need to stay employed to keep health insurance for the time being, I'm out of the road trip game...I'd actually like to do a trek across the northern states or the Trans Canadian highway. But that's gonna have to be a voyage for Graham or fawkin' Kevin or somebody without mortgages and impending fatherhood. I wonder how quickly one gan get a 33 year old Saab across this continent?

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

I know the green car and JVl could do it in I THINK he used to say 3dys? there and 3 back. I will be heading to alaska for a week this summer and have been thinking of a road trip out and back with my sister if I can find time. I was going to take my natzzy car (mercedes 240D) out, 35mpg is nice to have, but I don't know if it will have the power to pull the green car too. I guess we'll get to that when the time comes.

Andrew if you need any Merk parts, I have a bunch that I will be getting rid of.

JVL I got to the yard when they closed yesterday so I don't know what they have yet, but it looks like a better place then the last one. So cross your finger Du gamla orm!!

PS Andrew Congrads on the soon to come arrival

Got a registration today! Maybe I'll put it on the road next week...

The green car is a lot more rusty than you remember it. Fawkin Bahstun wasn't kind. But the engine started right up when I went to rescue it in...April? Needs a day or two of work and some local drive time before I'd trust running it the length of US 2 and/or I 90.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2006 09:56AM by fiasco.

fiasco Wrote:
>
> My 88 4Runner daily shitbox is doing the "mystery
> coolant loss" mambo...
> Maybe I'll just try some "headgasket repair in a
> can" and see if I can clog the radiator and finish
> off the water pump.

ARGH!!! Bad memory.

I fought one of these pigs for a month. Went so far as to yank the head, which had been just replaced by someone else. Did find 9 head bolts loosely torqued and the tenth one hydrolocked from oil in the bolt hole so it was doing no clamping, but it still lost coolant. Turns out the failure was the timing cover, The chain went bad a couple years earlier and the lack of a chain guide allowed the chain to slap the timing cover, and it took that long for the extremely thin part of the cover to corrode through, just enough for a minor leak.

On that note, the Chinese cheapo timing covers suck m00se nuts. The holes for everything, including the dowels, are in ALMOST the right places... almost.

Back to the SAAB story.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

>On that note, the Chinese cheapo timing covers suck m00se nuts.

Leave my nuts alone !!!

---

Cheers
M.Samli
Phoenix AZ
Gaylant VR4
EVO III GSR (Stolen)


Rallies are no place for traitors

Turns out the failure
> was the timing cover, The chain went bad a couple
> years earlier and the lack of a chain guide
> allowed the chain to slap the timing cover, and it
> took that long for the extremely thin part of the
> cover to corrode through, just enough for a minor
> leak.

Thanks for the tip. I knew that was also an issue with this engine. I'm just monitoring coolant level, checking oil for coolant invasion and just waiting for the inevitable. Of course, it being a Toyota, that could be another 100k miles (only 97k on this machine)...if I had another car I could reliably daily-drive, I'd tear into it and do a complete coolant system overhaul and timing chain. I don't dare try it without a backup car, since we all know what happens when you put a wrench on 18 year old steel...snap, strip, s$#^!!!

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Update...

Started up JV's 96 today. Had to jump it b/c I was a moron and left the battery cables connected when I parked it. Poured a little 93 octane into the carb and it fired up, had to remember the choke sticks a little and needed some encouragement. Drove a lap around my parents' driveway...gotta fix that shock in the back, and you can't reverse more than a few feet before the left rear tire locks up.

In essence, I did nothing other than start it, but after I return the pickup truck (gotta pick up baby crib and fresh oxy-acetelyne tanks, how's that for combining errands?) I'll probably fix the shock and dtive it up the street a bit. If it'll take a couple miles of forward motion without locking the left rear, I'll bring it to Lyndeborough and see about fixing that, changing the oil, and checking the coolant and fuel lines and filter for any obvious issues.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

I took it out for a spin today...I can understand why JV wants this drivetrain back...even running on a mixture of 4 year old sludge and 2 gallons of 93 Mobil, it pulls like mad. Of course low low gears do help, but it just rips out of the hole!

The bad parts are, well, everything else. The first bolt I turned snapped under minimal pressure, and unfortunately, it's the right rear lower shock mount. I did fix the upper bushing, that was easy once the shock was out of the car, but now the lower end of the shock is expertly fastened with four orange zip ties. And the left rear is also screwed. The wheel had been just locking at random, but it finally broke free, and with it came a geiser of old rotten brake fluid and loss of 98% of braking force. So I tried to pull off the offending drum. Prybars, nope. Hammer, nope, Big slide hammer with hook inserted through lug holes, no good.

Any suggestions? Anybody have a decent complete rear axle assembly, as I think it would be easier to do that than weld a new shock mount bolt and get the other drum off....

Here are a few piccies for JV...

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

I think I can get the tool you need at biltema for lets see 40 bucks or I think I have a large gear puller that I welded up for that kind of thing, I also have 2 rear drums that came off or my rally car if you need them. No rear axle though sorry.

OHHH I like the green!

---

Scott Manley
Spokane, WA
86' XR4Ti
37

OK, went over today with charged battery, pulled car out and got the left rear wheel off after a few minutes of cursing. Apparently the slide hammer got it almost there last time.

Brake shoe friction material had totally delaminated from the shoes and was flopping around, causing the intermittant wheel locking. The wheel cylinder is frozen and rusted solid, the brake line snapped trying to pull it off.

So, I need:

* hard line from axle to cylinder
* wheel cylinder
* brake shoes and hopefully the long springs that keep the e-brake in check.

Then I should be able to drive it the 10 miles back to my house and weld something on that resembles a rear shock mount.

Or I could cap the line and call a transport company.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

fiasco Wrote:
Ought to bae able to organise all those things.

I was talking to Graham while he was over in Sweden schtupping his sweetiepie and
I'm going to make a stell guide jig to slide over the shaft so you guys can slide over the 5/8 pin part and drill on center while guided by the jig, then another to guide the tap so you are straight.
Then 5/16 UNC bolt thru a LARGE diameter washer and your golden on the mount.
You know, those mounts were slathered with anti-sieze when assemble. Fawkin salt.

It'll be at least mid week next week before I can put this together but I'll send the jigs, drillbits new and sharp and the tap and of course the bolts and washers.

And the other junk.
Get hold of Graham he seen this nonsense before, he may have some junk there, but he forgets stuff.

Smooooochies!
John


-------------------------------------------------------
> OK, went over today with charged battery, pulled
> car out and got the left rear wheel off after a
> few minutes of cursing. Apparently the slide
> hammer got it almost there last time.
>
> Brake shoe friction material had totally
> delaminated from the shoes and was flopping
> around, causing the intermittant wheel locking.
> The wheel cylinder is frozen and rusted solid, the
> brake line snapped trying to pull it off.
>
> So, I need:
>
> * hard line from axle to cylinder
> * wheel cylinder
> * brake shoes and hopefully the long springs that
> keep the e-brake in check.
>
> Then I should be able to drive it the 10 miles
> back to my house and weld something on that
> resembles a rear shock mount.
>
> Or I could cap the line and call a transport
> company.
>
>
> Andrew Steere, 1973
> Lyndeborough, NH
> eventual XR4Ti rally car...

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.