1972 Saab 96- tracing little niggles

For me the welding was the easy part of rust repair, it was the actual fabbing and shaping of the replacement metal I'm not good at >_<

I can also highly recommend grabbing a welder and some old body panels and having a play. 

Small update:

8mm grommets ordered, from an electical supplier but the dimensions match, so should work.

I've found the source of the new loose metallic clunk:



Basically the bush at the bottom of the damper is AWOL
The damper moves around in my hand and the clunk it makes is exactly the sound I could hear.
I think I had an axle stand under this point, and for quite a long time too, while I was doing the rust treatment and paint underneath, so I imagine those forces from an unusual direction finished it off.

So more rubber to order, I'll have to consider whether to replace the dampers too while I am at it, they aren't leaking, but look pretty old.

You can also see in the pic that the bushes for the anti-roll bar are past their best, I'd noticed that before but its not urgent, however, while I am ordering parts perhaps I'll do them too.

These jobs do expand don't they

Right, off to compare prices!

Cheers

Nigel

melle

This is the only source of a full rubber set that I could find link

I have not used this company before and my browser is warning its an insecure site.

Otherwise it seems to be polybushes or Skandix has the Bush for the lower suspension arm but not for the body.

I'm still pondering how much to replace and then how best to collate the order, so nothing ordered yet myself.

Cheers

Nigel.

So many suppliers only list parts by car model ratherthan dimensions these days it's difficult to buy generic rubber bushes commonly found across many cars!

Fitted the grommets




Prongs on the trim push in quite nicely




Trim then sits very well, looks good.




Hope it stays in place this time

Did both sides, the other side is secure, but does not sit quite as well- perfectly acceptable though.

Looking at the light itself I think its pointing down too much, so the trim will need to come off for some adjustment at some point.

Happy with this though- teeny, tiny win!

Cheers

Nigel

They all count !
James

While I wait for the dampers (ordered from Autodoc- despite the UK web address and prices in £'s I did not realise they would be coming from Berlin, so they will take a little longer than I thought to get here), I thought I'd do the handbrake grommets on the rear drums. I've had these for a while, just not fitted them.

This is the old nearside one- hanging by a thread basically!


Old vs New


New one in place


Offside was a repeat, just with one small hiccup.
To get the new rubber in place, the handbrake cable has to be detached from the lever that goes into the drum. Its simply held in place with a cotter pin which in turn is secured by a split pin.
On the nearside the split pin pulled out with a bit of wiggling, and the cotter pin came out with couple of gentle taps.
On the offside not so lucky, the split pin snapped off at both ends, so could not be pulled out.
I managed to cut the stubs of the split pin off flush so the cotter pin would then come out, then with a combination of drilling and driving it out with a blunt nail, managed to remove the remains of the split pin.

Here is the cotter pin, and my replacement "split pin" to put it back together again.


This is where they go



and all back together



Split pin aside this side was easier as I'd learnt the knack of hooking the rubber over the 4 little tabs that hold it in place- went on first time on this side.

Success!

Cheers

Nigel

Shocks are now here (I know they don't do any shock absorbing, that's the springs job and that they actually damp, but everyone calls them shock absorbers not dampers).
Whatever they are called (!) they are here, so time to fit them:

Here is one of the new ones




But no bushes in it, the picture on the Autodoc site did show bushes fitted.
Oh well, order some bushes too (from Malbrad, I've bought lots of Saab bits from them and they always send them out really quickly).

Now with bushes ready to fit




Now I'd heard lots of horror stories about how hard it was to push the bushes in. I did try clampimg round the outside with a jubilee clip and then pushing the bush in using the vice, but all that did was distort the bush.

BUT, a liberal smear of washing up liquid (thank you internet for that idea) and they can be pushed in by hand- simple




Remove the old ones, this is the drivers side, all detached and loose, just hanging there ready to pull off.



No stuck bolts, came off fine.


New vs Old




New went on nicely, so nicely in fact that I got carried away and finished that side without taking a picture.

I was going to put on new nuts and washers, but in the end the existing ones were in ok condition and looked more meaty than the replacements I had bought, so I re-used the old ones, with the exception of new spring washers, as the old ones of those had no spring left in them.

On to the passenger side, this was the side where the bottom bush was completely missing, same procedure, all went well.
Remembered to take a picture this time




Then tidying up and putting away the packaging I found these in the box



doh!


2 piece bushes, so would have been easier to fit than the single piece ones I used.
Oh well, guess I have spares now!

Quick after completion shot, shows why the Saab being really narrow is so useful- even in my single width garage I could get to both sides without needing to reposition the car




Then a test drive showed that the "new" clunk has now gone, so it was definitely because of that missing bush.

The rhythmic knocking on the over-run is still there though, I'm thinking the next thing to replace might be the engine mounts to see if that helps- just feels like the car is pushing the engine when it coasts.
There are 3 mounts: one each side underneath at the front that I think can be replaced fairly simply (that will jinx it) but a third is at the back of the gearbox, between the gearbox and the bulkhead. I'll probably do the simple 2 first to see if that helps (and perhaps the tiny bushes on the engine steady bars) as it looks like the engine and gearbox would need to come out to get at the one on the bulkhead.

Talking of engine out though, my little oil leak has got a lot worse, I could actually watch it dripping out under the car after my test drive.
Still hard to work out where its coming from though- best current guess is the rear of the engine between the engine and gearbox, so perhaps the rear crank seal.
With a torch and mirror I can see a little way in through an opening and past the ring gear and it is very mucky/oily in there indeed.
That too would be an engine out job  and would be a big step up the challenge scale for me!

Before I consider doing that though, I need to check its not the crank case getting pressurised and pushing the oil out due to a blocked breather.
When I was flushing the cooling system a while back and was looking at all the hoses, I noticed a breather hose from a rocker cover had come off, I think it had been off for some considerable time as the surrounding area was "nicely" misted with oil.
I put it back on, but it's a straight hose being asked to make a very tight 180 degree turn (I think that's why it has popped off), so forcing it back on might have caused a constriction and its not breathing- well I can hope its that simple anyway- I'll need to look further.

Well, all these little jobs keep me busy and interested (and learning), which was the point of getting an old car, so that's a good thing right?

Cheers

Nigel

Good work, but... I would connect the off-side rocker cover vent hose to the air filter housing, the system currently doesn't work as the PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) system it's supposed to be. In my view, the air filter's too small, I would fit something bigger.