Getting a Saab back off the road.

[Mos6502]

Bought a Federal Couragia 195/80 R15 tire to test fit... then once I had and could do some rough measurements, I found everybody had them on backorder, so I need three more and can't find any. The only other all terrain tire in this size is a Zeetex AT1000 - which I've never heard of and find suspicious.

The narrowness of this tire makes the tread look far more aggressive than it really is!

In other news, I installed one new brake hose and pads on the drive side, need to do the passenger side next. But wait! Discovered the axle boots are shot, so I have to pull the disks out, and the axle out, and the axle apart, clean, repack, and re-boot. I have new ball joints, so may as well replace those.
Worth it when I don't even know if the engine will run? Who knows. The engine did crank over when I hooked a batter up to it, so at least I know it's not seized.

 

[Mos6502]

Finally found a store that had more of these tires!

Lots of work coming up on the front end.

 

[Mos6502]

Was doing some calculations to see how the bigger tires would affect gearing, particularly in 1st as wouldn't want to give up the engine's limited pulling power just to gain 1" of ground clearance. With a 3.5:1 1st gear, 4.88 final, and 27.3" tall tires, I get 12mph (near as makes no difference) at 2500rpm (the engine's torque peak). It'll be interesting to see if this difference from stock will be noticeable in driving compared to my 95 on the shorter, stock sized tires.
As I have no idea where comparatively this stood with actual off road vehicles, I dug out stock ratios and tire sizes for the Jeep Wrangler TJ and found it is within a mph or less of what I'd get from the best (factory) gearing combinations in 1st. I have no plans to pull stumps though.

 

[Mos6502]

A lot of progress, but not much posting.
Fitted the tires to the 95 to check clearances:

And then... we took it off road.

I was trying to get the Bajaab running in time to participate in the Texas Gambler 500, but ran into several unanticipated problems (wiring, and windshield - I found one, but FedEx broke it) and the car just wasn't going to be ready. So I took the 95, and we drove it a little more gently than most participants - but it worked great in the mud and sand.

I have few doubts now that the Saab 96 would get me most places I would want to drive.
We only got stuck once on the off road "obstacle course" - in deep sand, that even some of the 4x4 vehicles were having trouble in - but didn't need a tow, just a push from my co-driver and we were going again.

As for the 96, I now know the engine to be in running condition. Fuel hoses and heater/radiator hoses were replaced. Wires were traced and connections cleaned. I'm still having some issues, but the headlights, tail lights, horn, windshield wipers, etc. work!

 

[Mos6502]

Removing drive shafts.

Simple T end of the inner joint (bushings removed). Tripod joints? No way, this is stone age front wheel drive!

Front end. Wishbones need to come out. They will be reinforced with extra metal. The areas around the mounting points will also be reinforced. New bushings and ball joints will be fitted. The ball joints appear to be the original 1968 units! They still have the zerk fittings which have not been on replacements for a few decades now.

Spring is toast. Somebody welded some of the turns together, presumably to lower the car (the bump stop had about two inches sawed off as well) - so that's junk now. Gotta find a replacement.
May or may not remove the anti-sway bar. Rally drivers usually took them off to get more traction on dirt.

 

[Mos6502]

Update, Spring and A-arms are out. Now to reinforce the A-arms and shock mounts, and put in the new bushings, ball joints, and bump stops.

I've pushed in bushings at home before, and while possible, it's a PITA, so I'm going to find a shop to do these ones for me.

 

[Mr. Toad]

Back in the 70s I had a 68 Saab 96 V4. I installed L 78 x15 tires on the stock rims, fabricated a skid plate from the front bumper to about middle of chassis. The ignition was water proofed with silicone sealer and the carburetor intake was routed into the interior behind the glove box. I removed the back seat and secured spare tires and a tool box.

Previous to this I had a Scout, Series II Land Rover, 73 Blazer and 77 Blazer. I had more fun in the New Jersey Pine Barrens with the Saab than any of those. It was a blast to drive on the fire trails.

Have fun!

 

[Mos6502]

Well back on this. Dropped the A-arms off at a shop finally for new bushings. Looking at bump stops now. Deciding on whether to go with the original solid bullet-style or if there is something better suited for rough road use. Hoping to have the car driving next month, but it's still going to be a long ways before it's finished.

 

[Regcabguy]

My buddy had one with a lever or something that enabled free wheeling down hills.

 

[Mos6502]

My buddy had one with a lever or something that enabled free wheeling down hills.

Yes, has the freewheel in the transmission. It's a feature that was put in for the 2-stroke motors, since the 2-stroke has its engine oil mixed with the gas, when the throttle is closed, no gas, no oil, seized engine. So engine braking was a big no-no, the freewheel allows the car to coast downhill while the engine idles. Completely unnecessary for the four stroke, but gives a pretty fun rollercoaster ride effect in the hills around Austin!

Filled the cooling system yesterday, 24 hours and no leaks, that's a good sign. Will see if I can get it to start and run on gasoline this week, hope the new fuel pump and rebuilt carb are working properly.

 

[bigKlittlecar]

So glad to see you back working on this!!! Can’t wait for the finished car


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Mos6502]

Got it started and running on gasoline today after filling with new oil and swapping on a new oil filter. Only ran it for about a minute. I'm not sure it was running on all cylinders, but there wasn't a stench of unburnt fuel, so maybe the extreme lumpiness was due to a timing issue. It does have a vacuum gauge fitted but I was too concerned with keeping it from stalling to notice if it was giving me any meaningful info.

 

[Mos6502]

It's alive!


Started and ran with surprisingly little fuss. Carb's auto-choke doesn't work properly. Probably easiest to just remove it. Didn't seem to like running with any choke at all, and it never gets that cold in Texas anyway.

After it warmed up a bit, it settled into a very slow John Deere like idle:

This is before I had ever changed any of the carb settings! This is with the mixture and idle set like it said to do on the rebuild box.

 

[Mos6502]

The shop that was supposed to press in new bushings, declined to do so, so I've had a bit of a setback. Thankfully, I found a friend of a friend who has a hydraulic press and we'll be pressing the old ones out in a week or so. Still have to find somebody to reinforce the A-arms and shock mounts. But will be focusing on the engine. The car is fitted with an accessory vacuum gauge, and it is showing a low vacuum when the engine is running, so I've got to figure out where the vacuum leak is. The reading is also bouncing around a lot, so I suspect some of the valves are sticking, so that's going to require some disassembly to solve, and then it's going to need the valves adjusted (which I need to have the wheels on the car to do as there's no safe way to turn the engine over manually except to roll it back and forth). Also considering removing the heads and having hardened valve seats installed.

 

[Mos6502]

Wired up the fog lights today.

The lamps are vintage Lumax units, mentioned earlier. The switch is a "Lucas" illuminated unit, I got off ebay. Advertised as being for a Land Rover Series 2. I don't think it has anything to do with Lucas. It was sort of disappointingly chintzy in feel and quality, but hey it worked. Wired through a relay.

Electric fan has also been fitted to the radiator, but I'll need to wire it up.