Inner Driver: Replaced

I started last night at about 8pm. It took until roughly 4am to finish. To say the least, I ran into a couple issues. All is good now though - she drives wonderfully. No more vibration under load, and the new transmission oil (Royal Purple) is doing WONDERFUL things. I have yet to try the transmission oil out in the cold though - I'll update sometime after Friday with cold weather info (high in the 40s).

Next step on the To-Do List: check timing and clean out cam followers. Following that will be replacing the out CV boot on at least the passenger side - I'll need to inspect the other as well.

A surprise item has also been added to the list unfortunately: gas tank filler neck. I took her to the gas station yesterday, before heading to the shop, and when I opened the gas cap door, it just fell right off. There's $130 down the hole.

Cheers,
Saab Guy

Quick Tune-Up

I got the chance to do a bit of tune-up stuff this weekend. I got new spark plugs, distributor cap & rotor, and valve cover gaskets. I think she starts a little bit better now, but unfortunately I'm not noticing any major improvements. It still has a delayed throttle response and does not start up immediately.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) I will be replacing the inner driver and also therefore replacing the transmission oil. FINALLY!

Cheers,
Saab Guy

Destroyed Inner Driver

My good friend Colan is staying at my house for half of break this week - I drove two hours yesterday to Effingham to pick him up. On the way there, I ran into a slight problem. I still haven't gotten that inner driver fixed, and until yesterday, hadn't even refilled the boot with grease.

The drive started out great - the driver was doing fine for quite a while up at 65-70 mph. And then it changed very quickly - I couldn't give it one bit of gas without the whole car shaking. Forty-five minutes into the drive I had to pull over in Edwardsville at a Napa Auto Parts that I found, and refill the boot with grease. This sure wasn't fun. When I popped the boot off, a small metal ring fell out - clearly badly damaged and broken. It looked as though it used to be a continuous ring - it was now an open ring. Not much I could do though other than pack in that grease as tight as I could and carry on... oh, and pray! The driving improved 100 fold! and I carried on the rest of the drive without a worry. I also made an immediate call to East of Sweden, one of the best Saab shops I've found, and ordered a new driver and tripod (that means both the male and female ends of the joint). The parts should arrive Friday (tomorrow).

I'll be waiting to do the repair until I get back to Rose and have their tools at my disposal. This is not a job I'd like to try and tackle on my own, without the proper tools.

Expect another update once the new driver is installed.

Cheers,
Saab Guy