1988 900S Rolling Resto

[bumper crop]

I picked this '88 900S up off of Craigslist in January. Came from a one owner home in RI, and then got bounced between a couple Saab guys around there for a little while before it came to me. I drove it all winter, and fell in love with the greatness of C900s all over again. It ain't a 3 door. It ain't a Turbo. It ain't a 5 speed. Jeez, why did I even bother?





Well, it only had 107k on it when I got it. The previous owner had put in a new distributor, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, exhaust, and radiator, plus belts and hoses and other random stuff. Wow. Ok. Just jump in and drive. So I did, and put about 8k on it this year so far. But lots of things have begun to creep up, and it's time to address some issues. Despite the lack of collectability in this particular car, there is so much life in it that it deserves to keep going. And it's so close to being well sorted, that I decided to do the work and make it nice and reliable for the foreseeable future.


Before the needs crept in, I had the chance to install a new stereo, and I decided to move it to the lower DIN slot and, at the same time, toss a Taurus DIN cup holder in the upper slot.








Once I started having fun, some maintenance issues started creeping up, so now my attention turns to those things. It needs front wheel bearings, especially the left front, and since I had to blow stuff apart anyway, I figured I'd be a little preventative, and do new CV axles, ball joints, and tie rod ends.


But, not one to let necessity overtake me in the pursuit of fun, I found a set of wheels on CL in Portland (Maine) and the guy delivered them to me here in MA on his way somewhere on a business trip. Cost? 60 bucks, DELIVERED! The tires have probably the rest of this summer and most of next on them too! CL shopping ftw.





I also found a good used neutral safety switch. Hopefully when it's installed I won't have to shift through all the gears and start it in neutral anymore.


On a side note, is anyone having troubles with the MTC window switches from eeuroparts? I am on my third one. The warranty them for me, but seriously. pretty frustrating.


Anyway, I'll keep the thread up to date as I go along.

[rpiereck]

Hey, welcome to Saab World! A non turbo, auto transmission 900 would make a great daily driver. The non turbo engine is near bullet proof, and you don't need to press the clutch in traffic. Looks like a great car, just needs to sort out the few mechanical problems, it seems.

[nordwulf]

Any Saab deserves to live. Good luck with the project and welcome to the site. It'll be interesting to follow this thread and see how you're going along.

[bumper crop]

It has been a great daily. Things are going well. I'm eating a burrito and checking in here while I wait for the machine shop to call me back so I can go get the hubs with the new bearings pressed in. While my hands are clean, I suppose I should go take some pics to keep this thread interesting.

Thanks for the welcome, fellas.

[JohnJardine]

We got an 1985 900s 4door 5speed for only a $1.00. We had to do some work but my son loves the car. We now have three 900 two running one still needs some work. These cars can run for ever if we want them to.