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  1. #1
    Saab Fan
    Join Date
    05 Jan 2014
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    14
    Saab(s)
    '08 9-7x

    Tonneau Cover motor, 1996 900

    Hi all,

    The top on my 1996 convertible stopped retracting and my mechanic says it's the motor (the one that opens the cover that the roof goes under when retracted). The motor runs and the gearbox that goes with it seems fine, but apparently an internal gear is stripped. Clackety-clackety-clack. This motor costs a couple of hundred dollars, and if I don't go to the dealer then what I get may be a used one that itself is rather worn out.

    My question, then, is: Are these motors/gears repairable by me? Could I get a replacement gear myself and put it in there? If not, is there a good source for rebuilt ones? I know that most of the 900 convertibles I've seen in the junkyards have already been looted of their tonneau cover motors.
    Last edited by Bad Lobster; 16 September 2015 at 19:22. Reason: add 1 sentence

  2. #2
    Dave
    Saab Enthusiast
    Join Date
    25 Oct 2014
    Location
    Nottinghamshire, England
    Posts
    130
    Saab(s)
    2001 93 2.0Ltr HOT Aero coupe & 2011 1.9TTiD Aero saloon
    Hi
    Not sure if this helps, it mentions motor clicking and gives possible cause (page 14)
    SAAB 900 CONVERTIBLE MANUAL Pdf Download.
    Hope it's of some help.
    Dave

  3. #3
    Saab Fan
    Join Date
    05 Jan 2014
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    14
    Saab(s)
    '08 9-7x
    A user sent me a private message asking if I'd found a solution, but the site doesn't allow me to send him a private reply. So, here it is for the whole wide world to see:

    =======================================

    The best lead I have is that I saw an ad on eBay from a shop in Florida that will overhaul these motors for $160 plus shipping. I told my Saab mechanic about it and he said it sounded better than anything he could get from his supplier. In fact he got a used motor from his supplier and it was just as worn out as mine. I took apart the motor assembly with a friend who's a mechanical engineer and it seems the problem lies mostly in the bushings in which the gears are mounted. When they get worn then the gears start to slip--that's what happened with both my original motor and the failed replacement (not a stripped gear like I said above; the gears are very robust). I leave it to you to search for the eBay post since I got too busy with family stuff to follow up--after all, it's fall in Seattle and I don't really need to put the top down for quite a while.

    As for manual operation, there's a release lever at the right-side end of the rear seat that disconnects the motor so you can get home if it gets stuck halfway up; if you pulled that lever then you'd have a semi-mechanical operation where you move the tonneau cover by hand and then use the electric motors for the top. I don't know if one person could do that alone.

 

 

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