My fake Talladega

[southsaab]

Time to fix the seats. This is what I'm facing


Not only did these shredded wires stop the seats from working, but probably killed the seat heating, too. Got caught in the latch mechanism too many times. After giving a solution some thought, I decided to just do the simplest cheapest down and dirty way - butt connections. Reaching under the seat, I clipped the ties holding the harnesses to get enough slack to work with. The rest was simple.

For the black wire, I had to add a section for the missing piece

Nearly done

To finish off, I got some split tubing for the wires. Worked for the two black wires, but the others were too thick for the tubing I got. Time for tape, and it's all done.

Crude but effective. But does it work?

At first attempt, no. Nothing. I start fiddling with the memory buttons, seat then moves but still no control. After touching all the memory buttons, voila, it works. Check out passenger seat, it works, too.

Happiness is an adjustable seat.


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[swisssaabist]

great job Congrats
did you see a 900 I before never saw Saab has made engine online look at the pics

[southsaab]

LOL, yes indeed. That's the C900 with the "backwards" engine. Love them, great cars.


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[southsaab]

Another annoyance is the power mirrors don't work. Suspecting the switch is the issue, I go to work.

I remove the fasteners.



After inspecting the switch, it doesn't readily come out. A couple of spring clips hold it. Uncoupling the connection, I decide to soak it with WD-40. Hard to find holes leading to the guts of it, but I do my best.


Tried it and it works, but it's not the most robust functioning mirror I've seen. At least it works.


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[YellowBird]

Great thread, I love to read these and local --- win/win!!! It is always great to see someone saving a SAAB --- kudos. Our group is willing to help you with whatever you need. Keep us updated.

[southsaab]

Thx, Yellowbird, I'll be in touch. --Disclaimer-- I am a sometime participant with the Virginia Driving Club, which Yellowbird and others are a part of. Very enthusiastic Saabists; check out his thread at Saabcentral under the Cafe section, Events. Sorry to mention another site, but it is active for the group. But SaabWorld has an exclusive for this thread.

Now nearly all of my fix-its have been straightforward, but the next one, the radio

was a bit tricky. 900 radios are coded, not married like later Saabs, meaning if they lose power for any reason, you have to enter its own personal code to have it work. If you are lucky, you will have a card with the serial number and the code

Seems simple enough, when you see this

type in the code.

My fake Talladega did have the card, but not for this radio. When entering the card code, this is what I saw

That means the code is bad. I need to pull the radio out and check it for numbers. To pull it you can get a special removal tool, or like I did, improvise

Lowes happen to have just what I needed. Now to insert them

and pull the radio out

And now I can see some info.

Aha, a 4 digit number, the code for this radio, I hope. But a problem - how to get back to this

After some research, I find that to get SID to give CODEIN, I have to press BAND on the radio for a few seconds. I do that, get CODEIN, put in 1555, and... I get this again

Showing the symptoms of insanity, I repeat the previous steps and get the same results - no radio, just ----.

Doing more research, I begin to doubt the code written on the radio is correct. Need to consult with higher powers. Check online, and if I have the serial number and product numbers, I can get the code. I pull the radio out

The serial number is the YSxxxx, and the other one is the PU-xxxx. To my surprise, it's gonna cost. That's a no-go for me. In my mind, this is a 20 year old car, I'd be an idiot to pay, at least until I've exhausted all my alternatives. I did find one site that would give me the code free if I was willing to download spam and malware. Uh, no thanks. There are no Saab dealerships anymore, but there are service centers, which are what pass for dealerships these days, so I decided to call one, IM Autohaus in Falls Church, VA. I asked them about getting the code, and they said they could if I had the numbers, which I did. They gave me the same number I had, 1555. Still stumped.

More research yielded a new approach. I went to the trunk and pushed the CD cassette fully in, letting it cycle all 6 slots

I then turned car just to on, no lights on dash, and turned radio on getting ----. I then went to the fuse box

and pulled first the radio fuse , 7.5 amp and then the radio diagnostic fuse, 15 amp

fuses 11 and 13, and then reinserted them. Turned car on to ignition, and while it's running, pressed BAND until CODEIN came up, typed in 1555, and magically the radio works.

This whole thing was complicated, especially for a radio, but the protocols are unyielding. These days people steal phones, not radios.

[Digger]

Pulled a lot of these radios back in the day for car jocky that dealt a lot of Saabs and it always cost him to get the code.

I have the tool and I love the trim nails trick. Now that you have the code and know how to use it, remember to write it down in the book so you have it the next time you need to use it.

[swisssaabist]

that's kick me up you're a kind of magician or what ? I was for long time calling names on it !! well done anyway !!

[T4hir]

Previous owner should be charged with willful neglect and torture!

[southsaab]

I'm really annoyed with the top, but fixing it could get complicated. The tonneau cover doesn't lift enough, causing the first bow to clip it as it opens and closes.



After some research, I was unable to isolate what the issue was, so I decided to check out the u-joint first.

It's in the trunk behind this carpet cover.

After uncovering the u-joint,

I noticed all 4 Allen screws were loose. Got some loctite blue

and proceeded to coat the threads.



Did all 4, and hoped that would fix it. And miraculously, it did! My top works fine, at least for now, and I avoided a tedious process of troubleshooting.

Fingers crossed..,.


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