The evidence was that with each revolution of the wheels, there was a semi-metallic clunk-ish sound which wasn't definitely metallic but more like something was dragging or rubbing each time the wheels rotated. It was slightly worse under heavier than normal braking or acceleration. That was the fact that started off my suspicion of a CV-joint problem.
Later investigation near the end of December involved conducting an apparently 'standard' test - ie. driving the car slowly in forward gear with the steering turned full-lock to the left (or right), then driving the car slowly in reverse with the steering turned full-lock the other way. There was no clearly audible clicking or clunking when doing this. hmmm.
Skip forward to my annual leave which started at the beginning of February 2005...
I get the inspiration (!) to finally check out the problem thoroughly. The series of images below pictorialises the process of lifting the car after working out a way to make the jack stable (!). We didn't have a flat concrete slab anywhere in our yard so I used the most flat piece of ground in the firebreak I could find just outside our back fence in the firebreak with pieces of wood under the jack and the jackstands to distribute weight safely! 8-)
As you can see from the second-last image which is taken from under the car with my trusty Olympus digital camera held up inside the lower control arm, the inside of the outer CV-join looks pretty ghastly. There's still plenty of grease, but also plenty of other material which should NOT be in there (ie. dirt, sand, small stones, pieces of leave and stick, etc.). It's not a good feeling realising that this is going be a major, and perhaps expensive, repair if that CV joint has been irrepairably damaged. sigh
Especially since in five days time (ie. evening of February 15, 2005) the car is meant to be transporting me to the SCCA NSW branch members meeting since I'm the feature-speaker for the meeting! 8-)
So, how can it be fixed? Two options came to mind - either take the car to a well-respected and recommended Saab repair shop (my choice is Saab Serve located in Parramatta, Sydney) which will mean I don't need to dive into a comprehensive repair job but risk not having the car fixed in time, or repair it myself by replacing the entire drive axle and hub assembly with the matching one from the 1983 Saab 900 Gli donor car if it's CV boots are in good condition and I feel confident undertaking such an involved job myself without the same facilities that a real workshop would have...
Well, I have phoned Saab Serve today (Thursday, Feb 10, 2005), and they worked out a price of just over $500 (that's A$ for people reading who are outside Australia) for a new outer universal (ie. CV) joint. Add in about an hour or two of labour cost and it makes a total repair cost of around $800! That's phenomenally high given that the price for an outer universal joint for a 1981-1993 C900 (without ABS) at Parts for Saabs (in the UK) is only just over 40 GBP including a new boot, pack of CV grease, etc. Discount Swedish Auto Parts (in the USA) have them listed at US $100 (but don't give any automatic quote for shipping).
The condition of the defective CV joint is such that driving on it would probably be ok in the extremely short term but it'd be a very calculated risk. 8-)
It's been suggested by a friend (who's into Volvo's of the same era) that removing the driveshafts, etc. from the donor car is still a good idea if they're checked out by a good suspension/steering/etc. place (he's recommended Roadholder Suspension at Kirrawee which is not too far from here). Given that I can't trust the defective CV-joint now that I've actually looked at it properly (perhaps I shouldn't have looked? lol) the options are a driveshaft swap or spend a lot money immediately to get the outer CV replaced at a premium price because of how quickly I need it done. Hmm, no thanks. Not right not anwway.
Since I already have plenty of new ball joints (Meyle ones - good quality German-made) here, there are possibly some other things I could so while I'm going to the trouble of doing all the other suspension/drivetrain fixes. 8-) I'm a bit suspicious of the inner CV on the left side as well since with the handbrake released the brake disk can be turned quite a lot more than I'd have expected, but that can be checked out when the driveshaft comes out. I do happen to have a brand-new inner driver - just not the right tripod bearing assembly.
Well as luck would have it, in my pile of spare parts I also have two CV boot kits - one inner and one outer. That's definitely helpful, but still doesn't overcome the problem that the CV itself probably needs replacing.
So commences the job of my first seriously major suspension/drivetrain repair. 8-) With trepidation, I soldier on...
Hmmm, loosening the 32 mm locknut proved to be 'fun'. As the pics below show, half of the handle from my trolley jack turned into a defacto breaker-bar and after half an hour with the Selleys RP7 (same as WD-40) penetrating the thread, etc. jumping on the jack handle freed it! The socket driver was flexing quite a bit. 8-)
| First attempt after half hour | 32 mm hub nut soaking in RP7 | The 'universal' handle! |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
Next job is to create some 'devices' to simulate the Saab spacer tool # 83 93 209. Pieces of wood could work but would be very dodgy given the forces that the spring (via the upper control arm) would place on them. Not a very safe idea! Time to create something using hacksawed up pieces of cast aluminium heatsink! he he
Ok after quite a lot of thinking I was lucky to find a 1-unit high (44 mm) blank 19" rack-panel made from aluminium. Marked that up into a series of 20 mm wide pieces and after lots of drilling and hacksawing and selection of some stainless fasteners came up with the devices pictured below.
| Marking out the panel | Cutting it up into pieces | The assembled spacers |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
| Spacers in place on 'The Beast' | Something to note: | |
 | <--- Notice how high the upper
control arm is before jacking up the front of the car. This front
corner of the car was down a little more than the other front corner due to
a slight slope in the ground where the rear of the car was resting. The
identical set of spacers I made and have used with the donor car have been
put in sideways since the clearance is less. | |
One problem that's immediately obvious is that they're quite high in the main body section (compared to the Saab special tool at least) and in the blue donor car they had to sit sideways but on the car I'm fixing they could go upright. The long bolt gives something to hold onto when reaching in behind the wheel from underneath to position them before jacking the car up.
I think I will either cut the large bolt in the centre down so I can make the spacers up with two aluminium plates instead of three. Let me know what you think. I can try to draw up a bit of a plan to mark out a similar piece of metal if any of you are interested - just let me know.
Now we're into the task of removing the brake caliper from the steering swivel member, and this is where I reached the point where I can't do any more due to the lack of suitable tools... 8-)
| Handbrake cable and brake pads removed | Close-up of the brake caliper bolts | Dis-assembly starting on the donor car |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
The bolts on the brake caliper shown in the second picture above would not budge after hours of letting the RP7 soak into the thread, etc. of them. The bottom bolt was getting damaged so after some four-letter expletion and as it was 4.30 pm (2.5 hours before the SCCA meeting was meant to start!), I gave up and put the car back together.
I was able to free the bottom bolt of the brake caliper on the donor car, and if the top bolt can be freed too the driveshaft can still come off the car and be reconditioned at a later stage. It'll be good to have a spare driveshaft assembly in the longer-term...
For now, the car will make a visit up to Roadholder Suspension so I can let the professionals do the job. One good side-effect of doing that will be a full and thorough inspection of the underside of the car and that can yield some benefits in terms of knowing what else will need servicing in the short to medium term.
Greg Selby from Roadholder Suspension did the job of replacing the outer CV-joint with a brand new one (and new boot, etc.) for A$375 (this was $175 less than the quote that I received from Saab Serve at Parramatta!). You can contact Greg Selby at Roadholder Suspension on 02-8539-7333 (within Australia) for quotes on any work involving suspension, steering, etc. for Saab C900's. They are located at Kirrawee and are only a short walk from the railway station.
| June 2005 Update: When
the car was over at SaabServe having
a lot of work done earlier this month to get it passed for rego I asked the
obvious question of why it was that I had so much trouble freeing the bolts
holding the brake caliper, and the first thing Steve asked was whether I
used a 12-point or 6-point socket! The penny dropped big-time when I
realised that a proper 6-point 'impact' socket would not have given any
problems with releasing the bolts and some proper penetrating oil would have
made the job easier too. The same problem with using the wrong type of
socket happened when I tried to remove the engine oil drain plug on
the 1985
900i so it's happened twice! 8-)
|
| March 2006 Update:
During 2005 I did a lot of work on the front-end of
my 1985 900i which included doing a lot of repairs and component
replacement with the suspension/steering/drivetrain parts of the car.
|
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