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Big ups to Saabnet regular RS who has been very generous with his advise and even sendt to me exactly the parts needed to fix what ailed my '93 NA C900-- a broken driver's side (forward) A-arm mounting bracket. What follows are my follow-up notes that I sent in an email to RS earlier today. I hope that some details of the episode might be helpful to others.
Hi [RS]--
Done deal! DS upper A-arm mounting bracket replaced with the one you sent to me and all is well-- the FrankenSaab lives!
A couple of additional pics are attached, repair notes worth mentioning:
1. Rather than going the spring compressor route, I used an engine hoist to support the upper A-arm mount during disassembly and to make fine adjustments on reassembly. I extended the boom over the engine compartment (coming from the passenger side) and strung some utility wire in a loop around the through rod of the a-arm mount.
2. Bracket mounting bolts original to my '93 were about 1" longer than the pair you sent with the replacement. It took like what seemed forever to back my bolts out and on reassembly used yours instead. Can't see the back side, but I'm certain that the bolts went fully through the captive nuts.
3. A little confused about need for lock washers on frame mount bolts. The original top bolt didn't have one but it may have been lost upon breakage of the mount; when I removed the lower bolt, I found that it had both flat and lock washers. Oddly enough, the replacement bolts that you sent were likewise unequal: one had just a flat washer, the other bolt had flat + lock. I used the lock washer on the lower bolt upon reassembly and just a flat on the top. The asymmetry is a bit baffling to me but I'll accept it for the time being and just check for tightness as time goes by.
4. Luckily for me, I found four alignment shims on the frame rail beneath the mount. Not sure if that was how many I had prior to mount failure, but I installed those available as a stack after getting the bolts started.
5. Pic of broken mount shows some pretty serious degradation of lower mount bolt hole. Not sure, but suspect that the elongated (oblongation?) of the hole isn't just a casualty of upper mount failure but may, in fact, have been the root cause of that failure. That is if, for whatever reason, the lower mount bolt had backed out over time, the play afforded by that looseness may have put sufficient stress on the upper mounting bolt and attachment ear to cause the break.
6. Took it for a test drive and the car tracks straight and true. Still have a slight clunk coming from passenger side over bumps which was a pre-existing condition and which sounds like ball joint(s) and/or tie rod end. I replaced the top BJ Thursday night and had some hope (roughly a one in three chance) that it may have been the offending part so deferred on replacing either the lower BJ or the TR end until I restored drivability by replacement of the A-arm mounting bracket. I have Moog replacements for both the un-replaced lower BJ and TR end. I will go at the lower BJ later today and see if that makes it all better; if not, TR end is next. I'm hopeful that the TR end replacement will not be necessary given how well the car tracks now; if I mess with the TR end I'll have to pop for an alignment-- which wouldn't be the worst investment I've ever made, but it's hard to find a competent shop in the Madison area that will treat the Saab right.
Thanks again for your help and keep an eye out for a package coming in the mail. While I hope that you enjoy its contents, it's really just a perfunctory and somewhat token gesture. I hope that you know that I will follow your fine example and "pay it forward" by helping someone as you have helped me. I'm generally a pretty cynical bastard and it's so very nice to have my rather dismal preconceptions of human nature upended by acts of generosity such as yours.
Cheers,
Scott
PS: I'm going to post this message to Saabnet-- I've always valued knowing "the rest of the story" when problems such as mine are broadcast to the group. As I am "challenged" re: posting pics on the site, I invite you to add the attached as followup. Who knows, the thread may actually help someone else.
posted by 68.187.92...
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