1950-1966 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
You know there's a separate fuse for each individual headlight, right? And that they're notorious troublemakers?... @#$% pointy-end ceramic fuses in an open clip in the engine compartment; just asking for trouble. I would clean the clips, check for good contact, and replace the fuses with modern glass-enclosed ones before I even contemplated anything else...
You should be able to test the relay by rigging up a jumper wire and applying 12V directly to the terminal that comes from the dimmer switch. It's possible that the relay is bad, but I'd say it's even more possible that it just isn't getting quite enough current to latch -- possibly either because of a bad fuse connection, as above, or a bad ground contact. Again, you should be able to definitively pass or fail it by taking it out and jumpering it to a known-good 12V supply to see if it functions correctly. But then I'm not a very sophisticated trouble-shooter -- the only way I know to do it is to isolate all the pieces and then test them one at a time to make SURE they're either working or not!
Shift points and revs: My shop manuals are out in the garage right now, but those figures from the old C&D sound pretty accurate. Undoubtedly they were derived by calculation, based on the gear ratios, final-drive ratio, and wheel/tire diameter, and they should be pretty accurate as long as your car is fitted with standard-size (155 or 165) tires. You'll go a little farther per wheel revolution with a 165 tire, so your actual speed per RPM will be slightly faster, but it's not enough to make a huge difference.
The bottom line is that, yes, you wind the engine higher for a given road speed than you might be used to with your other cars. SAAB geared the 95 and 96 pretty "short" so that the original two-stroke engines (which didn't make much low-RPM torque) would have enough pulling power for decent takeoff; even after they switched to the V4, they didn't change the ratios much. And with no fifth gear for cruising (no room in the box for it!) you don't have any alternative at highway speed but to wind it up as necessary.
So, yes, it's normal to need 4000 RPM or so to drive at highway speeds. Tough on the ears, I know, but don't worry, the engine likes it -- these V4s were heavily used in the US as industrial power units, and they thrive on constant high-speed running, as long as you respect the redline and keep the cooling and lubrication systems maintained. (The most experienced foreign-car mechanic in my town once told me about the V4, "If you don't get a quarter-million miles out of the bottom end between rebuilds, it's your own &*#@ fault for not changing the oil often enough.")
Incidentally, the later 96es I used to own had shift points marked in Roman numerals on the speedo. I take it yours does not?... I noticed in the pictures that it has the three-dial instrument panel (big speedo and two smaller separate gauges) rather than the later type two-dial (speedo and same-size combination instrument) so maybe they hadn't yet added this feature...
posted by 68.13.13...
, Sat, 6 Mar 2004 23:20:41
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