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It all depends on how far you want to take the powertrain swap. Anything can be made to work, given enough time, money, and fancy fabrication work. I've seen a Saab 2.3 turbo motor put into a rear wheel drive BMW e30.
If you want to use the transmission, it may be tricky as to where to splice the old with the new. The driveshafts on the OG9-3 have a different number of splines (on both ends), but the tripod bearings might be the same size, or perhaps you can put them together in a hybrid CV joint - not sure.
If you keep the 9-3's axles all the way out to the ends, then you'll have to swap the front spindles, and perhaps the rear ones too (if you want to have the same bolt patterns on your front wheels as your back wheels). However, on the OG9-3, the steering rack attaches in the middle of the strut, not down low like on the 9000. Perhaps using the spindles from a 9-5 would work better (these are more similar to the 9k's). Then, if you want to keep the ABS system, you'll have to figure out how to convert the signals from the new hubs - there are different numbers of teeth on the sensor rings.
You could, I suppose, carry over ALL the electronics from the 9-3 and figure out how to fit those in the 9k. That'd be an interesting project. It may take a little custom wiring to fit, but that might be easier than trying to translate different ABS signals between two systems.
Anyhow, I'm just thinking out loud, really, because I've considered similar projects myself, but never got anywhere. What is driving me is that a good used 5 speed transmission for a later model 9k is hard to come by, and the ZF auto transmission isn't a preferable alternative.
It'd be nice to be able to use the more robust transmissions found in later Saabs. If you do go forward with the project, take notes and pictures! I for one would be keen to see how it goes.
posted by 71.36.88...
, Sun, 26 Aug 2012 11:41:37
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