1964-1974 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Random electrical thoughts:
--My Sonett came with the optional grill-mounted driving light "buckets" pre-installed, and if yours did too it will already have wires in place. They're blue, if I remember correctly, and are on the same circuit as the high beams so they come on together.
-- If you don't have the "buckets" and/or want to use higher-wattage lights, I'd strongly suggest you install a relay for them and connect the relay's power feed directly to the positive cable from the battery. You can use the low-beam or high-beam circuit to control the relay to operate the driving lights, but DON'T just splice a wire into one of the headlight circuits to run the driving lights directly!... they'll draw too much current and you'll constantly be replacing those four headlight fuses on the left side of the engine compartment.
--One common source of front-end light problems is the two multi-plug connectors up inside the front, the ones that you had to unplug to get the nose off. While it's off and they're easy to get to, spend a lot of time testing and cleaning them and making sure all the connections work. I discovered that it's fairly easy for the metal connectors to get pushed back inside the shell so that some circuits don't reconnect when you plug the connector together.
--Before you put the nose back on, stand it up in front of the car, plug the wire connectors in, and make sure all the lights work. VERY frustrating if you don't do this until AFTER you put the nose back on and then find it has to come off again!
--A Sonett owner's manual, if you can find one, has a small but useful wiring diagram in it. Jack Ashcraft publishes a book on Saab electrics that's supposed to have larger, more legible wiring diagrams -- I haven't seen this book, but might be worth it if you're having trouble sorting out your electrics.
--You'll probably find putting the nose back on is harder than it was to take off. Be really nice to your girlfriend so she'll act as a "spotter" to help you get the nose back in place so all the holes in the rear edge line up with the ones in the door posts. The other big problem putting the nose back on is the elbow-shaped bellcrank that pops up the headlights. If you unbolted the bellcrank from its pivot to get the nose off, you'll probably find it easier to bolt it back on BEFORE you reinstall the nose. It'll look like it hangs down too far to slide the nose back on, but you'll find that you can push it "over-center" so it lies flat up against the inside of the nose and you can jockey it into place. BE CAREFUL, though, because it has to slide right over part of the wiring harness, and if it gets out of position it can tear out the wires! (Ask me how I found this out...)
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