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Took me 4 complete days. Hands appear that they will never come clean - with only the crimson color of skinned knuckles interrupting the grease. Been driving with the clunks from the frame for at least a year. The front bushings were fine, but the middles and especially the rears were going. Rear ones were completely torn. The movement of the subframe also destroyed my recently replaced sway bar links and one ball joint (all 1 year old).
I'm a bit DIY rusty, but that was a monumental job. Aside from all the basic wrenching, the power steering rack cost me a ton of time. First I couldn't get it off the subframe because the bolts were seized in the bushing sleeves. Finally used a crow bar to pry the rack free of the bushings. I left the bushings on the subframe and upon re-installation, I naively thought I could press the rack back on. Wrong. Pulled the SF off again and used a press to drive the bolt out, then rigged up a washer/threaded rod to press the bushings back into the rack. Used the same technique to press the new poly bushings into the SF. Aside from the rack fiasco, everything was pretty straightforward - just time consuming and exhausting.
I replaced the alternator while there. This was quite easy with the frame down.
After 20 years of SAAB ownership, this project involved the most 15, 16 and 18mm bolts I've ever come across. I swear everything on a C900 is 10, 13, 17 and 19mm.
Discovered a big oil leak from the crank seal while "in the neighborhood". I had a seal and o-ring on hand and to my surprise, the crank nut was a bit loose. Seal is easy to replace, but I couldn't remove the oil pump cover because I didn't have a large enough snap ring pliers and couldn't find one at any store. Surprise, surprise the leak is still there, so I'll be going back in to do the o-ring.
The car definitely needed an alignment afterward. Practically drove sideways. The ride is awesome and drives (as everyone describes) like a new car. Annoyingly, there is a rattle somewhere. It's in the left front when going over small and large bumps and appears after the car warms up and is driven for a few miles. The alignment shop thought it's coming from the LF strut cap/bearing, but I don't see how this would have been affected since they were never disconnected. Another possibility I was thinking is the engine or exhaust rubbing on something. Irritating to have swapped one clunk (or many in the case of the SF) for a new one.
Best of luck to any future DIYers. Since I lost 2 days of work, I probably would have broken even by paying for this repair. My body definitely thinks so!
Bryan
'04 9-5 SW
posted by 76.17.205...
, Thu, 5 Mar 2015 07:54:13
, Thu, 5 Mar 2015 10:20:36, Wed, 4 Mar 2015 15:25:16
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