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DONE! Replaced the driver-side upper control arm with the engine still in car. What Oldsaab told me is true - - you cut through this little strip of sheet metal between axle hole and A-frame hole in wheel well wall, after unbolting a heavy steel strap that Saab put there. Bend it out and arm can come up through. I just put strap back, didn't weld cut, as it's plainly a non-strain area and the strap must have been put there with this in mind - - carries any strain just fine.
It was a long job, broken up into several sessions by my need to do other things. Worse on a car like this - - kind of a beater, '89, with some rusty bolts and lots of oil and sand on things.
The How-To:
1. Remove AC compressor - - 2 5mm allen head bolts, and reaching in from down below with 12 mm wrench, loosen bottom bolt and pull it up. Unplug wire, and release wire bundle from plastic strap off back of block. Set compressor over on passenger side.
2. Remove coolant tank but don't bother draining it or undoing hoses if you're bold and believe yours are still flexible. I squeezed the two plastic clips holding the skinny hose to radiator to the top of fender wall, then folded the big hose double, laying tank on top of intake.
3. Remove alternator and its bracket. (Disconnect battery, the wires to alternator and to oil pressure sensor, also 8mm nut holding ground strap to alternator.) Take out top tensioning thru-bolt (don't mess with adjustment, it should just pull out to rear with big nut removed), remove and set aside long 13-mm headed bolt that holds adjusting strap to block, pry alternator hard towards block with a chunk of 2x4 off spring tower, going down on outer side of brake cylinder, hook belts off pulleys with a piece of stiff bent rod - - I used a battery hold-down bolt. Remove the top bracket bolt (12mm head) all the way, using a box-open wrench (or gear wrench!), use a 5mm allen key to remove the front bracket bolt, then grabbing alternator, twist the bracket counterclockwise as far as it will go, remove bottom thru-bolt nut (5/8" SAE I guess) and thru-bolt should pull out to rear, with the extra distance you get from angling the bracket. Then remove bottom bolt with 5mm allen key. Alternator can then be wrestled out between (non-ABS) brake cylinder and hoses to heater valve, squeezing heck out of those hoses. Or if you're squeamish, drain system down some and remove one or both hoses. ABS brakes might offer less room.
4. Use 7mm socket and take air-intake snorkel tube off air cleaner.
5. You'll need to remove the oil filter mounting housing - - 3 12-mm headed bolts. It's a pain cause you need to keep it all clean, and will need to scrape gaskets off both faces unless yours comes apart clean and you trust re-using it. But you need the room. Put a bread bag around the filter before unscrewing it, and hold it vertical and clean in storage, and can re-install as is; housing itself seeps only a little oil on removal.
6. Also I freed up the oil dipstick tube, letting it move forward a little, by removing two 10-mm headed bolts at throttle cable bracket. Or there's a key you can pull vertically.
7. Take off driver wheel, pop tie rod loose, remove shock from its lower mount - - take off nut and washer and it should wrestle off. (If you're in rust belt, take a cold chisel to the inner part of that mounting stud before re-installing - - it probably is a few diameters bigger than it should be from rust scale.) Take enough pressure off with a spring compressor to remove spring, after undoing and removing two ball-joint thru bolts and slipping ball joint out of upper arm. I used two cheap-o JC Whitney spring compressors I've had since my VW Rabbit days, very insubstantial which lets them get in there. I was careful. Go from below bottom coil to as high as you can reach, one at front, one at rear. Should be able to come close to 180 degrees opposed.
Don't need to support knuckle or brake hose as it really doesn't move much. Then undo and remove spring perch thru-bolt and take perch off control arm.
8. Motor mount is next - - And YES, you CAN change the left motor mount with engine in car. There are two 13mm head nuts on studs reached from below. One I got off with standard socket, long extension with a "wobble" extension at its end, Snap-On brand, up from below. The second had heavy rust on the threads or it probably would have come same way - - a six-point socket would probably have worked it but the angle was too tough so a 12-point slipped. So I got it from wheel well, with standard socket on wrench, in thru axle hole, one or two clicks at a time, cranking it the whole way. Then a 14-mm head bolt at bottom of long strap down from front of motor mount. Next supported car from jack stands off frame rails, moved jack to back of engine, and lifted it up to take strain off mount and lift studs out of body, jammed a block of wood in above the cross member and let that hold it. There are 4 12-mm headed bolts holding motor mount (an oily mess in my case) to block. Front two came pretty easy, one with fingers after loosening. Rear two are hidden (hence need to remove alternator bracket) and fought - - no room for a ratchet, and bottom one needed to go a flat at a time. Top one was looser and I somehow could get about a quarter-turn per set of wrench, angling wrench in and out. (Cleaned the whole mess and wire brushed rust off those two bottom studs before re-install.)
9. Four 5/8" head SAE bolts hold A-frame to car. Ends go thru into made nuts in body sidewall, then stick out and get rusty. I WD-40d these threads. Three of four came out, pretty easy. Fourth, bottom rear, was a bitch. Felt like it would break. So I ran a propane torch flame on the made nut and threads, careful as those two hoses in there are the fuel pressure and return lines. Squirted oil on the hot nut, then let fumes evaporate and re-heated it, THEN it started moving. Oiled again and then it came out easy. Brushed rust out of all those bolt threads on a wire wheel before reassembly, and pre-ran bolts in and out, so they'd go easy.
10. Removed the heavy strap - - two 13-mm head nuts. Oiled and cleaned up threads as above. Then cut thru the "isthmus" of sheet metal. Used hacksaw stead of Sawzall for control around those fuel lines. Cut it near rear end, grabbed with hand and bent it out forward, then A-frame nose will lower down into axle area and it will angle up and out inside engine compartment.
11. Installation is reverse, with all threads that could be trouble cleaned and oiled first so can turn with fingers. I just bent sheet metal strip back into place and re-bolted strap. Biggest problem was rear lower motor-mount-to-block bolt. Upper bolt in rear is captive in motor mount which holds it so it's almost lined up when two front bolts are in. Couldn't repeat removal 1/4 turn maneuver, had to tighten it in all the way a flat at a time. Once it's tightened, rear lower bolt needs to be held in place and finger-started, but I must have dropped it 8 or 10 times, losing it good once, down alongside front of steering rack boot in the oily sand. So I thought, and cut two strips of like cereal box cardboard, about 6" x 3/4", doubled, poked a hole near one end with a screwdriver, then started the bolt in that hole. Used it like a handle, raised bolt up and it went square right into its hole, then used fingers of other hand to start threads, and then tore the cardboard off. Slow re-tighten, flat at a time.
Next biggest prob was spring re-install. Got it out but it wasn't short enough or square enough to go back in. Lucky me, I have an arbor press, a big old fashioned pull-the-arm rack type, and using big blocks of wood under and smaller ones over, I was able to compress the spring and re-set the compressors to get it right. Set one too close at top and needed a big prybar to free it once spring was in.
I made my own oil filter housing gasket on Sunday nite late, from gasket paper (can get at NAPA or hardware stores), traced outside and cut with scissors, pressed it hard onto clean housing with ball of thumb to show the holes and trimmed voids with X-Acto knife, punched bolt holes with one of a set of Chinese hole punches I've had. Dressed it both sides with Permatex 518. No leaks.
Decided to install a set of alternator and adjusting arm rubber bushings I've had, I think from Saabsite. That was a mistake as the bracket bushings went in VERY hard despite lubing first, and I needed to make a rig using threaded rod, big hardened washers and nuts, to press them in and then used a 7/8" socket on far side to let end stick out some so I could OVER-press them enough for them to go in the last 1/8". Correct way is, rubber heads of both on inside of bracket. I did this once with Saab dealer parts and don't remember any such trouble.
I think I remembered it all, at least all the trouble areas. Oh, I had to move the car around some and out of the shop when I'd just gotten the new A-arm in, so, all suspension bolts just started, motor still on wooden block, I put a 10" tall block of 4x4 on the spring perch and hung the wheel on. Lowered carefully, I could roll it around. (How would that handle!?) Lost the alternator adjusting arm's long bolt then I guess - - it snowed Friday and buried the yard, but I had a bag of bolts from junkyard trips and found one just right.
My problem was, upper driver's side A-arm broke at rear from rust. Examining it, despite rust everywhere it was full thickness most places, except the last 2" or so at inner end, and at top of the U-channel side piece. There it tapered away to paper thin. The bottom third of the same channel at rear was almost as thick as new, but cracked vertically in near the long pivot rod that goes thru the bushes. That crack was rusted and old - - the arm had held on for some time, with the thin section flexing instead of breaking, till it finally parted on me. NO handling clues to this in advance, tire wore fine. Upper arm on other side looks fine, lowers also, no sign of the dreaded cracks there. My tip to rust belt owners is have a peek at yours from time to time, hard as it is to peer down in there.
I got my new arm for $40 from a great indy about 20 miles out in the country, a dedicated C900 man.
posted by 70.105.243...
1
, Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:21:20, Sat, 3 Mar 2007 12:05:17
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