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Too many 9000's get junked for want of a new clutch or gearbox. Recent work I had done by a good mechanic that had not seen a 9000 in many years and had done maybe twice a gearbox removal on one. My point here is, don't put up with the usual barely competent, find a skilled mechanic if you can't do it yourself, they do exist but tend to be busy.
Had heard accounts that the likes of Abbott Racing in Essex, UK could remove a 9k box in 45 minutes, well yesterday I got to see it done on my own driveway.
I needed to remove my gearbox for repairs, and decided to delay the cost of a rebuild by putting my backup box in my 1993 Aero.
Thought about doing it alone, but decided to pay a mobile mechanic guy I've known for a while, done some non-Saab work well for me in the past.
Best of all he comes to me, does the work in my driveway. My role was to ask questions and generally slow down his progress by wanting to see how he did it.
I had removed the passenger wheel liner and side/center undertray, though with all bolts present and rust free this only took me 15 minutes tops. I'm well aware on a rust monster this can be hours of pain right at the start.
Actual work was remove gearbox, clutch & p/plate, decided to refit them w/o changing, transfer end cover/mount to replacement box, change oil in replacement box, fit same, road test car 1/4 mile, fit fuel filter in a different car of mine, done in 2.5 hours.
So what was the tricks of a real gearbox pro?
First off he uses a very, very large trolley jack, allowing him to lift the car two feet off the ground, giving great access from below.
He disconnected the battery but did not remove it. All that he removed from the top was the alloy intake pipe from the i/c to TB, nothing else.
He only loosened the starter bolts enough to move it to a 45 degree angle out of the way, and was able to access the 'hard' bolt that brings tears to some using a thin angled ratchet wrench.
In the passenger wheel well the sub-frame was dropped by removing the large pinch-bolt on the ball joint, the anti-roll bar bushes, bottom drop link bolt, and the eight bolts under neath (4 front/4 rear and whoosh, the sub frame was out of the way.
Two lowe strut bolts, axle nut, everything on the brakes except ABS cable clips left alone. He was suspecting one of the sway bar bushes was perhaps stripping, after doing up by hand both bolts we confirmed it was ok, and one of the rear sub-frame bolts, next to the steering rack one, sheared off, delaying us a few minutes as I fetched a replacement from my Saab bolt collection.
Using small and large air impacts, he got the main gearbox bolts off in no time and then pop, dropped the box down onto himself, and muscled it out solo without dragging it, short guy but built like a fridge. He used a cross beam to hold the engine up, but did the gearbox up/down using just muscle power.
Going back in was more of the same, he lifted the box up, hung it on a stud, centralized it by kicking the driver's side wheel and pushing the gearbox in with this very slow rotation and clunk, first time it it went.
Having the old-style two-bolt rubber linkage block, he removed and then connected these in a few moments, so there was no need to put it in gear or to re-align, and using a hose pich on the clutch rubber meant there was no bleeding required, already fluid in the slave & off we go. I'll use my vacum bleeder later to get some cleaner fluid in the slave.
And that was that, gearbox out, gearbox in, saved me two days work I reckon, for a hack like me, for a very small outlay of hard cash. Everything works fine, I am happy. Going to stick to computers & BBQ today, stuff I know something about, and making money to pay guys like Matt to swap gearboxes...
posted by 86.11.99...
, Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:12:48, Wed, 20 Nov 2013 10:02:16
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