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I am a recent new Saab owner (black 1997 900S 5-speed convertible) and want to thank you all for the information/advice I’ve picked up while lurking here for the last month or so while I was looking at cars. I had started with a low price 1995 900S automatic because it was in my desired budget, but as I got “educated” I wound up spending about $2,500 more on a car that is in much better condition & hopefully fewer future problems. It was a bit more $'s but so far it really feels like the right choice; the car is wonderful, the family including my 14 year old son love it (he now volunteers to go for family rides).
Now for some information back:
As a new owner I wanted to “bond” with my new car by getting to know some of its mechanical systems. After cleaning and inspection I noticed that one of the small covers just forward of the tonneau did not close after the roof was lowered. One side would spring closed but the other had to be pushed back. The cover is part of the rear interior side panel but access is limited. I also noted that there was little bit of dirt in the boot area under where the top is stored. If I could just raise the tonneau and keep it open this would make access to the area easy. Since I had recently read the owner’s manual about manual roof operation this seemed like a good time to try it out (as an engineer type I need to try these things out “incase we need to use it in an emergency”). After a bit of looking I found and pulled the lever for manual operation, raising the top went smoothly as described in the book. With the tonneau up cleaning the boot was easy, I could better inspect the missing spring-loaded cover but really had no better access (leave that for another day). Finish raising the top, secure the tonneau, and return the handle to automatic position. Humm, don’t like this last step “call Saab dealer to have top mechanism reset.” (My wife likes this step even less). I try to operate the top electrically but now get a “check soft top” message. As an engineer I know enough to skip reading any bright yellow warring sections of a manual until after something is broken or there has been personal injury. I now see warnings about using manual mode only using with electrical failure and not to lower the top after it has been manually raised (could cause severe damage, severe death or possible divorce). A quick search of Saabnet provided a key piece of information, when you pull the manual handle one of the things that happens is that the tonneau motor is physically disconnected from it’s drive linkage. Someone also said that they had been able to get their top working again but weren’t sure of the details. Now with renewed confidence, this is what I did:
1. Open the tonneau and lower the top. The warnings are there because as you get the top about ½ way back it will be nearly vertical, all the weight of the top needs to be supported to keep it from dropping back too fast. It is not a big deal, just be ready for it, also you want to keep your hands away from the folding pieces on the side of the roof, lots of places there to pinch fingers. Hold the top using the forward center bow, as you slowly lower it check to see that the top & window are folding normally into the boot.
2. Close the tonneau cover, it will not latch and the 2 small forward flaps will still be up.
3. Put the lever back into automatic position.
4. Open the trunk and remove the interior panel on the right side to gain access to the tonneau motor.
5. You will be able to see the tonneau motor on the upper right side of the trunk. The mount is hinged at the top and motor drive spline will be pulled away from the tonneau drive shaft. Attached to this shaft are a couple of linkage arms. Rotate the tonneau shaft using the linkage arms counter clockwise until they are at 12:00. As you do this you should see and feel the tonneau cover latch closed.
6. Now swing the tonneau drive motor back into position, the spline should line up with the drive shaft assy and the motor will snap/lock into the mount.
7. Close the trunk and start the car. Move the top switch aft to the open position. The two small covers on the tonneau should close and you will hear one beep with no warnings on the SID.
8. The top now should open and close normally and you can reinstall the trunk liner.
Hank
posted by 192.249.4...
2
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