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Broken Timing Chain
Posted by Ramblerdrver (more from Ramblerdrver) on Wed, 25 Oct 2000 02:25:22
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

About 3 weeks ago out 93 9000CDE quit and left my wife
stranded...fortunately it was in town,on a pleasant fall day, with a phone
booth nearby. Cause of the stoppage...a broken timing chain!!  Car has only
73000 miles on it!  Oil has been changed every 4-5000 miles, or 3-4 months.
There was NO warning of the impending failure...none of the rattle you
usually hear when a timing chain gets loose.

The car was 7 years old so out of warrentee, even tho it has only 73000
miles on it.  Saab did agree to pay for the parts (chain, sprockets,
guides, head gasket set, etc) but unfortunately not the labor (I didn't
press the issue), so the bill was still substantial (about 16 hours worth).
No valves were bent (usually some are) and the balance shaft chain was not
broken, altho I had it replaced also to be on safe side.

The chain failed by having a pin in an outer link (not sure of proper terms
for the chain parts) rip out of the mating inner link.  The chain had
'split rollers', ie the rollers have a split, or seam, down their length
because they are made from seamed tubing. Seamless tubing would be far
superior, in my opinion.  One of these split rollers should have still been
arount the pin that pulled thru the link, BUT IT WAS GONE1  This indicates
to me the failure was likely caused by this roller breaking in two, causing
some binding between chain and sprocket and resulting in the chain being
pulled apart.  I looked the chain over for wear also and found some links
seemed to have significant looseness while others seemd reasonably tight.
The chain brand is 'jWis', at least that's what is stamped on the links.

I understand this is not an isolated failure.  In my opinion it is the
result of Saab trying to save a few bucks by going to a cheaper supplier
and ending up with an inferior, low grade product. And we end up paying for
it!!  Hopefully the replacement is a better chain (I didn't get a chance to
look at it) and Saab has learned a lesson (I'm probably dreaming on that
one!).  If this failure would have occured late at night, out in the
country, in the middle of winter, the consequences could have been fatal.

Steve Parsons
88 900S, 93 9000CDE, 98 900S, 64 Rambler American
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