saablog

This weekend my brother came to Seattle for the weekend, and I loaned him the 900 to drive. On Sunday I drove it over to my parents’ house in Renton and I was showing it off to my brother. When I opened the hood, his first question was why there wasn’t anything holding the battery in place? That’s a good question. I had thought there was a bracket along the bottom of the battery. It was not a bracket.. it was some sort of debris that I mistook for a bracket. Nothing was holding the battery in place other than gravity and the connection of the battery terminals. So off we went to Shuck’s to buy generic battery hold-down bolts and a bracket. We also bought some belt dressing to quiet the squealing belt(s), because it’s easier to spray something at the belts than it is to get a wrench between the engine and firewall to adjust or change the belts. When we got home we secured the battery (it is effective, but not exactly as Saab intended due to the fact that the battery in there is larger than the original size). We also sprayed the stuff on the belts, then went inside to warm up.

A while later we were sent to the store to get bread for dinner. When we started the car, the belts were noticeably louder. They no longer squealed, but their normal operation was quite loud. As we were driving to the store, we drove past a construction site where our uncle (a general contractor) is demolishing some houses. (My parents live in the same neighborhood where I, my mother and my grandmother grew up, so we’re always running in to relatives there). We thought we saw our cousin’s car there, so we stopped to chat and to check out the noisy belts. We pulled up and turned off the car, chatted for awhile, then opened the hood to inspect the belts. I went to start the car so we could listen to the belts. But nothing happened when I turned the key. No dashboard lights, no starter motor, nothing.

So now we’re all leaning over the hood of the car. My uncle reached down and touched the negative battery terminal, and it was loose. He began finger-tightening it. So I got my socket set out of the car to tighten the terminal. I also had to tighten the positive terminal, as it was also loose to the point of being able to turn by hand. I was truly amazed at (1) my stupidity for never having checked the battery terminals since buying the car, and (2) my luck that the battery, though unrestrained and with very loose terminals, always worked before this. My uncle was giving me a really bad time about the fact that I’m an electrical engineer but I couldn’t even keep the battery properly connected in my car. It was really funny… my brother and I really laughed a long time over the whole breakdown/fix scenario. Way too much fun to have for just $800. By the time we got home the family was wondering where we’d been. We got to explain the whole thing to them. My dad was impressed I had the tools in my car to actually be able to solve my problem!

While borrowing the car, my brother discovered that the FM part of the AM/FM/Cassette radio doesn’t work. I already knew that. I also knew that the tape player (1) sounds like I’m listening under water, and (2) eats tapes. So essentially I’ve got an AM radio. Yesterday Ani and Erik suggested the ’90s trick of using a Discman and cassette adapter to play CDs in the car. We still have a Discman and cassette adapter left over from the early ’90s, Ani found it and I took it out for a trial run. It works just as well as it did 10+ years ago. Truly a happy cheap upgrade to the car. And a bonus- a CD I’ve been missing for a few years was still in the Discman.

What I need to do next: give some attention to the squealing belts. It takes way too long for them to warm up and stop making that noise. I also still need to flush the coolant and replace the radiator hoses and thermostat. I’ve got the parts and the coolant, I just need to make the time. And of course I need to buy the tires that will (hopefully) make the car competitive.

Finally, I’ve attached a “graphic representation” of my birthday present from my brother- racing stripes for the 900 that run the length of the hood, roof, and hatch. They haven’t yet arrived, so he photo-shopped the finished product. I’m not sure how tasteful they are, but they are sure sporty.