saablog

George asked now about the engine compartment of the 900. He’s used up two of his three wishes so far, but without further ado…

Hmm. That almost worked. It’s hard to scan in something 2 pages wide on a scanner meant for only one page. In any case, shown above is about .85 of the beautiful cutaway drawing of the 1992 Saab 900 SPG. It differs from my car in that mine has no turbocharger, breakerless electronic ignition, nor front and rear spoilers. The powertrain layout is the same, though. The engine is longitudinally mounted, with the drive belts at the back (against the firewall) and the clutch at the front/bottom of the engine, with the transmission directly behind it, as shown below. The above illustration fails to include the air conditioning compressor, which is mounted basically atop the engine at the back where it can get a drive belt to run it. It’s in the way of everything, from belt changes to oil changes to radiator hose changes. I’ve finally got the tools, so removing that beast is one of the next orders of business.

So the 900 is either ass-backwards in how the engine is installed, or ass-sideways. You can be the judge of that.

My friend Zane recently gave the saablog a little bit of free advertising on his blog. Thanks Zane. As a result of that, my first visitor from inzane.blog.com was George in Arizona (SexyArmo), who asked a question about the 900’s suspension.

I visited The Suspension Bible, and couldn’t really identify the exact suspension setup that my car has. But we’re all in luck, because I have the 1992 Saab 900 Form and Function book, a brochure that Saab published to expose all of the car’s innovative engineering solutions. Fortunately my obsession with Saab started in 1992, and coincided with my working at a Saab dealership that summer, which gave me access to all types of Saab promotional materials. It’s merely fate that I actually found my ‘92 on craigslist so that my car matches the literature. Below are illustrations of the suspension in the 900. Sorry about the crappy scan quality.

The front suspension is described as a double wishbone, with the spring not mounted over the shock absorber, but instead pivot mounted. The rear suspension is described as a Watt’s Link configuration.

Now we’re all just a little more knowledgeable about the 900. I still wonder why the stupid belts are facing the firewall though.