'85 900 CV/axle replacement

I've got a split CV boot on the left side, on my '85 900. A new axle is only 66 bucks, cheaper than just the CV, so I'll probably be going with that. Any surprises in this process? Seems like it'd be pretty straightforward; pull the bottom ball joint, remove the castle nut & caliper - pretty much all right there, or am I missing something?

Dave Hinz

Reply to
Dave Hinz
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Dave...I did one on my '83 900 some years ago. No real surprises, but I remember having to wedge the wishbone in the compressed position, and the hardwood wedges I used were not really hard enough! Also have a look here....

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Be aware that when you whack the old joint off the drive shaft it may fall on your tootsies. It is heavy.

Reply to
pidgeonpost

Ah, so the range of motion doesn't go past where I can re-attach it. Got it.

Thanks, that's well done by whoever did it.

I always wear steel toed boots when working on heavy things, but thanks for the reminder. Been an EMT for a long time, seen lots of fun trauma on folks who didn't use safety equipment. (ask me about the guy with the screwdriver through and through his hand...)

Reply to
Dave Hinz

You assume the CV joint is gone I take it. Because all you need is a boot if the rest is OK.

(Good Lord I could do a SAAB boot your vintage with my eyes closed)

Will the axle include the bearing (triangular gizzmo) at the gear box end?

Remember to loosen the big nut before you ramp up the car and before you take the brake off. It is torqued to 240ish feet/pounds pounds/feet (?)

:-D Charles

PS. If you decide to remove top and/or bottom ball joints ... remove them from the wishbones, a lot easier and less destructive than trying to remove them from the hub.

Reply to
Charles C.

Well, let's talk about that. Is that just lower ball joint, inner U joint, get greasy as hell, and be done? Or how do I get the driveshaft out of that CV?

Don't know yet.

Yes, I've made that particular mistake before. More than once, in fact.

Absolutely, those 2 bolts are the only way to do it.

Thanks Dave

Reply to
Dave Hinz

Was it like this guy?

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Reply to
Fred W

Hi,

I did not mean to sound I am cleverer than you. It just brings back memories ... :-)

I assume you only need to change the boot. In the following procedure you remove the complete drive shaft and hub assembly.

Disclaimer ... don't drop the car on yourself, it hurts.

Jam up the upper wishbone using SAAB clever part or piece of wood or ... as long as you don't collapse the inner wing. I always used a piece of wood *and* a pair of spring compressors (so the pressure on the inner wing was not at the full strength of the spring) whilst I had two spare spring compressors in case things went wrong.

Remove brake caliper etc and suspend from spring above etc.

Remove the two bolts from upper and lower ball joint to wishbone connections. Note that in both a 1979 and a 1983 cars I had the bolts had a fine thread which after that many years has probably gone south. I got replacement bolts for my 1983 car (a few years ago mind you) which had the same oversize shoulder but a normal metric thread. Also note that the heads of the bolts (i.e. the stronger part of the bolt, go in a particular direction ... uhmmm I have to think about this .. they have to counteract the rotational direction ... uhmm maybe).

Separate steering knuckle ball joint (is it called track rod end ?).

Undo circlip of inner cv joint boot where it connects to the transmission.

Unless I am forgetting something important (?) you should be able to pull out of the car the complete drive shaft + CV joint + hub.

To separate drive shaft (half axle another name) from CV joint there is a circlip. The circlip is like a capital "O" with a bit missing (may not be called a circlip). If you wipe the grease off the top of the CV joint you will see it. The idea is ... you need a pair of circlip pliers (when you compress the handles the points open ...) try to open the circlip when you manage it ... tap the cv joint away from the shaft using a soft hammer. Half a dozen attempts (you will only get one hit at a time as the pliers will move off the circlip) and you will move the CV a bit away ... the rest is straight forward.

The only catch with refitting always was trying to align the holes of the ball joints with those of the wishbones to put the bolts through. I remember me using a jack to push the hub assembly up against the car to give me room or similar improvisations.

If all you need is a boot it is probably less work to do what I am suggesting than replace the shaft/CV joint.

If you choose to remove the CV joint from the hub you will need a torque wrench capable of more than 200 ft/lb to refit, and technically a new nut as you have to hammer a notch on it against the protruding drive shaft. To remove you may need to compress the CV joint off the inner bits of the wheel bearing to remove it ... hammering is not advised as you may end up needing a new bearing.

If in doubt as to what you may need ... take big nut off first and remove drive shaft + cv joint. You can separate them as above. You can wash the cv joint to remove all its dirt (sand usually that got in because of the split boot). If it has not run for long with a split boot ... you will probably be ok if you repack it with grease (is it molybdenum something or other ... black stuff).

Having done many boots ... eventually I came to the conclusion (when I got a new (it was only 10-12 yo at the time) 900, it had SAAB boots. The after market replacements I fitted did not last the 6 or so years I had the car.

Go on replace just the boot. Once you done it a few times it is easy.

:-) Charles

PS. Now you probably knew all this and I fell for a wind up :-D

Reply to
Charles C.

It wasn't read that way, no worries at all!

Noted.

I've got this cool machine in the basement that can put whatever thread I want on pieces of metal, so no worries there.

Hm, never noticed that, but I do put those back in the way I found 'em. Check.

Ah, so it's not like the 95/96/97 with the groove in the shaft and the snapring. I'm glad we had this little talk or that could have been a bad confusion to have.

Well, I'm also OK with 200 pounds of me, at a foot from the nut on the wrench acting as a torque wrench. But pretty sure I've got one that goes that high. I also have a calibrated kid who would be just right on the end of a 3' pipe.

Great, thanks for your time!

Dave

Reply to
Dave Hinz

Maybe that is what I mean ... a groove in the shaft and a ring that goes round it. But I used circlip pliers to open the ring and then get one tap on the cv joint. Doable ... I always managed to separate them with no other person helping.

Enjoy.

Charles

Reply to
Charles C.

Can't tell from here, not coming up for whatever reason. The call in quesiton, the guy was holding something in his hand, working hard on it with a small straight-slot screwdriver. Slipped out of the screw, and, well, he was pushing pretty hard, y'see. He did not enjoy the situation and expressed to me that he would not suggest trying it to anyone else. Well, not in so many words but the meaning was pretty clear.

Reply to
Dave Hinz

No not like the 96. There is a circlip in the CV joint which is captive in the joint, ie once you open it, it stays in the joint.

Reply to
Richard Sutherland-Smith

Very first thing is to loosen the big 32 mm nut securing the outer CV to the steering member. That has to be done with the car on the ground before the wheel nuts are undone. I use half of the handle off my trolley jack on the end of my 1/2" socket extension bar, and when I put my whole body weight on it, perhaps with a bit of bouncing up and down, it'll overcome the very high torque to loosen the nut. Sometimes it's not that hard but my white 900S had me springing up and down quite a bit before all that reverse torque got the front CV nuts to loosen!

You might need to undo the lower shock mounting but generally that should only be needed if you're going to fully remove the steering member.

If you don't want to do that, what you suggested will work but make sure that before you take any of the suspension parts off you put spacers under the lower control arm to relieve the coil spring tension off the control arm. And remember to undo the big nut before lifting the car off the ground.

8-)

If you want to go 'whole hog' you can actually take the brake caliper off the steering member, undo the steering tie-rod (good time to replace them too if they have broken boots and the grease is oozing out), undo the top ball joint as well as as the bottom one, then remove the entire steering member off the CV and that way you can look at the back of the main bearing to check it's condition and see if the big circlip is still good. In fact any time you do that sort of work, replacing other parts that need it can save you in the future. Tie-rod ends and ball joints are simple jobs - make sure you don't re-use self-locking nuts unless as a last resort you can't get replacements.

The bottom balljoint main nut can be a pig to undo because there is not much clearance between it and the bottom of the bearing housing of the steering member. You'll need an open-ended spanner, or a very shallow ring-spanner, and probably some WD-40/RP-7 type fluid and possibly a hammer to 'enhance' the spanner's mechanical advantage if the nut it very unwilling to release.

When you replace the steering member onto the splined shaft of the CV, put some engine oil on the CV's shaft and that'll make it easier to slide it into the bearing as it's a snug fit.

The Bentley manual is very good at covering all this. I've done CV replacement, etc. and there are a couple of sections on my ~c900 site which cover CV, etc. work but they're not really complete. More works in progress with bits of coverage of the processes not added in yet. I need to do driveshaft swaps on my 1983 turbo c900 because it's got inner CV boots broken. With all the work required to get the inner driver accessible, pulling out the whole shaft and replacing with a good one saves time. I've got two good shafts on my donor car still. 8-)

Regards,

Craig.

Reply to
Craig's Saab C900 Site

I had the back right side of my white 900S fall off a jack once. When I was 'green' and had not figured out when the front 'lip' of the jack point was for I just lifted with the car in a very slight slope to do something at the back. Oh well just as well I'd not taken the wheel off yet.. Car slid down on the pad of the back because I hadn't engaged the lip first. Oops. Did a little bit of damage to the join between some body sections but I learnt a lesson from that. 8-)

Craig.

Reply to
Craig's Saab C900 Site

I assume swearing will be needed? I'm not going to get to it this weekend, was out of town for a wedding. The CV isn't making noise, so I'm probably fine for now, but I know once the boot splits it's just a matter of time. A boot is 20 bucks, the whole axle with a new CV and new boot is 66, and is only slightly more work from the looks of it, so there ya go.

Well I have an impact wrench but I don't think I want to do that with it coupled to the differential.

I keep hearing a recurring theme here in the advice. I made that particular mistake years and years ago with my Sonett and understand the purpose intimately now ;) probably the same reason others know it...

(snip remainder of good advice)

Thanks for the time & info, Craig.

Dave

Reply to
Dave Hinz

Dave,

Just loosen the nut while the car is on the ground and the wheel is still on. Trust me.

Charles

Reply to
Charles

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