I've gotten a quote of $800 freakin' bucks to fix this. A friend tells me it sounds like pushrods, once it warms up it grinds going into gear, once in gear it seems to be fine. The clutch though is low to the floor but feels same as it has the last several months. I also hear that I can top off the master cylinder with fluid, and that may help. Any comments or suggestions from this, the only place I know of where anyone knows anything about saabs, would be appreciated and taken to heart. ~GJ~
That sounds about right *if* you need a complete clutch R&R.
Stay away from that friend. He knows nothing about SAABs and apparently not cars either. You don't have pushrods in the engine nor the clutch.
This sounds like a problem getting the clutch to disengage. The clutch itself proabbly does not need to be replaced. A bad clucth will usually slip when engaged.
Probably not. *If* you have a hydraulic clutch and the reason you can't fully disengage the clutch is that the fluid level got too low, then you now would have air in the lines, which could indeed cause these symptoms. Simply refilling the reservoir would not solve that problem. You would need to get the clutch circuit properly bled of all air.
Having personally attempted bleeding this circuit multiple times on my daughter's '98 900, I can tell you, it ain't easy. This is because the bleed nipple is at the lowest point in the system (down on the transmission bellhousing near the slave). So using conventional techniques you may not be able to get the air sucked / pushed out before it rises in the tubing.
I think the best (only) way to do this right would be a reverse pressure bleed. Push the fluid up from the slave end into the reservoir. They do make tools to do this, but I don't have one. I have contemplated rigging something together but haven't yet as her cluthc, though low to the floor, srill disengages fully.
However, all of the prior discussion aside, AFAIR your car has a cable actuated clutch. The 900 clutch design was updated to hydraulic in
1998. The clutch cables *are* known to get screwed up. Maybe that's all it is?
Are you certain that you even have a hydraulic clutch? As I mentioned in another reply, the '97s had cable actuated clutches. Hydraulic clutch was a '98 addition.
What is the Model year? You can tell by the 8th to last digit in the VIN. A '97 model year will have a VIN# ending "Vxxxxxx". '98's will have "Wxxxxxxx".
I verified on the Electronic Parts Catalog that '98 was the first year for hydraulic clutch actuators and that is only for LHD cars. RHD 900's had a cable even in '98.
Ok, so much for that over-the-phone analysis from a *friend*, it does indeed have the cables, which are being ordered as we speak. Aparently they're self adjusting and have to be replaced.
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