1988 Saab 900 5 speed questions

I recently got a 1988 Saab 900 5 speed 163k miles for free. It has been sitting for over a year but it started up with a fresh battery and some fresh gas. I was told by the owner that the cluth was bad and needed to be replaced. After getting it warmed up, I tried to get it to move in 1st gear but the shifter keeps popping out of gear. If I hold it in place, I can move about 3 feet then it feels like the car is hitting a rubber wall and will bounce back when I depress the clutch. I assume that there is some busted up gear or part that is jamming up the tranny internally and that is causing all my problems. It seems to have the same symptoms in all gears/reverse.

What are my options? Should I look for a used tranny from a junkyard? Is there a rebuild kit available? Is it worth messing with this car? It runs really smooth and appears to be all there. The body is in great shape and in interior is good too. Just needs some transmission TLC I think.

Any input would be appreciated.

De

Reply to
De
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Where are you located?

If it pops out of gear, the first thing I would check is the motor mounts. If the engine rocks around too much, it can jerk it out of gear. Is it a Turbo? They have hydraulic mounts which are more susceptible to that. The NA cars are not as troublesome, but this can be the problem. If it is in the tranny, it is a big job.

KeithG

De wrote:

Reply to
KeithG

On the other hand, if there's nothing else wrong with a car that owes you nothing and you put in a box or rebuild the existing one, you're probably still ahead. A 2nd hand unit with some sort of warranty could cost less than rebuilding yours. If it was me, I'd probably do the clutch at the same time. Cheers

Reply to
hippo

I would on any other car, but on a C900 the clutch is so easy I wouldn't bother unless it was bad.

Reply to
James Sweet

I agree - C900 clutch is a very easy task to replace and I would simply inspect it during the tranny work.

I swapped trannys between two 87 C900's (8V and a 16V 900s model). The

900s had the classic reverse problem of locking the tires when depressing the clutch after moving in reverse. Forward was not as big an issue but felt like driving in glue. I would suspect the pinon bearing and quite possibly the bearing carrier also. This is a big job unfortunetly, hence the reason I did the swap instead. You have to take everything else out of the tranny first.

If you are in North America, you can buy one from

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They are not cheap but.....

One thing to keep in mind if you fix the tranny problem, is that if the gear shift moves a lot when deaccelarating and hitting the gas again, the motor mounts are probably loose or worn out. This is what happened to my poor tranny adding excessive wear to the pinion bearing.

1987 C900S 248K+
Reply to
Jim

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