Classic 900, convertion from automatic to manual transmission

Yes, it's pretty straightforward.

A long drunken weekend, but I suspect a (less drunk) pro would do it in the region of 8-10 hours.

You'll need the complete pedal box and gear shift assembly from the manual, as well as the manual gearbox, clutch (+hydraulics), flywheel and I'm sure various minor items I'm missing out.

The easiest thing is to have a donor, or at least have access to one nearby.

Parts prices will vary widely depending on how you source them. If you buy a donor car at £200, then that's all your parts right there (+ a new clutch if you're sensible, and a new crank seal. and CV boots).

Thanks, i've seen a low mileage classic 900 that is perfect for me in every respect apart from that fact that it has automatic transmission and I was wondering whether it would be worth pursueing.

You assured me that the work is feasible so I think i'll make some more enquiries.

Thanks Matt

Possible, yes. Practical? Not really.

It might be easier to find the car with the right transmission and buy it. It has been done, but it's going to consume you for many months.

Yes, has been done. Check for more info at

dick in Falls Church

my dad has his saab 900 converted over at a saab specialist... ended up costing around $1500 or so. For that price he could have tossed the old POS in the garbage and bought a decent 900 with a manual transmission .

make life easier (and cheaper) for yourself and just buy a car with the specs you want from the get go

bastar

It really depends - your logic is totally sound, but if I followed that logic then two of my 900s would have gone to the great 900 yard in the sky long ago. Sometimes you work on a car because you enjoy working on the car, all financial considerations aside. A bit like gardening.

This is exactly what I am looking to do with my 900 if I get up the nerve to do it! I'm getting a donor car next week which is a 1983 C900 sedan that has a 5-spd manual transmission. My current C900 has a 3-spd auto transmission. If the donor car proves to be in better condition than I expected I might use the auto-transmission C900 to fix up the other one, but I won't know until the other C900 is delivered next week.

There is a website covering the very topic of auto-transmission manual-transmission conversion of a Saab C900 living at:

which is excellent place to start researching what's going to be involved.

I recently obtained genuine Saab workshop manuals for 1979 to 1983 C900's from a local source! They're a wealth of info and I would recommend you getting some for yourself, or instead track down the extremely rare (since it's out of print at the moment) Bentley manual for the 8-valve C900's. I've got a copy of the Bentley manual for the 16-valve C900's (1985 and later) but it's not as good as the correct manual(s).

If you were in Australia we could collaberate our efforts! 8-)

For me, the main problem is I don't have a garage, and don't have any way to remove the engine from the car. But I have friends who can help out.

Regards,

Craig.

-- Craig Ian Dewick ( snipped-for-privacy@lios.apana.org.au).

APANA Sydney Regional Co-ordinator. Operator of Jedi (an APANA Sydney POP). Always striving for a secure long-term future in an insecure short-term world Have you exported a crypto system today? Do your bit to undermine the NSA.