intermittent wiper speed not working

Hi,

(yet another problem ... thanks everyone for all the help)

The intermittent wind(shield|screen) wipers on my '91 900S do not work. Well, what I mean is that the "every-now-and-then" position does not work (I'm not sure if that's technically the "intermittent" position or not), while the "slow" and "fast" positions of the wipers do work fine. Unfortunately it seems that the position I need most is the one not working, so I'm trying to fix it. Sometimes (rarely) when I first turn it to the first ("every-now-and-then") position, it goes a couple times but then just stops (in rest position).

I'm assuming that the problem is the intermittent wiper relay, only because it doesn't seem to be related to the motor or gears since the other speeds work fine. Now ... I think I have read every message/article talking about how to access that relay behind knee board in driver side, but I cannot for the life of me make sense of it on my '91 900S. I think that Saab must have changed the design or something; I can't find the bolts mentioned by others -- e.g. in door jamb. The foamy padding stuff seems to be one big piece spanning the width of the car. Someone also said that the relay could be replaced w/o removing anything -- I can't figure out how that would work either without very small flexible hands and arms ("Come here son, ... can you say 'relay'?"). I know roughly where it's at, since I can hear the turn signal relay & believe they are together.

Anyone have any pointers either on how to access this relay -- or any knowledge that my "just replace the relay" solution is all wrong?

Thanks! Hans

Reply to
Hans Lellelid
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Hello,

Not sure about the wiper problem (although I suppose you might want to test the switch itself), but I can give you some pointers on removing the knee bolster, having done that a few times myself on my 1992 900s.

First: remove the accordion-like plastic in front of the gear shift, and remove the 2 screws holding the center cubby-hole on. Also, remove the bolt (10mm?) behind the ashtray. Take out the black torx screws on the side of the cubby-hole assembly, and you should be able to take that off with a bit of wrestling. Then you can take out the carpeted plastic bit behind it. Oh, and you also might want to remove the small plastic piece behind the steering wheel and underneath the steering column (held by 2 small torx screws).

Next: At this point the knee bolster is held on by only 3 screws bolts (13mm I think). One is behind where the ashtray used to be. The other two are, indeed, in the door jambs, but they are on the engine compartment side, i.e. you need to open the hood, and hunt around with fingers or a flashlight to find them. They are rather inconvenient, and I find an angle-adjustable rachet with an extension helpful.

Finally: It is held on now by only 2 metal clips. Remove the whole thing by yanking it downward, and maneuver it out of the car.

I may have missed a screw or two in my description, but I think that covers the major points. It's sort of a pain to do, so if you can fix your problem by some other means, go for it.

John

Reply to
John B

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