The Saab gets into Advertising

Manta Designs (http://www.mantadesigns.com) is the name I've given my penmaking "business" (if you can call it that... Should be "hobby" instead...)

I had a logo made by DIY Lettering a little while back, and just got around to putting the thing on my car. It was cheap and cut perfectly. I'll send more business their way when I need more.

Unrelated Events?

Walker muffler, less than 2 years old. Welds broke clean at both ends, allowing the muffler housing to slide around.

After getting the motor mounts permanently solved, I went to chase another problem. An exhaust rattle.

Followup to the Unfortunate Events

The mickeymouse motor mount. This thing lasted a week without any sign of failing.

When the motor mount failed, and I couldn't get the one at the junkyard, I decided to rig something together. In the above photo is 18gauge steel and fender washers at the mount bolt points.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

No, it's not Lemony Snickett. It's ME!

I pulled out of my driveway this morning to take my son to school some 30-ish miles away. I had just adjusted my seat, so my "feel" of the clutch was off. I popped the clutch.

I heard a noise, and the car decided it wasn't gonna run anymore. I opened the hood and found the distributor cap loose, and the rotor in pieces:

Shattered distributor rotor.

Dull Taillight Lenses

I've noticed that every older or "classic" car I've owned over the years has dull taillight lenses.

To louver or not to louver...

With the louvers...

UPDATE: I decided to list it on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330522345985

When I bought my Saab, it came with those funky 80's louvers on the back hatch. I kinda like how they look, so I left them.

All last winter, all they did was collect the snow and make it really hard to lift the back hatch. A pain in the butt. So this year I took them off.

Without!
The tags are whited out in this pic as those are my current tags. The first pic are the plates from the previous owner.

I think I like the look better without them. And I've noticed less wind noise on the freeway, and slightly improved gas mileage. Yeah, they're going up for sale.

Now I just have to un-silicone the mounting brackets from the rear glass. Sigh.

When I got the 900s, the Check Engine light was on solid. A replacement AMM (Air Mass Meter) took care of that. Some air in the tires and coolant reservoir tank hippie repair has it running decent.

I've been driving the thing every day, last weekend spent some time fixing the critical shit mentioned above. Today I did a thorough walkthrough and found I need the following:

• Coolant reservoir tank- I fixed cracks on the nipples with JBWeld, but it needs replaced. $72 for a new one. $5 for a junkyard one.
• Knock sensor- Flakes out at high rpms. $42
• Brake Master Cylinder- The seal to the rear circuit is worn. $150
• Brake pads all around- They still have meat, but not much. $40
• Hall Sensor- Actually, just the plastic plug that holds the wires in place. It works fine. I've got seal-a-gasket holding it there now. I'll probably leave this alone.
• Passenger side washer fluid nozzle- Plugged and I can't get it clear. A few bucks.
• Bushings- It's got 280k. All the suspension bushings are tired. Urethane bushings for the whole car ... $200 or so.
• Vacuum lines- Lots of dried out lines. They're still holding but I need to plan replacements. $50 if I replace them all with silicone. $20 if I just use rubber.

Not as bad as I had feared. Interior stuff also needs to be done, like a stereo. Idiot PO had tried to install a CD changer and forked the stock Clarion stereo. Dipshit. Anybody wanna buy a crappy CD changer? LOL!

First post!

Introducing my 1986 SAAB 900s. NOT a turbo!

280k miles on the thing and still runs strong.

Chasing a rich mixture problem right now, so no road pics, but here's the little guy in the driveway waiting for a new AMM. Interior hasn't been cleaned, picked up or vacuumed. I just didn't want my house to look like a junkyard, so I bathed the outside. Inside will get attention when it's on the road: