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how do i adjust my clutch on my 900

41K views 30 replies 13 participants last post by  StonehamSAAB 
#1 ·
put a new cable in a while ago now it has become loose and i have trouble shifting gears .
I cant seem to be able to adjust it??????????????

plz help.
 
#2 ·
Hi.
The cable is self adjusting?? HAHAHAHA you would not think so?
No really it is a bad design. Best bet is to get you and a mate. Where the cable enters the bulkhead get your mate to pull on the spring and you press the pedal.. This should tighten up the auto adjuster.

Failing that how many miles on the car and what is the history of the clutch.
You may need a new plate kit ect.

Dead
 
#3 ·
Automatic adjusters are troublesome - in spades.
Better are the old manual adjusters, a very easy job and A man could always tell when the disk or shoe was worn out.
 
#4 · (Edited)
You can also do the adjustment alone. The first thing to do is undo the one 10mm nut and the various clips holding the black, trapezoidal relay box to the firewall (if you're in the US. If you're in the UK, well I have no clue :p ). Gently move this box out of the way (there's a big slug of wires coming out of it so you don't want to mess them up). Once this is moved you should be able to see the cable coming out of the firewall. If you grab the thin black part of the sheath and tug and wiggle it while sort of pushing the large rubbery part towards the firewall you'll hopefull hear a couple small clicks. That's it!

Also nearby, you'll see a bracket that holds the cable in place coming up from below. If the cable has slippeed out of this bracket you'll get a squidgy feeling clutch pedal too.

When you're tired of this routine, you can get a manually adjustable cable from thesaabsite and other places. I'm very very happy with mine these days.

Edit: check this post, it's illustrated!

http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=847666#post847666
 
#31 ·
You can also do the adjustment alone. The first thing to do is undo the one 10mm nut and the various clips holding the black, trapezoidal relay box to the firewall (if you're in the US. If you're in the UK, well I have no clue :p ). Gently move this box out of the way (there's a big slug of wires coming out of it so you don't want to mess them up). Once this is moved you should be able to see the cable coming out of the firewall. If you grab the thin black part of the sheath and tug and wiggle it while sort of pushing the large rubbery part towards the firewall you'll hopefull hear a couple small clicks. That's it!

Also nearby, you'll see a bracket that holds the cable in place coming up from below. If the cable has slippeed out of this bracket you'll get a squidgy feeling clutch pedal too.

When you're tired of this routine, you can get a manually adjustable cable from thesaabsite and other places. I'm very very happy with mine these days.

Edit: check this post, it's illustrated!

Clutch cable went slack, help!
Hello!! I have a question about that "couple of small clicks" process.

I recently worked on my cable and pulled the spring covered zone of the clutch cable to take out a bit of loose and actually heard the few clicks you are talking about.
(There was a loose in the pedal of about 1 1/2 inch before and I also had to floor the pedal to the carpet to change gears without grinding sound)

But then I realized that I did too much pull (heard about 5 clicks) on that process and now clutch if very high!!
(It have solved my grinding problem and I can now switch gears very easily but it's just not fun to drive this way...)

So I was wondering : Is there a way to put that clicking cable system to its original position? (so the spring covered part is not curved anymore)

The clicking system seams to be into that plastic round part covered with a rubber part. Any way to reset this thing?

272185

Thanks for your advice on that!
 
#7 ·
AddictedToSaab said:
I have a non adjustable cable. What are my options? Do I have to buy a new cable if I'm showing symptoms like trouble getting into reverse (sometimes) and trouble getting into other gears (sometimes, mostly after I've been driving for a while)?
Generally, the best way to tell if you have a problem with the self-adjusting cable is if there is too much free-play at the top of the pedal and the clutch engages too close to the floor boards.

If you move the pedal by hand, you should only be able to move it about 2cm before you start to feel resistance. If you can move it more than that, the auto-adjuster is not doing its job. That will make the clutch engage too early or not dis-engage fully which causes problems shifting.

John
 
#30 ·
Sign of failing clutch cable



Think about it this way...

If your clutch friction plate is wearing out, the engagement point will get HIGHER in the pedal travel, i.e. the clutch will disengage easier, with less throw of the pedal.

On the other hand, if the engagement point is getting closer to the floor and gears are hard to change, well that means your clutch cable is "stretching". Except they don't really stretch at all. What it really means is that your clutch cable is beginning to fail. Could be the wire fraying and on the way to snapping, could be the nipple on the end pulling off, etc. Whatever, it's time to replace your cable before it snaps and strands you.

Note: this is not referring to initial installation before the auto-adjuster does its job. this refers to changes during the working life of the clutch cable.
 
#9 ·
Non-adjustable ??

Thats a new one; there has to be an adjustment; as the clutch wears, necessitating an ever shorter cable...
I fear that the clutch disk is worn out
Better secure a consensus on this one..:cheesy:
 
#10 ·
Do what Jmarkert said in conjunction with the following, to avoid damaging the ratcheting mechanism in the self adjuster via the push, pull and tug method. SET the parking brake firmly. After you have exposed the cable at the firewall junction and can see the rubber bushing in the firewall with the spring sheath on the cable, wrap the positive terminal of the battery securely with a rag and tape it on. Standing in front of the bumper and facing the engine bay, look straight down between the battery and the delivery pipe to find the lever where the cable end terminates. Now look for a large bolt head or nut on the transmission housing below the lever. Place a long large pry bar against the nut on the side of the bolt head closest to the firewall and so that the pry bar comes up on the lever arm on the side nearest you. Lean forward on the pry bar to push lever arm back toward the firewall to take the tension off of the cable and with your right hand, gently pull up on the cable where spring is, near the rubber bushing. You will hear several clicks. Remove prybar, get in car and test where the clutch engages. When you have reduced pedal freeplay to approx. 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch, you will be almost done. Replace fuse box before closing the hood!!!. Make sure that the cable locating grommet is still in its bracket and that the cable end is securely and correctly oriented in the lever arm. Now you are done.

To answer the unasked question, the rag on the anode is to prevent an exteremly interesting and unpleasant surprise should the prybar slide sideways to make contact with the anode while the other end is touching the transmission housing or lever arm. I will say I am forever grateful that my large prybar has a large plastic grip handle. If you look at the near side of my battery anode, you can see that sparks were flying when this happens. The black mark is actually a pit about 1/8 of an inch deep. Lucky I did not weld the prybar to the anode.
 
#11 ·
earthworm said:
Non-adjustable ??

Thats a new one; there has to be an adjustment; as the clutch wears, necessitating an ever shorter cable...
I fear that the clutch disk is worn out
Better secure a consensus on this one..:cheesy:
I don't see how it can be adjusted. I located that image I linked that looks exactly like my cable and it's marketed as a non-adjustable.
 
#15 ·
I don't recall - the last time I had a manually adjustable clutch cable it was on a Lancia Zagato. If it has not been adjusted, you can probably only turn it one way. Try counter clockwise to start, and if you can get a couple of complete rotations, then test the pedal play.
 
#16 ·
Saaboheme said:
I don't recall - the last time I had a manually adjustable clutch cable it was on a Lancia Zagato. If it has not been adjusted, you can probably only turn it one way. Try counter clockwise to start, and if you can get a couple of complete rotations, then test the pedal play.
Okay basically I don't know what to use the wrenches on. Look at the cable. I see two brass (golden brown) nuts on the outside of the middle white plastic. There is a plastic nut on the right hand side (closest to clutch pedal) and a nut that moves around as I turn it in between the white nut and the rounded white plastic in the middle. Order is [Bronze nut] [Useless white plastic] [Free moving metal nut] [White nut] [Bronze nut]

What am I touching? "If it has not been adjusted, you can probably only turn it one way." is ambiguous. I don't want to accidentally break something, if you know what I mean.
 
#20 ·
I just can't figure out which part of the adjuster needs to be turned, and what direction? I've stared at it, tinkered with it, just can't seem to get it. I'm looking for a simple "turn this nut this direction" sort of instruction. My cable looks like the manually adjustable one in a pic several posts ago...can someone just point out which nut needs to be turned? I've done lots of work on SAABs, BMWs and Mercedes over the years and this one just has me stumped. It seems simple enough, I know...
 
#21 ·
I just can't figure out which part of the adjuster needs to be turned, and what direction? I've stared at it, tinkered with it, just can't seem to get it. I'm looking for a simple "turn this nut this direction" sort of instruction.
I ended up having my friend fix it and asked him to explain, I've since forgotten. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't I can't remember. If you find out, please post in here!
 
#22 ·
If you need more freeplay in the clutch, you need to shorten it by screwing the adjustment nuts closer together. If you need less freeplay, then screw the adjustment nuts farther apart. By turning them, you should see whether you are loosening or tightening them. That's why I like the OEM self-adjustable cables... Ron
 
#24 ·
The ones in the middle. There are a pair of nuts, one of them is a lock nut, in the middle of the cable. Loosen the lock nut first. You want to LENGTHEN the sheath, which puts more tension on the cable inside. IIRC, you turn the center nut closest to the distal end of the cable (closest to the front of the car) counterclockwise. These cables need to travel a certain distance relative to the sheath length. As the inner cable stretches, they no longer have the requisite travel, so you need to lengthen the sheath to restore this travel. Here are the cables, stock self-adjusting on top (thanks to Jeremy R's earlier post of 06/20/05):

I believe you can see the sheath separate or lengthen as you turn it, when you are turning it correctly. Glad I went hydraulic.
 
#25 ·
Okay, I just reviewed the SaabSite FAQ for this. It is the nut in the center that drives the plastic bolt shank into and out of the long white plastic hosuing. More bolt threads showing means expanded sheath (tighter cable) and fewer threads showing means the opposite. So, start turning the nuts in opposite directions and see which way starts exposing the threads on the shank. This will be the correct way to go.
 
#26 ·
Another often overlooked item is lube on the clutch shaft

There is a way to open an inspection port in the transmission and squirt a bit of grease on to the shaft where the throwout bearing slides. Makes the workload less on the cable system. Extends it's life and makes clutch pedal effort easier. search here for more detailed intructions. 5 minute job.

Best,

John
 
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