The Light At The End of The Tunnel.

[saabingmad]

So to understand how far I've come, there is a little background story here.

It started out over a year ago when my beautiful classic 1987 saab 9kt( as seen here- http://pullman.craigslist.org/cto/3116918711.html ) had the clutch go out, and I mean, the entire setup. We are talking replacements needed for clutch pressure plate (clutch kit) rear main seal, SC and MC, as well as new hosing and all the labor that it takes a non saab certified mechanic to do the job. To cut a long story short it took said auto shop 3 months to get my car back to me, I had put almost the value of the car back into repairs($1200), because I love my saabs! Anyways 4 miles down the road and a conveniently located parking lot later, the clutch went... Again...This time I took it back to the shop only to find out that the new Scan Tech Master Cylinder they had installed just went. I decided to trust the mechanics in front of me who were nice enough and more qualified than myself; I called it a fluke.

They Replaced the M/C with a different one, one that also wasnt OEM brand (OEM clutch replacement parts were non-existent during this time period) and got it back to me 2 weeks later. And off I went! for a whopping 2 miles before the clutch went... Again...

Starting to see a trend here I returned to the shop to learn that this time the brand new Slave Cylinder had just went, and thats an expensive labor job all over again. Except this time the shop refused to guarantee their work and in doing so also refused to work on my wounded saab any further. I do still have the opportunity to take the auto shop to small claims court, but after talking to one of the techs there who had been recently talking to actual saab techs, I decided otherwise. This tech insisted that if I waited a few months for them to be less busy, he would help me locate and install an OEM S/C for no charge.

Im a patient guy. And I also believe in Karma. I'm well aware the shop screwed me, but I also believe in the power of goodwill towards others. So I didn't take the shop to court. Instead I waited for OEM slave cylinders to become available on the market as I watched my saab sit in the hot sun of my apartment complex parking lot, days went by, then months, and I got a new car, a cheap dodge that has not a single thing on my classic 9kt.

And then a glorious thing happened, today, as I was browsing through auto parts websites I found this!

http://www.racepages.com/products/?N...3737+1558+9282

Finally a ray of hope! its been over a year and a half, approaching two years, since I was able to actually drive my saab around with pride. The only thing left is to see whether or not the autoshop has any integrity left and is willing to install this correctly with the guidance of certain superhero saab mechanics that offered advice and assistance in a project they had nothing invested in. I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to share this with you guys. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this forum has always been there for my saab questions, or maybe its because this is the best auto community on the internet, either way, Im happy that I will very soon be able to rejoin the ranks of SC with a working saab in tow!

-SM

[Twinsen]

There's also this.

How did they decide the slave went without pulling it?

Either ScanTech is shipping loads of defective parts, the shop doesn't know what they're doing, or you have incredibly bad luck. I'm going with the second possibility.

I have over a dozen ScanTech parts in my rig, and not a failure yet.

What kind of circus act takes three months to botch a clutch job? Take it to a place that has seen a Saab before. Are you sure they just didn't bleed it correctly?

Do you intend to keep or sell it once repaired?

[spadar]

hi.you said a total rebuild from m/c to s/c including clutch plate,pressure plate and throwout bearing--is that correct??
did they replace the flexible hose from the m/c to the s/c. this hose deteriorates over time, crumbles and goodbye clutch action. not normally after 4 and 2 miles though, in my experience. took 3 s/c's for my wrench to sort this out in my '88-- extremely frustrating all round. replace this flexible hose before replacing any other parts when the hose is replaced, flush and bleed the system and try the clutch action before doing any other work/replacements. might save some more time/money. love that car. cheers.

[brendanb]

I just replaced my clutch, master cylinder, and slave cylinder. The master cylinder was from eEuroparts, and failed completely within a couple weeks (arm pulled out of the top).

I pulled a used Saab OEM master cylinder out of a dead 9000 and put it in instead.

Not sure what brand the eEuroparts after-market master cylinder was, but it was certainly a piece of junk (didn't really work right from the start).