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Floppy indicator stalk

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10K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Michael English  
J
#1 ·
Has anyone ever managed to repair an indicator stalk suffering from the classic problem of limpness where it keeps canceling it'self? Or is the only answer a replacement switch? If so, does anyone have a good one lying around with cruise control on it? If not, how much is a new one?
Cheers
James
 
#2 ·
I repaired mine!! The spring inside breaks!! Remove the switch and carefully drill the plastic rivett heads, you can then seperate the switch. Either find a new spring or reverse the 2 bits of spring so the flat ends are together, you can then refit the spring. Use superglue to get the switch back together!! :! :!
 
A
#3 ·
The problemwith mine was not a broken spring but worn plastic parts inside. Being a very tight b*stard I tried very hard to fix the problem with glue, melted bits of plastic etc but none of it worked for long. Finally, I gave in, opened my wallet and selected £15 to send to JG motors for a new stalk. :D
Alanb
 
J
#4 ·
Wow, that was a cheap stalk. Was it second hand? I think I'll take a look inside and see what the problem is. I 've even tried an elastic band stretched over the steering column which stops it falling, but it also pulls the stalk back up when you push it down. Oh, and it looks awfull.
Cheers
James
 
#6 ·
Jim,

Mine did the same as Alan's where the plastic 'tangs' on the stalk mechanism wore down to the point where they wouldn't make contact with the steering wheel return contact. I put up with it for a few months but eventually got fed up with having to manually return the switch every time I turned a corner!

The pre-1989 cars have a different stalk to the post 1989 cars, so be sure to get the right one. Saab only supplies new post-89 stalks now (well, here anyway!), so a pre-89 will require a minor wiring modification to be made before it can be used. The connector plugs are also different, so get the right one if you choose second hand!

Cheers,

Drew
 
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J
#7 ·
Fixed it!!!!!!!!!! :D I thought I'd take a look inside the switch today and on stripping it down, found that a little roller on a spring travels up a little ramp in the aluminium casing and drops into a little groove and holds the switch in place when using the indicators. The high point before the groove had worn away and allowed the roller to drop back to the middle thus canceling the indicators. I got my smallest file and recut the groove, a bit fiddly, but it worked. I know I'm a tight git, but I was also struggling to find a second hand one with cruise control.
James
 
#12 ·
Thanks Andrew. I went to an established 900 specialist in Yeovil who had a good used switch non cruise, but said he'd never heard of removing the pin & swapping arms. I did so & its fine, with cruise still working well. It took longer than expected to get the old pins out though. At first I was worried as my 1993 switch had 3 or 4 more spade terminals on the back than the non cruise switch, but the plastic connector box had no extra females in it and my cruise switch has separate wires going to a separate connector block. Anyway, perfick so thanks.
 
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