91 Turbo swap

[chaka]

Hello everyone. New here. I have an 88 900 Turbo that just got rear-ended and totaled. Would like to swap the whole drivetrain into a 900S conv. Both are manual. Just worried about the electrical setup. I know the inst. panel will need to be swapped, but does the entire harness need to be swapped?

Thanks for the help

Dante

edit: The 900S Conv has a chunked gearbox.

[grif900]

you will need to add to your existing harness.extremely labor intensive,in my opinion, but possible."anywhere is walking distace if yove got the time" (steven wright).10 years ago my local indi. saab shop would have laughed me out the door with an idea like that,but now as the c900s are becoming "extinct" they are warming up to what used to be" crazy" ideas like that.i dont mean to discourage you .if i was in your situation id do it .but thats me.its not a job the average diy person would enjoy.

good luck

[900t]

With the second car, just swap out the engine wiring harness (should be easy, real easy) and then you have to find a way to install the APC box and stuff. I don't think that runs the main harness. But again - with another car there just see what is different and change it.

And aside from that just pull 1 engine/gearbox and put the other.

/edit/ no reason to change the instr. cluster, if you want to you'd have to run the vac line to the pressure gauge of course (I guess that is why you want to use it).

[grif900]

900t-yep.id do it too.but real easy?i guess youre a more ambitious man than i.
i just pulled the engine/trans from my 86t and am going to do a sex-change on the 92 base model(auto.trans.). the only thing im looking forward to is the big grin on my face when its done.

[cdaly]

What 900t said. The APC system is pretty much self-contained. You do have to splice into power at some point but the rest is just wiring to the components. There are overboost cut-out relays in under the dash which you'll need also.

There may be an issue with the gear shifter assembly 'cos, at some point, the gearstick gate moved into the gearbox while, before that it was in the shifter tunnel. Not a big issue given the amount of stripping you'll be doing anyhow. You may need to take the driveshafts from the '88 also but the outer CV joints should swap over. This is important if you have ABS in the '91 and not in the '88.

The most important thing to do is to take your time, label everything as you dismantle and take your time some more. measure twice, cut once...

Best of luck and enjoy the turbo 'vert!...

[chaka]

Thanks for all the replies. Helped greatly. It should be fun.

[Matthew]

So what's the difference between the '88 and '91 wiring looms?

[900t]

Originally Posted by Matthew

So what's the difference between the '88 and '91 wiring looms?

1988 900 Turbo has an LH 2.2 setup and 1991 900 S is a LH 2.4.2.

[Matthew]

But that's a difference so severe that it requires changing the whole loom?

[900t]

Well I am sure most of the connectors are rather different. For example, 2.2 uses a 3-pin on the AIC while 2.4 uses a 2 pin. 2.4.2 actually uses a 3 pin but I think it different.

The engine loom seems to be pretty easy to swap however. I know for a fact on the NG900 just pull the ECU plug through the firewall and then disconnect the loom from the engine. On the OG 900 it seems the same setup.