[GearHead]

85 900 16T, five speed, 200,000 Miles, blown clutch
theres an 85 900 turbo in a local junkyard.the body shows some signs of wear and some rust.The car is in the scrappy because the clutch let go and the owner decided enough was enough and sold it to junk yard.the car hasnt been started in a year,however, the junkyard will start it for me tomarrow.They are asking $500 for the entire thing,considering the blown clutch I think I can talk them down to $300. What are some other things I should try to knock the price down with?Also with the engine/turbo/trannie being that old is it a very good canidate for 250-275HP?Im thinking of pulling the engine out of my car and stuffing the turboed unit in its place(following a possible rebuild) then putting the n/a motor in the spare and selling the former turbo..as I said earlier the clutch is failing/has failed-don't quite know yet...

thanks in advance





BTW-is it illegal to check the VIN on a car?I called the junk yard and asked them for the VIN number and they said that they would have to have an offical from the county go and check it.WTF!?! so if I want to know the history of a car im an outlaw?!?

 

[92-Vert]

$300 ??!! Damm how much lower do you think they will go? Well I once brought a car for $25. :cheesy:

Clutch should be the easy part.

Anyone can check a vin. I think it $7.50 for a one time check on carfax.com

 

[GearHead]

on kelly blue book a 85 900T in fair condition is 550, were talking about an 85 900T in poor condition with mechcanical failure...

 

[Boosted]

I would check the condition of the wiring since '85 was the year of the wiring gremlins which have caused me a lot of headaches. Be prepared for electrical problems.

 

[GearHead]

Any problem wire or connections?

 

[comfortablynumb]

Any problem wire or connections?

Lots of stuff like this under the hood.....
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=444468#post444468

CN

 

[eggsngrits]

Im thinking of pulling the engine out of my car and stuffing the turboed unit in its place(following a possible rebuild) then putting the n/a motor in the spare and selling the former turbo..

GH:

You've been around here long enough to have read the warnings against attempting to swap a turbo engine into an N/A car! I would post a link to one of the threads, but, for some reason the search function doesn't work right now.

Search the board for 'turbo conversion' or 'turbo engine swap', etc.

And, as for money, if the turbo car is rusty, doesn't run and has a broken transmission, I probably wouldn't buy it at all. Definitely not more than $100. Keep looking.

Edit: Oops, You're right -- you said just the clutch went, not the transmission. Sorry. I revise the statement -- get it for as little as possible.

 

[GearHead]

the engine runs, the tranny I think runs, some minor rust, and blown clutch.however it doesnt give me an indication of tranny life.

 

[jetman]

Well at least your years are compatible for most everything else you might need to make one good car out of yours and this junker. You might have title issues (it may have a salvage title) Dont know how those things work in your parts, but there are always ways around everything.

Car sitting that long could have other issues especially if it hasnt been sitting on pavement (underbody rust galore, siezed brakes etc, etc)

Someone suggested $100 and that's about all you'd really want to pay as there is going to be so much other work. Scrap metal is high priced right now, so often these guys are asking for pretty much scrap prices + how much can we fleece him for surcharge. If you're buying anything from a wrecker go all greased up in a crappy car with one of your dodgiest friends.

Maybe you can work a deal and send your other car to them once you've stripped the good stuff.

Either way you are looking at a bunch of work to make a viable car out of this thing. So it runs...what's the condition of the turbo, all the seals and gaskets, the tranny, fuel pump... if the car had only a blown clutch I doubt it would have been scrapped, there's likely more going on there.

Good luck

 

[900t]

Well basically it has been said that you'll pay a certain amount for a 900 turbo. Either you buy a $100 car and spend $2400 fixing or you spend $2500 on a "good" one :lol:

$500 sounds far too high.

$300 sounds far too high.

Just a couple months ago, I bought my 90 900t off ebay. I paid $255. Bad headgasket, new clutch, split seams on the driver's seat, a prang on the hood and a rusty left fender. A headgasket kit is $60 and 9.8hrs labour according to Saab. Otherwise paint was great, body excellent. And it's a 1990 - with all the good things that entails.

So don't spend 300 on something that is a ****ty body, and wiring. 1985 cars and earlier do have wiring problems, as the insulation crumbles. This will drive you nuts.

If the car has an excellent no-rust body, maybe a little hole here and there on the bottoms of the doors, good paint I'd say $300 would be OK. But if it looks like a tired POS it isn't worth it. How is the interior? Again if you have very ****ty interior knock some down.

But the problem is the junkyard will see $50 for it if they crush it right now as scrap. So it's going to be hard to negotiate.

 

[ejenner]

they will also be able to brake the car and sell the engine for $200 and the g/box for $200 and the glass for $100, ect, ect, ect...

So if they can get $500 in one go then fair enough. But over a period of time they will sell the bits and make more money that way.

I don't think they'll bargin much.


Another idea for you would be to build a block from scratch. You could probably do that for $300.

Here's a starting point http://www.abbottracing.com/2003/clearance/clearance.htm

£75 for a block ain't bad - wrong side of the pond though.

 

[900t]

The problem there is they need to sell it. Rarely do scrapyards ever sell any big bits off old obscure cars like the 900. Basically it's like a sure $150 versus a maybe maybe $500.

 

[GearHead]

okay got back from spending over an hour and half inspecting the car,including tapping various spots with a screwdriver.I found large deposits of rust on the inner edge of the hatchback,area around the left rear light was rusty,areas of the spare tire compartment had surface rust.After all of that rust,the hitting with screw driver didnt punch through so mabey started rusting a year a go.BTW they said it has been there for 2 months...they also said it was scdeualed for breaking.back to the car:
for some reason a section of exhaust pipe looks as though someone hit it with a sledgehammer(about 2 feet after car) possible indication the car was jumped.Now the fun part:Lets turn the electronics on and see what works:
sunroof motor seems to work damn good,both door windows don't work-passenger side is completly dead,driver side seems to have deraled,powering window up or down just makes the window shake(it is open at about 1/2 way mark).gauges-RPM works,no clue for speedo,fuel and temp kinda work,boost gauge is very irratic untill 4K rpm,turbo seems to boost to the orange.lights? I dont think the headlights work or brake lights.

another thing when I mentioned these various defect the dude was like " its a 500 dollar car" or "its 20 years old"
the price seem firm at at 500.I told him give me a month to think it over and come up with funds before you break it...So,should I just accept the fact that there will be one less saab 900 in existance(the frame will be turned over to the local recyling place) and look somewhere else or should I go over there with $300 CASH?


also if I bring the car to like 4K+ rpm(tubo whitsle) and let of the rpms will drop rapidly to 1000 and then fall to zero.BTW the engine is an 8v if that helps

 

[Raub]

Well, I certainly would NOT pay $500 for a '85 900 in a junkyard. I bought an '87 900T about a month ago for $600 that was in far better shape than what you described. I put about 20 hours of work and $400 into it and I've been driving it back and forth to work (50 miles each way) since I bought it. There are plenty of 900 bargains out there, look a bit more before you buy.


Also, it is far easier to just buy a Turbo than to try to transplant all the engine and all the wiring into an N/A car.

 

[900t]

8-valve '85 900t? All M85 USA market 900 turbo should be 16 valve powered. M84 or earlier were 8-valve.

Did the car have any Saab-Scania roundels (griffins) on the steering wheel and hood? I know M84 turbo's were badged as "Saab Turbo" not as "Saab 900 turbo" for some reason, which was kinda cool to a point... steering wheel said "turbo", glovebox door said "turbo", back of the car said "Saab turbo" etc...

Go with $300 cash offer 250 see what happens. Pull out the two hundreds and a fifty say "well I've got 250 right here". If he doesn't like it, pull out another $50, tell him "300 then". If he says no, show him the empty wallet. If he won't take 300 walk out of the place. It is not worth it.

Check ebay now and then you will find an occasional good deal in the "Parts Cars" section and the "eBay - Saab - 900" sections.

 

[GearHead]

I dunno it must be an 84... hmmm they told me it was an 85,if I was going to get it I probally would drive it...

 

[RallySaab=68=]

Hey Gearhead look .... found on Saabnet
​

Free: 1983 Saab 900 Parts (Posted 4/26/05)

I'm parting out my 1983 Saab 900 Turbo 4 dr. It is complete, and still runs, but I'm sick of fixing all the little stuff that goes wrong w/ it. The only problem it has is a severly cracked exhaust manifold. The head was steam cleaned, and partially rebuilt 1K ago. It has Bilstein shocks, and Swedish Dynamics Red Series springs. The suspension has roughly 2K on it. It has the APC system too. If anybody is interested, let me know. If you want the suspension, shipping is going to be really expensive. All parts are fair game. thanks, Mark

Contact: Mark Hruby, Bellingham WA
Email: Click Here
Phone: (360) 815-1778

 

[GearHead]

I dunno could I get the car for free?hmmmm wait Bellingham WA thats like 10 miles from the pacific ocean...hmmm

 

[RallySaab=68=]

Sometimes we have rented cars and were able to go to another destination and drop the rental car off at that destination because the rental company had businesses in both areas. I guess that works if they are both company owned and not privately owned. Anyway you could do something like that and drive the car back. Yeah Gearhead you probably wont be able to get that car for free but there are alot of ways you can get the car to your home. I would just call the guy and see what the situation is. Maybe the car isnt at his residense at Bellingham, maybe you could talk him into meeting a little closer to your place, maybe he has a relative or friend closer to you where he can drop off the car. Theres usually a way to get things done if you try hard enough. Ok so it might not work out.... but you never know whats going to turn up. We drove by my car for years. It was sitting in a field near some mans house. We knocked on the door one day and not so long after he flatbedded the car to our house (he owned the flatbed). I paid $150 and after alot of work I was able to put a great car together.

 

[jetman]

one way rentals arepensive. take a bus!