When I last wrote about the 1991 Saab 900 Turbo SE convertible in its resplendent shade of Monte Carlo Yellow, the manual conversion had kicked off with the removal of the interior. Mike, the owner of Conntech, is completely slammed with work, but we're now at the point of no return with some serious progress to report.
The drivetrain is out, and it's not terrible news. There's some work that needs to be addressed, like a busted tripod bearing for the left axle and inner axle boot on the right side. The cooling system will be refreshed, as the water pump and thermostat are of unknown vintage, and the radiator just looks tired. The Saab was a second car for the previous owner, so this is typical deferred maintenance work we're doing.
So, Mike is going to swap the known good manual transmission out of the parts car he bought with a fresh clutch and recent flywheel resurfacing into my car, and then drop the engine back in with new parts installed, including new plug wires and cap and rotor. The muffler is old and has a few holes, so we also grabbed a new one of those. It's getting to be more expensive than I wanted, but this will also be a largely turnkey car when it's done, save for the convertible top which still needs to be replaced.