Lessons Learned

At this point I'm working toward the goal of making the car road worthy.  In most areas of the country that boils down to a relatively short list of items that must be present and working to pass inspection. 

One category of those things are working headlights, tail lights, stop lights, corner lights, turn signals, flashers, reverse lights, horn, and wipers - in other words a working electrical system.

While the wiring and connections are still (relatively) easy to get to I thought I'd tackle those items.

Of course, in typical fashion, when I started, not a single lamp was burning.  After a full day of sanding and cleaning contacts, checking and replacing bulbs, soldering loose splices, tidying up damaged wiring, replacing a rheostat, checking and rechecking voltage and resistance readings, trying to interpret incomprehensible wiring diagrams, etc.  I finally got all the lights going. 

There are still a few non-inspection items to resolve such as; interior lights (requires a new door contact switch), foot brake warning light (missing specialty warning display bulb, buzzer or modified connections to bypass a buzzer, and adjustment of the switch trip mechanism), antenna and radio connections, and accessory fog light installation.  I also need to replace the headlamps as one has a burned out low beam.

Here's where the lessons learned come in:

• turn signals (flashers) don't work without a flasher unit
• if a circuit is mislabeled, it won't ever do what you think it should
• circuits with stuck switches may appear to be always on, but when you repair the switch unexpected things may happen
• don't connect your cooling fans to the high beam circuit unless you plan to always drive with your high beams on
• standard auxiliary lights on a Sonett only come on with the high beams (not sure how useful that is - I think I may change that arrangement)
• some people will do creative things to avoid fixing electrical problems
• some people who don't know better will unwittingly create a lot of electrical problems

(By the way, the horn, blower, washer fluid, and wiper circuits were already working; but like all the lights, they can't really be installed until the main body panels go back on.)

Which is a good segue into the next group of inspection items: a cabin sealed from the engine bay and exterior, and the presence of bumpers and mirrors.  For that, I need to finish the fiberglass repairs.  I will also need quite a few different assorted grommets, weatherstripping, and sealant products (which require placing several parts orders).

I uncovered the rear body of the car to take stock of the necessary repairs there (not pretty - more on that next post). 

I also installed new weatherstripping that will fit between the fiberglass body and the chassis.

This weatherstripping was a critical point of failure in the past and led to a lot of damage to the structural steel chassis.  Damaged/missing weatherstripping and poor fiberglass repairs left large gaps open in the wheel wells so that in wet weather water was thrown up by the tires into the interior where it pooled and rusted.

The new weatherstripping has a little bit longer profile to provide a better seal against the fiberglass body.  I will also be prepping the body carefully to ensure a smooth surface exists for the weatherstripping to seal against. 

There she goes!

Now that the exhaust is all sorted, the gas and oil are not threatening to set the engine bay on fire, the fans are operational and will keep the engine from melting itself, and I've figured out why that darn speedometer wouldn't spin, it's time to see if the contraption will actually move under it's own power. . .

(That would be a resounding "yes"!)

So it moves, but what good is a sports car without a good radio?

I had quite an amusing time annoying the young sales clerk at the electronics store.  He kept trying to do a web search in the company computer to figure out what size speakers should be installed in a '71 Saab Sonett.  Strangely, he couldn't find the answer.  He was puzzled that this did not phase me at all. . .

The speakers are not wired, yet, so I'm not sure how it'll sound, but I think the overall look is not too bad.  I suppose I could have searched the web for that one custom radio that would have fit in the available space, but I wanted all the modern conveniences.  Makes for a bit of an asymmetrical installation, but I kind of like the quirkyness of it.  And the available space behind the dash was just the right size.  The aluminum insert is recessed into the dash, but I'm toying with fabricating a second insert (flush mounted) to fit around the right side of the stereo with the same angled edge so the transition is not so abrupt.  Stay tuned. . .

Memories

It's the things you forget that cause the most problems. . .

Take, for instance, the little tidbit of knowledge that when I first removed the engine from the car about 2 1/2 years ago I sheared off one of the rusty exhaust manifold bolts.  All those many months the engine sat there - easily accessible.  And yet, it wasn't till I actually got the engine back in it's mountings, with all the hoses, wires, and other accessories connected again, before this fact was remembered.  At that point, the distance between the bolt and the sidewall was much too small to allow drilling and tapping.  So, after a lot of head scratching and several failed ideas, I finally cut the bolt off flush to the block and welded a new one on.

It's a little quieter with the exhaust on.  Not sure if it actually does anything for reducing noise, but it does transfer the exhaust to the back of the car now, which is nice.  It also contains the flames that were visible coming from the exhaust ports in the video from the last blog.

         

Then there's the matter of "where did I put the dipstick?".  No telling. I've turned the shop upside down (twice) and it's still AWOL.  I nice man from the web board offered to mail me one.  Should show up sometime this week.  Till then a wine cork seems to be keeping the oil from jumping out the hole.

Then there's that pesky little hole on the top of the fuel pump.  Seemed odd to me when rebuilding the pump that there was a tiny little port into the chamber (no screw, no threads, no plug).  

Funny thing - after setting for several days, the fuel filter was empty and there was air in the line.  

Not so funny thing -when fully pressurized, small sprays of gasoline could be seen falling onto the hot exhaust manifold!  

Got some copper wire and plugged that puppy quick!

And then there's that constant nagging question: "Were those bolts missing when I started, or is there another tub of parts somewhere?"  (I think a quarter of my expenditures to date have been various assorted metric hardware.)  

Case in point - the bolts securing the air filters in place.

Not to be outdone by: "now how did that fit together?"

(Door window operators.)

On the other hand, things you never knew don't seem to be much of a problem:

Like wiring a set of electric fans.

More Doors

Before I started back on the mechanics several weeks ago, I spent some more time with my friends Fiberglass and Resin.

The door skins were beat up pretty badly.  As is the pattern, the driver's side was the worst off, but both had various corners, missing, cracks, dents, and poorly performed repairs.  The mirrors on one of the doors had apparently been torn out of its mountings some time in the past.

Here they are post reconstruction.  

I still need to do some bondo work to finish out the repairs.

I've also made more fiberglass repairs to the nose of the car.  More on that later.

And now for something completely different. . .

On a completely unrelated note, I've found a replacement aftermarket knob for my missing gearshift knob.  It should match the other brushed aluminum interior trim nicely.

Hear me roar!

Apparently the tweaks to the voltage regulator wiring were enough to correct the electrical problem.  A jump from my wife's car, a little gas from the throttle, and here's the result:

What a relief!  All the work to this point has been done in complete faith that some way, somehow, the darned machine would work.  But aside from a few individual assemblies there's been no way to test any of it.  These V4 engines are relatively simple, but there are still a lot of parts, pieces and assemblies required to make that noise!

And what a great noise, too!  I've never understood the appeal of a loud exhaust until this moment!  I almost hate to put the mufflers back on.

Redneck Engineering

Question:
What do a can of purple PVC primer, and the filler cap from a 1971 Saab Sonett clutch master cylinder have in common?

Answer:

The same size threads.

Drill a hole, add a little solder and paint, and voila - a new specialty part is born!  

(No, it definitely is not an OEM part, but it's a lot cheaper and more accessible than buying a complete refurbished master cylinder)

I'll be honest - it took a bit of finesse to get the new top to seal - but no more so than the original.  (The original, by the way, was toast because the threads got crushed when I repeatedly tried to tighten it down with an adjustable pliers to get it to quit leaking.)

I've attempted several times to start the car, but with no success.  The problem appears to be on the electrical side of the equation.  There is no spark to the distributor from the coil, so I've attempted to replace the coil.  Apparently that wasn't the problem.  With a little more investigation, I found that the contacts on the points were lightly corroded, enough that they weren't conducting.  So now I have spark, but the battery has gone dead.  Even with a jump, however, it still won't catch, and one of the alternator wires started smoking.  I tracked down two loose connections between the alternator and the voltage regulator, and tried to test the voltage regulator, but apparently you can only do that with the car running, so it's kind of trial and error at this point. . .

Radiator Madness

I guess I should start with the disclaimer that I've dropped the engine back into the chassis and hooked up all the miscellaneous hoses, belts, wires, and other bits.  I also filled all the various tanks with their respective various types of fluids and verified that none of said fluids are leaking.

In the case of the radiator, this took a little more time and effort than originally expected.  Long ago (I thought) I had pressure-tested the radiator.  It turns out there were no big leaks, but there were a half dozen or so small drip-type leaks.  After filling and draining the radiator several times, marking and soldering the holes encountered, I finally got it to hold water. 

Next, I worked out where to add brackets to hold my new electric fans.

New fan mounts at bottom and at top (hidden) behind chassis frame

Here are a couple of views of the installed fans.  (I still need to work out the wiring connections).

Next, I needed to create brackets to mount the new air conditioning condenser coil.  The coil, compressor, and drier are from a late model Mazda hatchback.  I think the sizing of the condenser is spot-on.

Both radiators will get a coat of paint, but now that I'm this close I want to keep pushing to see if I can actually get the motor to start.  I still need to mount the compressor, work out the AC hoses, and purchase a longer drive belt to turn the compressor.  I've actually already cleaned up and made minor modifications to an original Sonett AC compressor mount to fit the new compressor.  Here it is installed: