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karmannghias.org Blog for the Alken D2 and Sonett 3


Day 27 – Thursday March 12

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 13th, 2009

Karen picked up the seals for the front axles. It took us about 1/2 hour to put on the drums and calipers. There was an aluminum bar that we had. After drilling a hole large enough for one on the studs it became a good lever to hold the hub from turning.




The spare rim seemed to be in the worst condition. It appears to be painted black, silver and possibly a clear over the rim bead and center. Detroit tire and rim did some work on MINI. I’ll send them an email to see how much it costs for them to freshen the rims.

Day 26 – Wednesday March 11

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 13th, 2009

Spent some time looking for tires. It seems that Continental has two 175/65R15 tires for about $80 each. On the Saab site there are several owners that have used larger tires but we’ll stay with this size.

Day 25 – Tuesday March 10

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 10th, 2009

Day of rest and cleanup here. The front seals didn’t come in today so we will clean up and get ready for those later in the week.

We also need to find the value to torque the rotors. We started with 25 ft-lbs but need the right number

Day 24 – Monday March 9

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 10th, 2009

Picked up the right rear drum today. Another $10. Adam and I put the bearings in and assembled the wheel. I was a little concerned about the bearing play. It must be from the inherent play in the bearings. I would estimate 1/8 inch at the ouside of the tire. We let the car down and checked the other side and found the same. The new SKF bearings must have this amount of play. With typical tapered bearings you have a chance to take out this play.







Next we went returned to the left front. We put the caliper together and attached the hose. I thought it would be a good idea to try and force grease into the bearing with a rubber tip but that didn’t work. We still decided not to pull the front bearings off. We will do this later if we hear some noises, it would be worth doing the cv joints at that time.

We had a little trouble getting the caliper top seal to lock in place. We used a large socket but it didn’t fit tight enough in the press. An aluminum bar was used to tap it down the rest of the way.

Next we went to the right front and pulled everything apart. It looked in some cases better than the left but we noticed the top seal of the piston was pushed out. This lead to some extra cleaning. Some fine sand paper was used just where the seal seats. A dremel tool was used to pollish the inside of the caliper. Everything fit together nice and snug.

The new rotor sure looked nice. There was a note stamped in the perimeter to not cut them below 8 mm. The old rotors looked new other than the rust. There just wasn’t any wear on them. The pads however, were worn way down. Adam made the observation that there is a right and left set of front pads based upon the angles ground into them.


Finally, we felt good about all of the work and will asseble once we get new seals. They were pulled to try and get more grease behind them.

Day 22 – Sunday March 8

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 8th, 2009

A day of rest here. We need to go over to the farm for Roberts birthday party. We’ll look for a socket for that axle caste nut.

Day 22 – Saturday March 7

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 8th, 2009

Lots of work today and we didn’t get started until 12:00 (i.e. sleeping beauty must have been up gaming last night). The two of us spent a good 7 hours on the car today.

First, we finished off the left rear drum. First we had to press in the new bearings. Not sure of the correct technique but we press the inner bearing in first follwed by inserting the clip and then seal. The inner sleave and outer bearing were next and were pressed in from the opposite side. we made sure the the inner sleave didn’t bind and was just barely movable. This would allow us to slide the drum on and have everything align. A while back we picked up a 1 inch drive socket set made in China. Cost bout $60 but the sockets come in handy when pressing anything, you select the right sized socket for the job.

This drum went on easy since it was newly cut (not lip or rust to interfere with the shoes). The adjuster was fully in to maintain full clearance. We worked the brake adjuster all the way in until the brakes were tight. Then we backed it off until it turned without any scuffing. Not sure how Saabs work but we need the brakes to “center up” from applying them before we really adjust them. One socket set has some sockets for square nuts (not hex nuts). This square socket matched up nicely with square brake adjuster shaft and allowed us to use a ratchet as we don’t have the stock Saav tool. We might keep this in the Sonett tool kit. This must be for Days 14, 18, and 19 also work with this brake drum.

Next we moved over to the right rear. Adam did most of the work here after seeing how we did the other side. While he was working on the drum I removed the passenger seat belt so that access could be gained to the brake lines. As he completed tear down of the drum I replaced the flexible line.

One item of interest was a gasket between the slave cylinder and the backing plate. We noticed it when removing the cylinder. This slave cylinder also had a copper bleeder valve.

The parts washer helped to clean everything up and we have the brake drum ready to go out and be but. Next on the list was the left front.

With the left front off the ground it was easy to see that the freewheel works. We had the car in gear and could move the selector in and out which showed us that the wheels would move in the freewheel position and stay locked when it was engaged.

Pulling the hub off the front wheel was pretty easy. Getting the castle nut off was hard because with all of the sockets I had a 33 mm did not exist. I’ll have to see if my brother has a socket I can borrow. I did the unthinkable and used a large cresent wrench to free the nut which worked OK. I saw some Saab posting a about using the Saab puller. We had an old standard puller that worked quite well.

After everything was apart, it was off to the parts washer. The caliper seemed in very good conditon withouth any leaks. The piston appeared to be a chromed piston. We forced it out of its 35 year old home with some air. It was easy to see that the rubber ring with the colors on it goes in the inside of the housing. The outside seal is the one that has two wipers on it. We included an exploded view of the old and new parts.

Day 21 – Friday March 6

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 7th, 2009

Took a break today and went down to Akron to pick up a Herbie deck lid that was sent by Greyhound from California. We mounted the decklid in our theater room which is Herbie Themed. I’m sure we’ll put a Sonett car in there too.

Day 20 – Thursday March 5

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 6th, 2009

It was 60 degrees today. Couldn’t work on the Saab because it didn’t seem natural. All of the other days it was 20 or below in the garage.

We did buy a Haynes manual from the Nines for $40.

Adam spent a little time detailing the carpets.

Last night I finished a “page” dedicated to the parts we have bought. We are approaching $2000. If we buy front wheel bearings we’ll be there. The parts page is a little hard to create because I did it in excel and used the print screen to get the image for the page. I want to creat a page for parts needed too.

Parts Ordered

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 5th, 2009

Day 19 – Wednesday March 4

Posted in Sonett III by Administrator on the March 5th, 2009

Stopped by Allied and orderd the bearings. It might take about 3 days to get everything.



We purchased a second water pump for $70. I picked it up on that auction site. It is an original Meyle pump. While it has the curved vanes they are not machined like the orignal pump. I still wonder how to change out the original impeller and put it on a new rebuilt pump. We will keep the one from Skandix as a spare. Other photos back on Day 8 of the original pump.

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