I had koni's and vogtlands on my 95 900se with viggen side skirts, the handling was perfect, but it scraped and jacking it up was a pita.

 

Yeah, I'm probably gonna have to purchase one of those skinny floor jacks. Also gonna try and fabricate a piece of dense thin plastic to go under front bumper.

I use to dislike the wheels but they've grown on me now, id paint them a bit darker shade though

The stock bushings you can remove yourself using a gear puller but you need to cut/saw out the metal sleeve so the poly bushings can go in

Just use plantoffs method and you'll be straight

One of the Nissan Titan packages comes with a wheel set that is a light gunmetal grey, really like it. I'll try and post a pic.

Good to know about bushings. I'll probably end up doing it myself.

 

I picked up some Moog control arms/balljoints.........pretty sure I'm gonna grab some poly bushings for them. Think GS has the best deal going. Powerflex are a little more but they offer better pricing on separate bushings, no kits. EPS on ebay, which I've heard good things about, doesn't carry much for OG9-3.

I've never had any bushings installed before. I understand there's a press involved at some point. I know on the Saab DIY Platonoff, he pretty much did it himself.

Is it pretty common for most garages to have a press for this particular procedure? Same as a bearing press?

 

I use to dislike the wheels but they've grown on me now, id paint them a bit darker shade though

The stock bushings you can remove yourself using a gear puller but you need to cut/saw out the metal sleeve so the poly bushings can go in

Just use plantoffs method and you'll be straight

 

I just bring the bushings to a shop and throw a $20 bill down.

The powerflex ones can be smacked in with a hammer.

Has Nick Figured out his poly recipe?

 

Here's the R1 Concept rotors I grabbed off ebay...

I'm usually not one to buy parts off ebay but they had some good reviews from saab owners and lots of other car owners. Plus you can't beat the price, $192 shipped for all four. Thought I'd give them a try.

I'll be getting some Hawk HPS pads to compliment them.

Any other opinions on brake pads?

 

That's not a bad price...but I would inspect the rear hub area on the backs of the rotors for uneven casting lines really good. You don't want any stress points

 

Are the front rotors premiums and rears the Eline? I don't see the black paint on the rears... I've been eyeing some R1's for when the time comes myself, however I will probably go slotted only.

 

I bought a set of those for my Vig but I got slotted only. $255 for set of 4 with ceramic pads. I'm happy.

 

Mine had come with 18x8 Fondmetals too, but they were very bendy and got killed in a pothole lol.

 

as long as your not gonna do heavy breaking like extreme track days where your on the brakes like a break dancer on cardboard then your likely not to have a problem with the rotors cracking if they are drilled...there are to many details to consider when thinking about that(i.e. material expansion rates ect). the only problem i could imagine stressing them in street use is running them up in temp while driving and shocking them introducing water of a colder temp (puddle ect.)

 

No track days for this car! I'm definitely going to do some further research on sudden temperature variations and how that might effect the rotors.

 

Went ahead a grabbed one of these little setups today, $25 shipped.

CD player doesn't work, been like that since I bought it. Going to try this method before messing with the original look of the car. I've heard that the Scosche gives you CD quality sound....we'll see.

 

Wanna install something like that on my Viggen. I enjoy reading your thread gives me some inspiration to some day take mine out of the garage...

Where did you get that for $25?

 

i use to have something similar to that made by belkin in my viggen..but i got to much interference to be enjoyable. radio is the first thing on my list when my viggen gets delivered back to me in the coming week.didn't want to bother the look either but i need to have a head unit with navigation if i plan to make it to any of the saab meets, plus the steering wheel button interfaces on the market are of really good quality so im no longer worried about losing their function.

 

Did the Belkin device actual split the antenna connection or was it a separate device outside the dash? I purchased a really nice($60) Belkin fm transmitter/hands free bluetooth that plugged into my a/c outlet, then plugged into my iphone. I could hear it but couldn't stand it after awhile. The Scosche is my last option, similar to Belkin but direct connection to antenna.

 

Yeah mine was inline I probably could have solved the interference by shielding the RCA lines tho but I wasn't worried about it since I was selling it to make room for my 944. Promised myself I was gonna do thing right this time so a lot of planning is going into the car on round two.

 

So I bought a used brace with no clamp. Without the brace, I plan on using a Powerflex poly steering rack bushing and just mounting the brace to the top bolt of the existing clamp. It's probably not going to be as stable as the complete GS Kit but I think will make an improvement. $80 vs $218. I'll give it a try.

Need to sand, prim and paint.

I might grab the other bushing for the driver side as well.

 

the brace is definitely a start. find someone with a blast cabinet and make quick work of that piece

 

So I pulled the trigger today

Grabbed the Eibach Pro-Kit to match up with the Koni's. Also ordered the poly kit from GS. Heard too many 50/50 opinions on Vogt/Koni springs. Even though the Vogt/Koni will make my car sit lower, think the Eibachs will be a better overall spring. Lowered a little and still maintain some comfort.

I'll be in Wyoming and Montana next week, so hopefully by the time I get back there's gonna be some goodies waiting.

GS gave me the update that Koni's are late on arrival Pallet was suppose to arrive on Wednesday. Hope I get them by the first week of April.

 

So I pulled the trigger today

Grabbed the Eibach Pro-Kit to match up with the Koni's. Also ordered the poly kit from GS. Heard too many 50/50 opinions on Vogt/Koni springs. Even though the Vogt/Koni will make my car sit lower, think the Eibachs will be a better overall spring. Lowered a little and still maintain some comfort.

I'll be in Wyoming and Montana next week, so hopefully by the time I get back there's gonna be some goodies waiting.

GS gave me the update that Koni's are late on arrival Pallet was suppose to arrive on Wednesday. Hope I get them by the first week of April.

You'll love the Eibach. Once they settle in I think you'll be just as low. They improve ride and handling over everything except short fast bumps.

On the rack bushings, I would just get the big end. If you look at the rack at the other end, the bushing is really just a thin spacer. I don't think there's much movement at that end.

If you want to experiment a little, try the poly bushing without the brace. I don't think you'll feel much difference in a LHD car by adding the brace. The RHD cars had a real flex problem behind the rack that the brace solved. I don't think that applies to LHD cars (not that people don't want to sell you it though).

 

Great news

 

Looks like some goodies arrived while I was out west....

Just need a couple more parts and I'll be ready to dig in. I replaced the passenger side strut mount and strut bearing a year and half ago, so I'm probably going to go ahead and replace the driver side just to be save.

Probably going to pull the trigger on Hawk HPS pads, front and back. Any opinions on that before I make the purchase?

 

I've always like hawk. They're pretty good for daily-diven cars.
There's better out there, but they require heat, and make a ton of noise.

 

Second the Hawks, great daily pad, never had a problem with them in my LBV, will be putting them in my 3 when the free maintenance runs out.

 

nice looking pile of parts there!

 

There goes the weekend! I'm in for the aux install wanna see if the scosche one gets a better review from you...if so I might hold off on the navigation install the end of next month and just swap out the Belkin so I have more money for my engine build.

 

I'll probably tackle the Scosche project first. Hopefully I can get to it sometime this week.

 

Nice work here.

I have the Hawk HPS and don't really care for them. Not really a great track pad, and too little cold bite for good DD. I would go with a good stock OEM pad for the street.

 

Went ahead and grabbed the Hawks, front and rear for $131 shipped. I've currently got Hawks on the rear and don't usually hear that much noise out of them. There's a lot of mountains and turns where I live. I'm probably building up more heat from braking than the average car, sure that helps with the noise.

 

I recommend them to everyone... I beat the shit out of a set on my old Volvo...

 

So I had some time this evening to push out the original bushings in the control arm(only had time to do one) and insert the new poly bushings. Surprisingly it wasn't that bad:whacky044:. Think it had a lot to do with the heavy duty gear puller I was using. Definitely took a little muscle but it eventually worked it's way out.

A lot of you guys know how this process works, but for some of you that don't.........here's some pics and simple details.

Gear puller mounted on inner stock bushing, easier of the two to push out. Definitely helps to have it in a vice.

Couple cranks and you start to notice it pushing out from the bottom.

Just about ready to pop out.

Simple as that.

Now the hard part, the outer bushing. I was able to remove the outside rubber covers/caps with a flat head screwdriver. Popped off easily.

This allowed me to get more clamp surface for the gear puller.

Push on! Hydraulic fluid starts to come out about half way.

Almost

Stock bushing removed and now the metal sleeve needs to be cut out.

Most people use a hand saw, I just went ahead and used a jig saw with a fine metal blade. Worked great! Sleeve popped out with one cut. Make sure you don't cut to far!

Applying the anti-seize provided with poly kit.

Finished product:thumbup: The poly bushings slip in easily from both sides and then the metal bushing tightens things up. Rubber mallet wasn't needed but I recommend having one around.

Took about an hour.