It has been sometime since I have been able to post to this blog. I arrived hame a week ago after a long trip around the country. First destination was the Gold Coast for my sons wedding and then I travelled to Karratha in W.A. to visit where my oldest son is living. The total trip put 13,400km on the odometer of the Navara. It never missed a beat and I have finally got the LPG system tuned to give good performance and decent economy.

The V6 D22 Navara’s do not have an oxygen sensor so the electronic mixture controls do not work so a vacuum controled inline mixture control is used. Now it is setup I am very happy with the system but it has taken a lot of trial, error and patience to get it working correctly.

Eagle in Flight Kimberley Ranges W.A.

A highlight of the trip was photographing the southern section of the Kimberly Ranges and a magnificant sequence of 2 eagles circling over my head. Initially I thought there was a single bird until it was joined by its mate. Travelling down the west coast I was lucky enough to capture shots of 2 Wedge Tail Eagles at different locations 40km apart on the main highway.

Wedge Tail Eagle

It was worth travelling the distance covered on the trip to experience some of nature marvels first hand. The Victoria River is spectacular and surprising to see the volume of water flowing along through such an arid region. The washaways that disperse flood waters during the wet season are so immense in size and number it is difficult to imagine the volume of water that travels along their path.

I recommend a visit to the Kimberley’s for anyone who wants a unique experience but be warned it is a long way from anywhere and nothing is cheap. Fuel is expensive with LPG up to $1.26 per litre and unleaded can be over $1.70 per litre. Make sure you fill some jerry cans with cheap fuel and keep them topped up, it will save you up to $0.30 a litre. With dual fuel I ran on LPG until it ran out only filling up when I could fill up for less than $1- per litre and topped up the petrol I consumed wherever it was under $1.40.

My fuel bill at $1400 (average cost of $13.83 per 100km) is significantly dearer than the $7.00 it costs to run my car where LPG is $0.50 a litre but poor economy until the LPG was tuned properly also contributed to higher running costs.  When it comes to accommodation I suggest you take your own because there are very few options available, they are a long way apart and they are incredibly expensive. At Halls Creek we got discount but still parted with $170- for a room for the night.

I am slowly getting the body and interior of the SAAB tidied up ready for registration but I have an issue with the motor that needs to be rectified. I can get the motor to start but sometimes it floods and it is very hard to get it to start afterwards. Leave it sit for a week or more or tow starting are the only options.

If the motor has been running at operating temperature before it is turned off it will start fine but if the motor is turned off or stalls before it is warm it refuses to start. If/when it does go after flooding it runs on 1-2 cylinders before finally clearing its throat and emitting a huge cloud of smoke. It could be as simple as adjusting the idle mixture or the cold start enrichment solenoid.

Having checked the basics without solving the problem the only way forward is to start swapping parts over from the donor car. Despite it being an atmo engine most of the fuel injection and ignition systems are the same. I have a planned the attack as follows.

• Swap all ignition components to see if the fault is fixed.
• Change the cold start enrichment valve.
• Bypass the turbo on the fuel intake side.
• Fit the fuel injection regulator from the donor vehicle.

If it is an ignition problem the fault should be transfered from the turbo car to the donor car. If this doesn’t work the cold start and idle air solenoids will be swapped over but I think the turbo is too tight and restricting the intake airflow. The turbo doesn’t spin easily but it is not hard to turn so I will by pass the turbo on the intake side using the donor vehicles intake ducts and see if this makes a difference.

If all else fails I can fit the fuel injection unit from the donor vehicle and hope that fixes the problem. If anything else is the culprit I am in trouble because other engine management parts are not the same as the donor car so I would need to locate a turbo donor car to continue the fault finding process. Hopefully the issue will be resolved before getting to that stage.

Any tips or clues from readers would be appreciated, I am a novice with SAABs and not overly familiar with the Bosch K-jetronic fuel injection system used on 8 valve motors.

Well the SAAB has progressed closer to being ready for registration but there is still a lot of work to be completed. I purchased a second car to replace the headlights and headlight wiper components that were damaged and got much more than I expected from my $300- donor vehicle. The donor is a non turbo 1986 4 door hatch so most parts are the same.

SAAB interior picture showing mods required.

The first lucky find was the near new headlining in the 4 door car fitted into the 2 door turbo hatch but I will have to make some customised rear pillar trims to match and the interior light is relocated from the centre to the passanger side. Unfortunately I will have to mount an aftermarket light because the cutout in the roof steel doesn’t accomodate the light from the 4 door car.

I am currently swapping the entire dashboard unit, this complete unit incorporates the glovebox. When the dash is refitted the interior will be complete and in much neater condition than it was previously. There are a few tricks to refitting the vacum switch connector and the temperature control actuator rod. Leaving the dash speakers and stereo head unit out until everything else is in place provides access to refit heater control components.

After checking out the prices for a pair of front headlights for the SAAB turbo coupe I decided it was cheaper to by a complete car and wreck it myself for the parts I needed. The wreckers wanted $250- for a pair of headlights and a complete 4 door coupe only set me back $300- and I drove it home.

SAAB 4 door donor vehicle

So far the complete dashboard, roof lining, tailights, stereo system, hatch cover, passenger electric door lock and the electric arial have been used. The complete front including headlights and bonnet will be swapped over soon. Compared with a trip to the wreckers for the same parts I am at least $500- better off already and by the time I have stripped spare switches, electric door locks, engine parts and fuel injection components I will be well in front. I mat even recoup some of the purchase price by selling off other parts I don’t need.

SAAB 4 door donor vehicle

If you have been snapped by a speed camera or mobile radar operator recently chances are you have been ripped off. The governments 3km/hr tolerence is nowhere near enough to compensate for inaccuracies in the equipment used to book you. If you want to learn more about how you are being unfairly dealt with visit the Radar Rip Off website.

There is a multitude of things that can increase the speed reading so if you think the speed recorded is too high you are probably right. Angle of the speed sensing device to the road, width of the road, objects in the background and calibration of the radar unit all affect the accuracy. The government is making a lot of money from drivers many of who are innocent and it is just not right.

Before we can do very much about the problem people need to arm themselves with enough knowledge to know when they have been ripped off. At the Radar Rip Off website you will learn the facts about speed cameras and radar. The site includes information provided by government agencies as well as links to other authoritive websites.

I invite anyone to comment on the articles published on my weblog but please STOP submitting SPAM. All comments are moderated so you are wasting your time sending  junk with links to other websites, they will not be published. If you would like your comment published a good start would be to include something relevant to the article you are commenting on.

The SAAB made the 220km trip home without any real issues. With a fresh battery and 10lts of fuel it tried very hard to start but it wouldn’t keep running so I decided to tow it and see what happened. After about 600m it kicked into life but it refused to idle.

The car drove very well up to 80 km/hr but travelling  faster caused a very bad vibration in the rear end. This was probably caused by flat spots on the tyres from sitting for so long, I will investigate this next week. The interior has leather trim that is in very good nick for a 21 year old car and overall the car is in better than expected condition.

The other interesting point is that the car was a private import into Australia in 1997. I am keen to trace the cars history because it is unusual for a 10 year old car to be imported unless it is unique in some way. In the hear future I will replace all vacuum lines hoping this will fix the idle problem then check the rear tyres and replace them if necissary.

Long term I want the SAAB for everyday use so it is more important to make the car reliable than to make it pretty. It will probably be 12 months before I have the time and money to get it registered but I am really looking forward to putting it on the road.

Well I just can’t let a nice classic go by without owning one. The latest addition to the stable is a SAAB 900 Turbo. It is a 1987 model with 21,000 km on the clock. I havent seen it as yet but all will be revealed when I pick it up tomorrow.

From the pictures it seems to be a nice clean car, it hasn’t been on the road for a few years and was last driven 12 months ago. I have my VicRoads permit to drive it home from Rye so I am looking forward to the trip.

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