I was attempting my own wheel alignment, at least gonna give it a go before spending money. But it's not the alignment itself that's tricky... yet! It's 34 year old bolts that are rusted shut.
This car despite being built in 1990 has design aspects going back to 60s cars, which I appreciate for the most part since that translated into rugged, simple and reliable usually. And this solution here probably is just that, but I had bad luck. I was able to measure camber easily enough since Saab has guidelines on how to do that in their extensive library of manuals. I need to unscrew the bolts for the upper wishbone / control arm and remove or add shims to correct camber or caster.
Front side of the bolts came apart easily enough. I removed the shims and cleaned them up a little and counted them, 8.5mm of shims total.
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I put everything back and tightened it back up to spec though and went on to the rear bolts which where harder to get at.
Aaand god damnit, bolt head snapped off:
![Image]()
Bolt has seized to the aluminum housing itself and not in the thread. I heated it with my TIG welder until the bolt glowed. Popped off.
![Image]()
![Image]()
TIG is really handy sometimes I think not even induction could've focused the heat as well into the broken bolt here. And the heat stays super controlled.
Before continuing I've lifted the car and I've compressed the spring, it's not entirely offloaded but I can move the arms up and down by hand a little so I think it's fine??
![Image]()
And I tig'ed the lower bolt too so I didn't wrench that one off as well, that would be really terrible if I did that. Soaking in penetrating oil for a few days hadn't done anything I could tell. Had to rig up a mirror to see what I was doing with the tig torch.
![Image]()
I got the broken bolt out by filing flats on it and using a small wrench once I had the last bolt loose.
![Image]()
All bolts are now replaced with new M10x50.
![Image]()
And the old busted set including the broken one:
![Image]()
This car despite being built in 1990 has design aspects going back to 60s cars, which I appreciate for the most part since that translated into rugged, simple and reliable usually. And this solution here probably is just that, but I had bad luck. I was able to measure camber easily enough since Saab has guidelines on how to do that in their extensive library of manuals. I need to unscrew the bolts for the upper wishbone / control arm and remove or add shims to correct camber or caster.
Front side of the bolts came apart easily enough. I removed the shims and cleaned them up a little and counted them, 8.5mm of shims total.
I put everything back and tightened it back up to spec though and went on to the rear bolts which where harder to get at.
Aaand god damnit, bolt head snapped off:
Bolt has seized to the aluminum housing itself and not in the thread. I heated it with my TIG welder until the bolt glowed. Popped off.
TIG is really handy sometimes I think not even induction could've focused the heat as well into the broken bolt here. And the heat stays super controlled.
Before continuing I've lifted the car and I've compressed the spring, it's not entirely offloaded but I can move the arms up and down by hand a little so I think it's fine??
And I tig'ed the lower bolt too so I didn't wrench that one off as well, that would be really terrible if I did that. Soaking in penetrating oil for a few days hadn't done anything I could tell. Had to rig up a mirror to see what I was doing with the tig torch.
I got the broken bolt out by filing flats on it and using a small wrench once I had the last bolt loose.
All bolts are now replaced with new M10x50.
And the old busted set including the broken one:
Statistics: Posted by His Divine Shadow — 2024-05-10 06:18am