I decided to install them in my Viggen since it has about 20K miles no wear was expected. I found a decent about of wear on the factory bushings which was a little amazing in this short time. I would guess that many of the higher mileage cars are far worse.

The actual install was pretty easy took a leisurely 30 min. Basic hand tools. I used a long 10mm bolt and a 34mm 1/2" drive socket to pull the old bushings from the arms. This is probably not necessary for the higher mileage cars. Installation was very easy once the old ones were out. I did it with the car on the ground making it a little harder than necessary. It took a helper to get the arms aligned and the bolts into the steering gear. Used a little thread locker there too just as a precaution.

Initial feelings are improved on center feel and less of the mushy steering response. I will see after the road trip to StLouis tomorrow.

You can hear the rear brakes later in the video. Seems the factory pads were not really happy. They were starting to glaze on the way up there. I did not have time to switch the rears to the Hawk blacks. After many years of karting and SCCA autocross including class championships this was the first time on a road course.

This was also the first time having the Viggen on regular street tires. 225 Kumho MX It would get front ABS much faster than with the Pzero corsa slicks. It was a bit difficult to adapt too. Power was around 365hp on Gas 91 with the flex fuel soft. Could not find E85 on the highway there. Found a station on the way out of town though. Just the luck. Not that I needed any more power. You can hear it spin all the time.

Thanks ED and GM.. Was a blast. Now we need about 4 other people down here and go rent a local track for the day.

When selecting a rear anti-roll bar diameter and consequently it’s stiffness the entire suspension package needs to be analyzed. Basically you are trying to keep the car from laying over with the increased cornering loads generated with grippy tires and other mods. The need roll rate is dependent on both the road springs and the bars. When the road springs are stiffer there is less need for huge bars. With soft springs, ex original base model, you can get away with the really stiff 25.5 bar. If we take the opposite limit of that and for example have a modified Viggen convertible with Koni suspension for street use it will only take a little more sway bar the 19mm will be great and was developed for this application.

This is not a case of if a little bigger is good lots bigger is better, you need to make sure you balance the total rate (spring rate + bar rate) to reach the desired effect. For a street car the 22mm bar is a good compromise and will work great with just about any setup. With the 25mm bar you can count on quite a bit of over-steer if you are not careful, on the track this can be ok but on the street with no runoff area it can get ugly.

In my attempts to make these NG900 and 9-3 autocross well I have tried as many differnt combinations of suspension to get the desired results. Some worked great others, not so well. For a while I ran a 1.5” tubular rear bar of various wall thicknesses, this was the hot setup for the base model when autocrossing. The problem came when it was installed on the rear of my new stock Viggen, It was too much rear bar when combined with the Viggens 25% stiffer rear springs and softer front bar. Also the tubular bars were too expensive to manufacture, at this point I began to experiment with solid bars larger than 22mm and found the 25.5 (1 inch) to be about the maximum limit.

For most cars with stiffer aftermarket lowering springs a 22mm bar is almost perfect. If running the 300mm rear brakes you will probably want to stop here unless you have lots of track time.

Hope this helps to eliminate some of the confusion about selecting a rear anti-roll bar for your NG900 / 9-3 ensuring it will work best for your application. Your comments are welcome.

At this time I am going to lighten a spare flywheel, remove the balance shaft chain and swap in the new gearbox. Then figure out what to do to the next one so that this does not happen for a while.

http://genuinesaab.com/gallery/VigTrans

This one was lots easier since I was able to apply all the knowledge gained from the half dozen or so prototypes of the transmission mount. If only saab had used the same bolt spacing on both sides. Next time it is on the dyno I will get some video. I used to be able to snap the throttle and get the exh to hit the floor now it will not. Also the odd torque steer since a drag launch months ago is now gone. The gear changes at full throttle are also much nicer. We should have these for sale soon. It is almost like a new car again.

After analyzing how the engine and gearbox move under load it was obvious how the upper torque link was making the problem worse. By having both of the front mounts matched it keeps the driveshafts in better alignment.

After getting used to the superpower brakes I may put the grippy pads back on the rear but will try and see if the stock pads cut it now. Until the power is uppped once again and the fronts will no longer be capable.

After being in contact with WinnerPower out of Taiwan I got a set to test. 336mm and much thicker than factory. But with the alloy hats they are not much heavier than factory. In the excitement no weight was measured for the different parts.

The kit installed easily with no surprises. The pads supplied are nice. ok cold bite with it getting better as they get warmer. To date they seem to hold up to any abuse thrown at them.

Here is the BUT, you knew it was coming right, ;) The brakes are now traction limited. I can lock them anytime. At 80+ it will make for all wheel ABS action that is a bit unnerving when giving it full brake pedal. Made enough tire smoke I was sure the engine blew. ;)

The other problem came when the temperature dropped and the Competition tires would no longer work at low temps. Normal winter tires for me are All season Michelin. With 17" wheels there were only a few of the factory wheels that clear. The RK BBS would not. I settled on 17" BBS CH with OEM Michelin off the 9-5 Aero.

Anyway if you are still reading you probably know this already but braking performance is mostly related to tires. Well the first stop from silly speeds anyway.. On the following that is where the thermal capacity helps.
Gallery Images of the Install

In search of further refinement I decided to analyze what was deflecting. I found the inner control arm bushings to have the most deflection. Using this info to make some new bushings about 50% harder with a lower ratio of bushing by using a larger metal insert, they were fitted and it was immediately apparent on the first drive. There are a few of us that regularly drive these project cars. The main thing my father noticed was the stability under braking. I noticed mostly the improved steering response. Mom noticed nothing. ;) that means it is still quiet. She only notices more power and the bad noises..

There you have the short version of how a new part came to life.. There are a few secrets left out and also some tools like hardness tester for the rubber, the machine shop to make the molds and most importantly shop cars to play with so we are not testing on customer vehicles.
More images in the Gallery

I need to reprogram the led colors but aside from that it is not too distracting. Don't confuse a wideband with the cheaper narrowband gauges that tap into the factory sensor. Maybe one of these days I can get the data-logging box with accelerometers.. You can click on the images to get to a few more in the gallery.