Re: French politics

Jeff L wrote:

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2Fl0i.1388$LR5.576@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jeff L wrote:


"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Jim Thompson wrote:



On Tue, 08 May 2007 17:46:52 -0700, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:




Eeyore wrote:




Joerg wrote:





Eeyore wrote:




Joerg wrote:





In America cars with automatic transmission typically also have

the

feature that you cannot remove the ignition key until you have put

it in


"Park". I think some Saab manuals also have that where the key

won't

come out unless in reverse.


Indeed so.

My 9000 is the only model they made in recent decades not to have

that feature > AIUI.



AFAIK that series isn't a full-blooded Viking family. Didn't they

design


and produce those in a joint effort with Renault and another

manufacturer?


The basic bodyshell is shared with several Italian models (Fiat, Alfa

and Lancia). It was


a Guigiaro design. Mechanically it has nothing in common with those

cars.


The later CD and CS models were quite different to look at from the

Italian cars though.


Even to this day it's considered one of the best Saabs ever, the

other

contender being the


'original' 900.


Not really out here in the US. The 900 series is considered "the
engineers car". The workmanship is just so much better. Under the hood
it looks as neat as inside a jet engine cowling. No wires slobbering
about etc.


I like my Q45


Yep, Japanese manufacturers sure know how to build quality products.
Even my wife's Corolla has a very clean engine compartment.



I just don't know why people buy expensive 900 Turbos when the speed
limit is 65mph in most places.


Speed limits are for pansies :-P



http://sense.bc.ca/research.htm


Interesting...



And for those whom the insurance agent told "Now if you get one more of
these ticket we can no longer..." I've met one at a client. She said
ticket number seven made her de-facto uninsurable (she drove a souped-up
Camaro).


Here they start giving demerit points, several at a time - ten points

and

your out (you may be able to get a special license to go to and from

work).

That's how it works in Germany, a point system. They call it "traffic
sinners database" or the "Flensburg file" because that's the town where
it is located.



I had a 3rd generation 6cyl MPFI 5 speed Camaro with T tops, and miss

it a

lot. Contrary to popular belief, it could comfortably sit 4, and if you
could possibly resist the temptation to have a lead foot, it got really

good

gas mileage (record was just over 800 highway km on almost 60L of gas,

but I

could have done better) - much better then the Accord I drive right now.

I

could even fit a *** of plywood cut in half in the hatch. The car

would do

0 - 100 kmh in 6 seconds, sometimes 5.5 seconds if conditions were good

(I

did tweak the ign timing and fuel injection a bit). Top speed - lets

just

say many cars are incapable of going that fast.

Tough as nails to, although I did manage to blow a syncro in the
transmission from really bad abuse, which meant I broke the shift fork
trying to jam it into 2nd gear. This meant 1st gear was also lost a

little

while later. It took me two nights to rebuild that and reinstall it. The
syncro was stripped, and the tangs on the shift fork that fit in the

gear to

shift it were smashed off!


Ain't it fun to repair a transmission?


The thing I disliked was removing it from the car and reinstalling it, and I
even had help with it.


Yeah, that was a real pain. It was the car's owner and me. We parked two wheels on the curb, eased the transmission onto our chests and slowly rolled it onto a thick rag, then pulled that rag from underneath the car.


I found the actual transmission repair to be not too bad. Apparently the
transmission shift mechanism in those transmissions (a Borg Warner T-5 WC)
is a real hard thing to put back together correctly once taken apart, and
rarely ever goes back together if taken apart (without taking it to a
transmission specialist I would hope). I had to change a bushing in it
(damaged it from overshifting trying to get 2nd gear) and I thought it was a
weird design, but nothing that bad. All the shafts that needed to be taken
apart were not that bad to put back together either. The helical cut gears
did not have a means to adjust mesh, so mesh adjustment was unnecessary.
Good thing, I didn't have any gear dye to check anyway.

The only problem the transmission had afterwards was a slightly hard shift
into second gear, as I rounded the engagement dogs a bit from trying to
shift quickly without a synchronizer. I knew this, but that part was a
permanent part of the main shaft. The donor (A T-5 from a truck - same
internals with closer gear ratios) transmission I salvaged the parts from
has a different gear ratio on that gear, so I couldn't swap. The car's
transmission had really long gearing, which worked very well with the multi
port fuel injection system on the engine, which gave the engine a very nice
wide torque curve. First gear was a really low 4.2:1 ratio! Combining that
with the 3.11:1 or 3:73:1 rear end with 60 series tires that were around
9 -10" wide gave the car acceleration in 1st gear that few cars could match.
The engine internals were nice and light compared to the V-8 cars, which
allowed the engine to be very responsive and quick revving which is needed
for such gear ratios to be of benefit. I would not be surprised if I lifted
the drivers side front tire off the ground in first gear on several
occasions.

I did the rebuild at a friends house, as they have a large garage. No one
there ever heard of anyone ever taking a manual transmission apart,
replacing parts, and putting it back together and having it work without any
issues and actually lasting.

Then again, I was ripping dirt bike engines and transmissions apart and
rebiulding them when I was a early teenager.

Now I just work on equipment like this:
http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.ACCT134104/it.A/id.5750/.f


But I bet all the car/bike repair experience helps with that as well.


Done it myself with a friend
after his car's reverse gear lost a tooth, back in college.


This was the same time frame for me.


We had to
hand-carry the whole gearbox across the German-Dutch border (!).


Not sure about the relivence of the German-Dutch border (I haven't been out
of North America!), but the typical manual transmission being around 100 -
150 Lbs wouldn't be fun to carry for a long distance even between two
people.


It was a small Vauxhall or Opel. Their engines over there are rarely above 1.6 liters so the transmissions are accordingly small. Could have been 100lbs, don't remember. We were already beer-primed by then ;-)


While
at it we managed to deplete a crate of Grolsch beer pretty good.


There was beer involved when I did mine, I can't remember what type, but it
was Canadian, maybe Labatt's or Olands


The problem was that we could not test drive the car after putting the transmission in again, on account of the number of consumed brewskys. Both of us would never drink and drive so we waited until the next day.


Afterwards a couple parts were still on the table. Hmm... But: It worked
flawlessly and now down-shifting from 3 to 2 worked with ease. It never
did with that Opel/Vauxhall before. So we had improved and cost reduced
it but didn't remember how ;-)


! ;-)

Likely something to do with the syncro - was the leftover parts spacers or
shims?


AFAIR it was spacers.


I never have unknown parts left over, as I visualize how everything works,
and every part was put there for a reason. I always figure out why that part
is there. Some have some surprising hidden uses. I've been known to take
boxes of parts from a motorcycle transmission and engine, without a manual
or any other aid, or even seeing the unit assembled before and put it back
together without issues. Figuring out the transmission in one of those is
not exactly fun if someone previously took the gears off of the shafts.To
add to the pain, they go together in several possibilities and often have
extra features milled into them, so the same part can be used on different
models thus confusing the matter.


Well, all I can say is that the car later went to the owner's brother who was a trained and certified car mechanic. When he took it for a spin and noticed the easy 3-2 downshift he asked "How on earth did you guys do that?"

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
.