What causes a 1996 Saab 900 se turbo to be stuck in a gear?

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1118513

2026-08-15 15:55

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Probably a stretched clutch cable, that is preventing you from fully disengaging the clutch as you push the pedal all the way down. The way this manifested itself in my '95 900S Turbo was initially grinding when shifting into reverse...as the cable stretched more that also began to grind when shifting into 1st. It got so bad I had to turn the engine off, shift into reverse, and then start it up again to back up. And of course if you can't shift into reverse you can't take the key out of the ignition.

So what to do? The clutch cable had NO provisions to adjust its length...a serious design flaw in my opinion. I think someone may offer an aftermarket adjustable cable...some web searches may find it for you. I worked around the problem for 9 months by shimming the cable: I cut a slit in a fender washer and bent the washer into a curve. Then in the engine compartment I found where the clutch lever came out of the transmission, and put the washer IN FRONT OF the arm and behind "the ball" that is the end of the cable. That in effect shortened the cable length by the thickness of the washer and all was well again.

That is, all was well again until 9 months later when in the course of a day the cable suddenly started to stretch all over again and then snapped...leaving me to be towed.

Later years (I think with the 9-3) converted to a hydraulic clutch which eliminated the condition.

One last note: There was an engineering notice...when a dealer puts in a new clutch cable, they now put TWO (rather than just one) washer to shim the cable, but IIRC that's on the other end of the cable, not by the arm. For the rest of the time I had the car I carried a cut fender washer bent into the appropriate curve in my glove box, just in case I started to have the trouble anew.

Good luck,

Paul

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