This problem has me stumped (and stranded in Reseda.)  Mechanic's
looking at it tomorrow morning anyway, but I thought I'd throw this out
here as a sort of a Car Talk gedankenexperiment.

A few days ago the left headlight started acting flaky, randomly going
out on normal beam but always okay on high beam.  Probably a loose
connection, but I hadn't gotten around to checking it.

Drove four hundred miles down to Los Angeles without incident, and then
around town all weekend.  On my way back this afternoon in moderate
rain and heavy traffic, the OEM Clarion radio's audio cut out, although
the display was still on.  Shortly thereafter, the LCD display and
separate EQ unit started flickering, but the backlight remained steady.
Very shortly after that, the engine stuttered and stalled out.  Not
enough juice for the starter to even try to crank.  A jumpstart worked,
but the engine only ran for a minute or two after the donor was
disconnected.  The charge light never came on throughout all of this.
The battery and alternator are both brand new, and the belts are fine.
I disconnected the left headlamp on the chance that it was causing a
short, but that didn't help.

Clearly there's a short somewhere, maybe caused by the wet weather, but
what could be shorting that isn't protected by a fuse?  I know a
burnt-out charge light will interrupt the charging circuit, but that
wouldn't account for the radio symptoms.  The headlight issue seems
probably unrelated.  There's no visible water leak into the engine
compartment, except maybe into the ventilation system's fresh-air
intake door (but the air conditioning was off -- actually, it's been
drained and I've pulled the compressor out altogether, so...)

Any ideas?  The garage AAA towed it to is just some random place with
no particular Saab experience, so maybe they (and I) would benefit from
informed suggestions.

Thanks,
Ludwig
1990 C900T