Got another GM yacht, but sadly it ain't a long roof.

Soo, I sold the Delta 88 a while back, tried to fix the Subaru, suddenly the trans in the Subaru wasn't functioning right anymore after the timing belt service, had to take a hit on that one. Sold it, and I bought my current yacht.

It's a 1996 Buick Roadmaster Limited "Collectors Edition", power heated seats, power windows, power everything. Auto dimming mirror, AM/FM/Cassette/CD player, power mirrors, twilight sentinel automatic headlights, heated rear window, digital climate control, LT1 350, 4L60E, black with grey interior. It also has the variable assist power steering, and the "Dynaride" air suspension. Considering both my last two Oldsmobile's had manual windows, locks, and the only thing fancy about either of them was that the '79 had cruise control, I think I've upgraded

I'm the fourth owner, guy I got it from got it from his mother, she bought it in 1998 with 40k miles on it for $17,000 and some odd change (I have the receipt) after trading in a '90 Ter(d)cel for $3,000. It was bought in 1998 from a dealership, it was the dealership owners wife's car. It's had a lot of work done, had a transmission put in about 10 years ago, it has a new radiator, tires, and a few other things have been done recently. I plan to do what you'd expect a 26 year old to do, put in my Pioneer head unit with four new speakers (Don't like subwoofers), replace the quiet factory dual exhaust with a much louder 2.5" exhaust with Flowmaster Super 44's, delete the intake resonators so I get some intake noise, and enjoy the cop car engined Buick Roadmonster I've bought.

Still want to find a long roof, but this thing was up for sale, I had cash in hand, and I needed a car. I got it for $1,200, gave about $200 more than I should have, but the guy would not budget and I needed a car. It needs a steering box and pump, loses power steering at idle, pump whines like a cat is being used for a belt, box leaks top and bottom. Could use an alignment I think, drivers side heat doesn't work, dash lights won't come on with the twilight sentinel, have to turn 'em on manually, few lights burned out in the digital climate control. Mostly par for the course for a 20 year old car, it was repainted, and they didn't do a good job. Overspray on the hood ornament and other places.

So yeah, that's that, I got a loaded to the hilt '96 Roadmaster with a few problems for $1,200. I've had it about a week, I really like it. I'll get a video showing the car sometime this weekend. (Disclaimer, I may forget )

​

 

Ooooh, you're going to like that one.
Does it have the trans cooler and mechanical fan?

 

The pictures take about five minutes to load so can't get a close look. Hope you stay away from big trucks and whatever else wiped out the last cars.
It's not a wagon but just as large. Hope you can find the steering parts cheap and all of those fancy gadgets keep working.
You didn't say what the odometer reads or the fuel mileage.
Leave the exhaust alone for now and enjoy the quiet ride. You sound like my 26 year old. V-6 Blazer with straight pipes and nothing else. Oh yea, he did the stereo thing too. His Blazer is so quiet he got from Florida all the way to norther Iowa before he got stopped for noise and speeding.

 

Nothing wrong with a Roadmaster sedan, I'd roll in that in a second!

 

Nah, electric fans, miles of space to get to the front of the engine. Which is great if the strange optispark ever fails on me. Dunno about a trans cooler, I'm assuming it's like other GM's and has it in the radiator.

160,500 some odd miles, and the quiet bores me. I don't like straight pipes, but I did have a side pipe with a glasspack on my '77 Olds for a while. I do have my limits. I don't want it to sound like something from mad max, I just want a good rumble. Either gonna go for Flowmaster 40's or a pair of "Turbo" mufflers. I've got a loose planned project for when I want to enter the realm of mad max.

Thanks, it's a cool old car.

 

Nice luxo sled.
If it's like the wagons the tow pack cars have the mechanical fan and shroud and an oil cooler in the radiator with the lines coming off the oil filter adapter.

 

Nah, it doesn't have the towing package, nor the posi, I looked up the RPO codes. It does have the air ride suspension, so, it's like driving a cloud

 

Beautiful. Word of warning: find ALL of the air ride components you can lay your hands on used, because new replacements are getting impossible to find, and used are scarfed up without argument. My old shop ran into this on one. Dynaride is dyn-o-mite, but also scarcer than hen's teeth.

 

Well, at least it's not like the suspension they put under the Lincoln's of the era. Push come to shove, I'll just swap it to springs.

 

Caddy's of the late Sixties/early Seventies used air shocks and springs. If you wanted to, you could sub those in and get a new compressor kit that gives you control at the touch of buttons. My friend got his shocks, basic air line and compressor kits off Amazon for incredibly inexpensive prices.

 

This is getting confused with air suspension. The '96 Roadmaster does have regular rear springs, the only thing "air ride" are the rear air shocks and automatic ride leveling compressor and switch. It just keeps the rear at a set height when you add or remove passenger or cargo weight.

 

I used to change all my trucks and vans to air shocks for pulling an RV. Not sure if it was needed. Also I ran too much air without the trailer and didn't know any better.

On those I just had a simple valve stem with lines at the rear to fill and empty.

 

Right. But I'd swear the factory Dynaride was air-spring equipped. Hmmm. I'll have to check this. I have done an air spring-to-coil spring swap on a Trailblazer (yeah, I know, not a Buick) so I'd be surprised if this Roadmaster didn't also sport air springs. Well, I guess you'll cross that bridge when you get to it.

 

If it's a smooth crossing you'll know it has air ride.

 

Rides like a Cadillac on a cloud, I love it. Just wish my heated seat worked, leather is pretty miserable to sit on.

That dodge pickup I had for about six months in 2014 had air shocks in the rear, PO's had just used it to haul some scrap, so they where aired way up... Aaand then the valve went bad while I was going down the road. That was fun, turns out those leaf springs really needed those air shocks.

See that's what I'm trying to figure out, but it's too cold / swampy to crawl under the car and look. I should know by April or May, at the rate things are going, I won't have anything but a mud hole of a driveway before then.