Yeah, I haven't been taking the time to post much lately. I've stayed very busy though. To update on the Roadmaster, I can't remember when the last time was that I had the car out and put some miles on it. It was last inspected on 11/27/22 and it had 111,949 miles on the clock. I got it inspected yesterday (12/19/23) and the odometer showed 112,390 so 441 miles in a little over a year. It's done a lot of sitting.
Back in September, my brother and I were at the storage to construct a wooden rack to store all of our empty boxes. We saved virtually every cardboard box that came to the house for over a year. Then when Dad moved from Spring to Willis, he and his wife bought a lot of boxes from U-Haul. We (my brother, sister-in-law and I) split the cost of those boxes with Dad in half, and we took the boxes for our move. It's a lot of boxes. I'll have to snap a picture for you guys. We have the boxes we need to move from Spring to Huntsville/New Waverly in late 2024 or early 2025. We're storing them between the Roadmaster and the Grand Prix. There are so many, we needed to build a rack so we could go vertical with the box storage.
Anyway, I wanted to pull the car out to give us room behind it to work. It was under the cover, on the battery tender, as it always is. The tender showed the battery fully charged. The car was as dead as a stump. Sean and I just pushed it out, did our work and pushed it back in. The weather was still very hot that day. We had a really hot summer here this year. At the end of our project, I yanked the battery out to take with us, charge and have tested. It tested bad. It was a Deka Intimidator that I bought from Rock Auto. It turned out it had a few months of warranty left on it. Rock Auto was really great about it. They shipped me a new battery and sold me a shipping label for about $25 to ship the defective battery back. It took some time but otherwise, I was looking at $250 + tax to buy another Group 78 AGM. I chose to be patient for the cost-effective solution.
It wasn't until early October that I got back out to the storage and put the new battery in the car. After I did, the car fired right up like I had just driven it. I'm sure it had been sitting for at least six months at that point. The circumstances weren't good for me to get the car out at that time, so it went back on the tender and back under the cover.
Last Sunday was Dad's birthday. Our family met at a restaurant out there in Willis, near his house, to celebrate that evening. I left my house early in the afternoon to get the car out and put the truck in the storage. The car fired right up like I had just driven it. I aired up the tires and checked the transmission fluid level. The transmission leaks when the car sits for a prolonged period. It only leaks when it sits. I guess the converter bleeds down and then fluid dribbles out the shift shaft seal.
I went over to Dad's to spend some time with him before his birthday dinner. When I got there, I checked the transmission fluid level again as now the unit was at least warm. When putting the dipstick back in, it broke at the window at the top of the full range and the bottom inch or so of it fell down the tube and dropped in the pan. I thought it was stuck in the tube at the time as I couldn't get the dipstick back in. This was pretty aggravating. We celebrated dad's birthday and I drove the car home as planned. It ran flawlessly. I took it to the office on Monday. Monday night, I worked on the transmission dipstick dilemma. I started with my inspection camera and I thought I could see the broken piece lodged in the tube. I fought it for 30 minutes or so with a claw type pick-up tool and a bent coat hanger. It was a bit frustrating. I got to looking at it again with the camera and it looks to me like there is a weld bubble protruding into the tube where the bracket that ties the tube to the cylinder head is welded on. I don't know if this is bad quality from the factory or a bad repair. It turns out that the blunt end of the remains (the majority) of the dipstick, with it's sharp corners at the break was hitting this obsticle and preventing the dipstick to go back in. I rounded off the end of the broken dipstick on the bench grinder and managed to get it back in. I then checked the level and added until I just had fluid on the bottom tip of the stick, as it is broken at the top of the range. I felt better about it at that point, put everything up and called it an evening.
Tuesday morning, I was able to buy a new, genuine GM dipstick to replace mine. Unfortunately, the tube has been discontinued. I have it as a saved search and I'm watching the yards for an LT1 Caprice, Fleetwood or Roadmaster to snag another tube off of. I want to see if it has the same flaw that mine has in it. If it does, then I guess it isn't a flaw but I can't imagine what I'm seeing should be there. The transmission dipstick has always been a little tough to get back in on this car. I'm undecided whether or not I'm going to put the new dipstick in the old tube or not. I've ordered a Wix filter and gasket kit for the transmission but for now, the broken end of the dipstick is riding around in the pan.
I drove the car to work again Tuesday. I got it inspected and then I renewed the registration online. It had expired at the end of November. On the way home, I stopped at a local washateria and washed the car's cover in the biggest washing machine I've ever seen....
The machine claims to be capable of handling 8 loads of laundry at once. I don't doubt it. It easily washed that car cover. The 80lb dryer dried it in about 10 minutes. It was a good experience. The cover was just really dusty and putting it on the clean car made the car not clean anymore. When I got home Tuesday night, I gave the car a wash....
I'll drive it to work today (Wednesday). After work, I plan to either change the oil or drain and refill the cooling system. I may do both but with that few miles on the oil change, I tend to feel it needs the cooling system drained and refilled more. It's been almost four years since I had the intake and water pump off of it and refilled the system with long life coolant. I'll drive it work again on Thursday and then I'll put it to bed Thursday night. It's going to be rainy here Friday through Christmas, maybe even on Monday so I want get the clean car and clean cover put away.
On the one hand, I hate how much this car sits around but on the other, I love that I saved the car from a likely bad end and that it isn't deteriorating the way I have it stored. The car is running flawlessly and the good news is I have some work lined up for it this year. It will get the exercise taking me to east and north central Texas for work and will make me milage while doing it. It will be easier to occasionally use the car when we move and it's sitting out in our shop instead of at a storage 30 miles away from my home.
I guess that's the story for now friends. Thanks for the interest. If I don't say so to you guys before then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
Back in September, my brother and I were at the storage to construct a wooden rack to store all of our empty boxes. We saved virtually every cardboard box that came to the house for over a year. Then when Dad moved from Spring to Willis, he and his wife bought a lot of boxes from U-Haul. We (my brother, sister-in-law and I) split the cost of those boxes with Dad in half, and we took the boxes for our move. It's a lot of boxes. I'll have to snap a picture for you guys. We have the boxes we need to move from Spring to Huntsville/New Waverly in late 2024 or early 2025. We're storing them between the Roadmaster and the Grand Prix. There are so many, we needed to build a rack so we could go vertical with the box storage.
Anyway, I wanted to pull the car out to give us room behind it to work. It was under the cover, on the battery tender, as it always is. The tender showed the battery fully charged. The car was as dead as a stump. Sean and I just pushed it out, did our work and pushed it back in. The weather was still very hot that day. We had a really hot summer here this year. At the end of our project, I yanked the battery out to take with us, charge and have tested. It tested bad. It was a Deka Intimidator that I bought from Rock Auto. It turned out it had a few months of warranty left on it. Rock Auto was really great about it. They shipped me a new battery and sold me a shipping label for about $25 to ship the defective battery back. It took some time but otherwise, I was looking at $250 + tax to buy another Group 78 AGM. I chose to be patient for the cost-effective solution.
It wasn't until early October that I got back out to the storage and put the new battery in the car. After I did, the car fired right up like I had just driven it. I'm sure it had been sitting for at least six months at that point. The circumstances weren't good for me to get the car out at that time, so it went back on the tender and back under the cover.
Last Sunday was Dad's birthday. Our family met at a restaurant out there in Willis, near his house, to celebrate that evening. I left my house early in the afternoon to get the car out and put the truck in the storage. The car fired right up like I had just driven it. I aired up the tires and checked the transmission fluid level. The transmission leaks when the car sits for a prolonged period. It only leaks when it sits. I guess the converter bleeds down and then fluid dribbles out the shift shaft seal.
I went over to Dad's to spend some time with him before his birthday dinner. When I got there, I checked the transmission fluid level again as now the unit was at least warm. When putting the dipstick back in, it broke at the window at the top of the full range and the bottom inch or so of it fell down the tube and dropped in the pan. I thought it was stuck in the tube at the time as I couldn't get the dipstick back in. This was pretty aggravating. We celebrated dad's birthday and I drove the car home as planned. It ran flawlessly. I took it to the office on Monday. Monday night, I worked on the transmission dipstick dilemma. I started with my inspection camera and I thought I could see the broken piece lodged in the tube. I fought it for 30 minutes or so with a claw type pick-up tool and a bent coat hanger. It was a bit frustrating. I got to looking at it again with the camera and it looks to me like there is a weld bubble protruding into the tube where the bracket that ties the tube to the cylinder head is welded on. I don't know if this is bad quality from the factory or a bad repair. It turns out that the blunt end of the remains (the majority) of the dipstick, with it's sharp corners at the break was hitting this obsticle and preventing the dipstick to go back in. I rounded off the end of the broken dipstick on the bench grinder and managed to get it back in. I then checked the level and added until I just had fluid on the bottom tip of the stick, as it is broken at the top of the range. I felt better about it at that point, put everything up and called it an evening.
Tuesday morning, I was able to buy a new, genuine GM dipstick to replace mine. Unfortunately, the tube has been discontinued. I have it as a saved search and I'm watching the yards for an LT1 Caprice, Fleetwood or Roadmaster to snag another tube off of. I want to see if it has the same flaw that mine has in it. If it does, then I guess it isn't a flaw but I can't imagine what I'm seeing should be there. The transmission dipstick has always been a little tough to get back in on this car. I'm undecided whether or not I'm going to put the new dipstick in the old tube or not. I've ordered a Wix filter and gasket kit for the transmission but for now, the broken end of the dipstick is riding around in the pan.
I drove the car to work again Tuesday. I got it inspected and then I renewed the registration online. It had expired at the end of November. On the way home, I stopped at a local washateria and washed the car's cover in the biggest washing machine I've ever seen....
The machine claims to be capable of handling 8 loads of laundry at once. I don't doubt it. It easily washed that car cover. The 80lb dryer dried it in about 10 minutes. It was a good experience. The cover was just really dusty and putting it on the clean car made the car not clean anymore. When I got home Tuesday night, I gave the car a wash....
I'll drive it to work today (Wednesday). After work, I plan to either change the oil or drain and refill the cooling system. I may do both but with that few miles on the oil change, I tend to feel it needs the cooling system drained and refilled more. It's been almost four years since I had the intake and water pump off of it and refilled the system with long life coolant. I'll drive it work again on Thursday and then I'll put it to bed Thursday night. It's going to be rainy here Friday through Christmas, maybe even on Monday so I want get the clean car and clean cover put away.
On the one hand, I hate how much this car sits around but on the other, I love that I saved the car from a likely bad end and that it isn't deteriorating the way I have it stored. The car is running flawlessly and the good news is I have some work lined up for it this year. It will get the exercise taking me to east and north central Texas for work and will make me milage while doing it. It will be easier to occasionally use the car when we move and it's sitting out in our shop instead of at a storage 30 miles away from my home.
I guess that's the story for now friends. Thanks for the interest. If I don't say so to you guys before then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
