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No progress on body work yet, still waiting to find parts (getting time off work is fun...)

In the meantime, I've done the standard fix for the gauge cluster capacitor - it had just started to prevent the cluster from turning on so hopefully I got to it in time to prevent stress or damage to the rest of the components in the cluster.

The brakes started squealing the other day, and like every other brake caliper from gm in the early 90's I bet the fronts are both seized and only wearing the inside pad... So of course that means it's time for a brake upgrade. There's not much info to go by aside from one person back in the day that made a kit for a 12" rotor, for $450 or such. However, I think I have the junkyard solution. The Olds was discontinued in 1992, but the Eldorado lived on to get an updated front end that shares the floating caliper design of the late 90's-early 00's cars - which means if the 97+ Eldorado knuckle bolts in then I can put the super common CTS/STS dual caliper 12" setup on this car too. All the ingredients are there to say it will - struts appear the same mounting, wheel bearing is the same (changed from threaded to unthreaded mount holes, but otherwise identical) ball joints taper and tie rods are the same, etc... There are no pictures to go by, but I think it's going to be close.

I wasn't planning to do a brake upgrade, but after the front end thing I think it's worth it. Brakes on this car have felt lackluster from day 1, and the Mastercraft tires aren't helping.

Test fitted some parts over the weekend, and made the build plan:


That's the '97+ Eldorado knuckle and strut on the Olds. Everything looks like it lines up the way it should, but I'll have to get creative if I want to keep my barely used front wheel bearings with these knuckles. They don't have threaded mount holes like the Eldorado ones do, so I'll need to see if I can just put a longer bolt and nut through them or I'm stuck with the Eldorado ones.

The JL9 11.9" rotor, aluminum dual piston caliper setup from the STS (& CTS) look like they barely fit under the 16" olds wheels. With new pads I think I'll need a 1/8" wheel spacer, maybe a 1/4" spacer. Tape weights barely clear the caliper.

The spring, mounts, strut bearing and mount from the olds look like they will bolt up to the Eldorado strut. Same with the sway bar end links. I don't know if the spring rates are different between the two cars, but it looks like there is an AC Delco 'performance' strut (503671/2) for the Eldorado that is hopefully the same or better than the FE3 package on the Olds.

Brake hose on the olds points down and is around 8". The bigger caliper needs about 3" more hose, the closest I could find was the Delco 18J1650 - 15" hose. It might be a little bit too long, but the bend on the caliper side should point it in the right direction.

Anyhow, parts are soaking in the parts washer so I can clean them and get them powdercoated while I wait for the new struts and hoses to come in. Expect to see more photos soon!

Also, finally found something:

Definitely can't wait to hear more about the front suspension progress! I also had to take the chance to get a picture of the Trofeo and SSE when you parked it there.

I kinda just threw this together this weekend..

90% bolt on. The only modifications I had to do was the sway bar end link hole in the new AC delco struts from the eldorado needed to be drilled to fit the '92 end link (95+ are a tapered fit like a ball joint or tie rod end).


Fit to the Olds wheels is super tight. A 1mm spacer is all you need tight. It works just fine in the driveway, but I ordered spacers anyway tight.




With the JL9 brakes, tape weights on the wheel clear just fine, it's the offset that's the issue.

Brake pedal travel is better then stock. It takes less effort to get the same feel, and at the same time far more effort to lock up.

Ended up with hub-centric 3mm spacers on the front, all of that is working out good now.

Rear brakes are done now as well:


End result is that this car stops almost as good at the Camaro. I can't believe that these are the same tires that locked up last year and resulted in the front end disfigure. The biggest difference is the brake pedal response is more predicable. It takes zero pedal travel or effort to initiate the braking response, but unlike the OE replacements on this car the JL9 brakes seem to take far more pedal effort to reach lockup and deliver 2x's as much stopping power. I'm guessing the rotors on this car were warped and grabbing before, not sure why else it stops in half the distance it would have before.

Here I thought I was doing something special when I installed drilled rotors. Great job.

After a few years of limiting the fleet (had to cut back on the car insurance bill), I was finally able to get this car back on the road again.

Of course, not without issues. The engine fired right up, and the trans is working good. But sitting on the sideline seems to have cause a bunch of little issues that made it not driveable.
-All 4 calipers were sticking.
-fuel leaks out of top of sending unit
-muffler has a huge hole in it now
-various interior switches had oxidized contacts and were not functional
-all 4 stock speakers blew out

So the goal being having it driveable for our Fall Color tour this year, two weeks ago I got started on cleaning it up and getting things functional again.


I was able to pull the caliper dust boots on-vehicle and clean out the very minor oxidation I found, greased up the seals with silione lube and after a few days of driving they were completely freed up. Then I bought a piece of galvanized steel duct and wrapped and sealed up the muffler body. Then of course, fixed all the speakers and got the bluetooth fm transmitter working on the car. Fixed the switches I needed to use, and just didn't fill it past 3/4 tank.


All packed up we headed out for what ended up being an 800 mile road trip over three days!









Yeah, some corners were cut, and I found a few more issues along the way, but I'll be daily driving this as much as possible (The alternator failed yesterday, was able to swap one out from another application) to get all the issues listed out. And come next spring, I plan on doing some performance upgrades, I have an entire drivetrain just sitting here and this car needs the boosty stuff, or maybe a couple more cylinders, we'll have to see. I do plan on stripping the car down and fixing everything as well. Subframe needs bushings, brake lines are getting crusty, and I'd like to clean up a few of the pinch welds near the rear wheel well. It's no where near as crusty as some of my other projects, but might as well get it fixed now so it can last that much longer.

Oh, yeah, I think I found something for the A/C system to try as well, would be nice to not be greeted by this message everytime I jump in it:

omg. what a awesome car.

I'm trying to get one in EU since 10 years. And you have one in my fav. color. I truly envy you.
In EU Oldsmobile does not sell this model. Only the ugly previous one.
I got it as a toy-car when I was a child, so it is a must have for me.

Needs must I to update this one.

Performance upgrades are still pending, engine and trans are just sitting on the shelf still.

In the meantime, I lost all the pictures, working on video updates instead.

this spring I managed to get this car back up to daily driver status the right way. New fuel tank, all new fuel lines (nylon), all new brake lines (NiCu), home-made mandrel bent cat-back exhaust, using a Camaro muffler, new sending unit (used the caddy unit, which sacrifices 2 gallons of capacity, but is the only drop in option to replace for the toro I was able to find) modified to fit the nylon lines, a special fuel filter from a dodge something that has a 3/8 nylon inlet fitting and a 5/16 outlet fitting because the toro is the only GM application that has 5/16 fuel lines on the pressure side. All new parking brake cables, new rear calipers, pads, rotors, new front rotors and pads, new starter motor, and converted the A/C to R-152a. New fuel filler tube, new 3d printed underbody mounts for said brake lines/fuel lines/ praking brake cables, and another attempt to fix the gauge cluster "electrical error" (hint: video coming soon).

The Toro runs as smooth as butter, but still only getting 22 MPG though.

Ya bin busy!!