New Powermaster units

[Veritemps]

Do any of the later units work on the 87 T-Type buicks?

 

[TurboDave]

What later units?? Do you mean remans?

 

[The_Six]

Ive seen a few kits I would think would work but since most of them are in the $1200+ range there are far better ways to go like hydro boost or vacuum. Cardon will rebuild your PM for around $400 but it takes a while and you have to send them yours so if it gets lost and who knows how long they will have it. I went to auto zone and discoutn auto before going hydro boost and both said I would have to send mine to get rebuilt.
I think Kirban sell reman units for around $700 if you wnat to stick with a PM thats the way I would go if some thing goes wrong he would be the best person to have to wirk with .

 

[1quick6]

Unless you really want to remain stock, I don't see a reason to spend the kind of money a replacement Powermaster commands. As noted, you can get a vacuum system or hydroboost system that will work better and give you fewer headaches. You can keep a PM system running for a long time with regular maintenance, but you still can't beat the simplicity and fixability of a vacuum or hydroboost system.

 

[Roger]

I went with hydroboost off an 85 & I consider it to be stock.

 

[Nick Micale]

Do any of the later units work on the 87 T-Type buicks?

If you mean a later PM like one from a 1989 Cadillac, they were ABS units.

The turbo Regals and station wagons were the "field test" vehicles for GM as the forerunner of the ABS units which came later.

Since these were limited production vehicles, they were used for 3 years as a test bed for the now dreaded and unreliable PM.

 

[87GNSteve]

Can someone explain to me the love affair people have with the powermaster?
Is it similar to battered spouse syndrome? Keep going back time after time?

 

[RossGN]

Only problem I encountered, when converting to vacuum, was the inability to hold the brakes while building boost (at the drag strip)

 

[toomanymodz]

The Powermaster design is quite simple, yet most people don't understand it and are quick to toss it in the garbage. All I know is that mine is reliable and I can hold 10# of boost at the line, whereas my vacuum buddies can barely hold 2#.

 

[TurboDave]

The Powermaster design is quite simple, yet most people don't understand it and are quick to toss it in the garbage. All I know is that mine is reliable and I can hold 10# of boost at the line, whereas my vacuum buddies can barely hold 2#.

Totally agree, the only problem with the PM is a total lack of understanding by most owners. With that came a complete lack of maint, and quick failures soon followed.

I'm still running the original PM's in both my GN's, and they've been relatively trouble free. Of course the accum's went bad on occasion I believe I've done a total of 4 accum's and two pressure switches over the last 25 years.

And it was very important for me to be able to hold at least 10# of boost on the foot brake. I can still actually hold 15, but no tracks around here can stick to that. Not on a stock suspension anyway.

 

[Veritemps]

Later Powermasters

Other car companies & GM wre using some form of Powermaster ABS after 2000~I don't remember where I saw info on them.