1987 Assembly Manual

[Xman]

Does anyone have info on where to buy a 87 R10 Assembly manual? It seems that if I had bought a 72 or older the manuals are available. But not available for the 87? Do I need to look in to old dealerships to see if they have the info? Assembly manuals provide quite a bit of info on how the truck goes together.

 

[Keith Seymore]

I'm interested as well, but have never seen one for sale.

A dealership wouldn't have an assembly manual since the information was intended for the vehicle assembly plant (unless they somehow bootlegged a copy).

K

 

[hatzie]

There's a 1982 assembly manual that's usually priced pretty dear for what you get. It is a bootleg...

There wasn't really an assembly manual in a great big book for these trucks. My understanding is that each station had printouts that might or might not get lost before production ended. GM didn't likely keep copies of the whole in any format and if they did I doubt it would be released to the public.

The "Assembly Manuals" being sold seem to be a collection of station printouts that escaped in someone's lunchbox. The 1982 & 1967-72 assembly manuals seem to be a collection of 2nd and 3rd generation photocopies of the line printouts... from multiple years and factories. Probably how I would've gone about it too. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but not great.

 

[Keith Seymore]

There's a 1982 assembly manual that's usually priced pretty dear for what you get. It is a bootleg...

There wasn't really an assembly manual in a great big book for these trucks. My understanding is that each station had printouts that might or might not get lost before production ended. GM didn't likely keep copies of the whole in any format and if they did I doubt it would be released to the public.

The "Assembly Manuals" being sold seem to be a collection of station printouts that escaped in someone's lunchbox. The 1982 & 1967-72 assembly manuals seem to be a collection of 2nd and 3rd generation photocopies of the line printouts... from multiple years and factories. Probably how I would've gone about it too. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but not great.

There actually was an assembly manual in a great big book (several books, actually). The pages were in three ring binders, with tabs for each UPC section (1A2J, or 2B, or 5, or 11 or whatever; UPCs went from 0 - 14), probably five or six separate notebooks to house all of the sheets. We received a new complete manual at the beginning of each model year and then scattered updates throughout the year. As updates were received they were placed in the appropriate section and the old information was thrown away. At the end of the model year the whole package was thrown away and a new series of books started.

Although in modern times the sheets are placed on the job location back then the books were kept in the Production or Inspection office (not line side). If there was a question, say a part release question, or a wire routing, then a representative from the foreman's group (either the forman or the "Quality Man", his RH man) would make the trek to the office area to ask the question or do the research. The books were not available to the average Joe assembler.

Originally the same set of information was sent to all C/K assembly plants (as many as seven plants at one point). There were a couple complete sets of books per assembly plant: one set in the body shop, one set in the trim area, one set for final line.

Probably goes without saying but I wish now that I had kept a set, instead of just throwing them away.

K

 

[hatzie]

There actually was an assembly manual in a great big book (several books, actually). The pages were in three ring binders, with tabs for each UPC section (1A2J, or 2B, or 5, or 11 or whatever; UPCs went from 0 - 14), probably five or six separate notebooks to house all of the sheets. We received a new complete manual at the beginning of each model year and then scattered updates throughout the year. As updates were received they were placed in the appropriate section and the old information was thrown away. At the end of the model year the whole package was thrown away and a new series of books started.

Although in modern times the sheets are placed on the job location back then the books were kept in the Production or Inspection office (not line side). If there was a question, say a part release question, or a wire routing, then a representative from the foreman's group (either the forman or the "Quality Man", his RH man) would make the trek to the office area to ask the question or do the research. The books were not available to the average Joe assembler.

Originally the same set of information was sent to all C/K assembly plants (as many as seven plants at one point). There were a couple complete sets of books per assembly plant: one set in the body shop, one set in the trim area, one set for final line.

Probably goes without saying but I wish now that I had kept a set, instead of just throwing them away.

K

From a real source instead of my 10th hand rumors. Excellent.
This explains why there seems to be only one lonesome 1982 Light Truck assembly book in the wild. It's at least from one year unlike the assembly manual for the 67-72 that looks like a collection of escapees.

Thanks for clearing this up.