The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk that Mysterious Factory Assembly Manual

Has anyone yet figured out how to read this darn Factory Assembly Manual? I have a 1960-66 f.a.m. It is so hard to decipher. I am trying to figure out how the emergency brake cables were routed in 1965. I found mentionof them in the 1960 section but nowhere else.

Is there some logical way to read this manual?
If you know please let us know.

Jerry,

This was, literally, the manual to assemble the truck. The drawings were created by the engineers as they made design changes to the truck. As the model years progressed, they would only do new engineering drawings if something changed -- a lot like the service manuals: You get the '60 manual, and you get manual updates for '61, 62, and so on.

Since it wasn't really designed for us, I've taken to marking pages with call-out tabs and keeping notes in the back of the book.

Brian

Assuming it is formatted the same as the 47-54 manual, you'll find the first few pages have diagrams of the various model trucks, and there are arrows pointing at various parts of a whole truck and have a little bit of text and a number with each arrow. Thumb through the book to find the appropriate section number referenced from the arrows. The section numbers are in the lower right hand corner of the pages. There will be a section 1, 2, 3, etc. and each section will have several sheets. I had the same problem as you until the lights finally came on, but then I was awed at how useful it really is. Good luck.

50,

My '60 manual isn't like that at all. It's simply a collection of engineering drawings, organized by year.

Brian

The 60-66 factory assembly manual is just thrown together with no rhyme or reason... at least the reprint is - not sure on the 'original' one, if there ever was one.

The '47-53' AD assembly manul is well done and once you get the gist of it, you can find things quickly... like 50gmc wrote.

The 60-66 is just, *flip* until you find it. I take some post it notes, flip them upside down, stick them on the page at the top - with the note sticking out - then I write on the note what that page shows.

-W

It is a good thing that they didn't read these in the factory or we wouldn't have had any trucks to drive!

my dad retired(earlier this year) from GM... I think he started working there in the mid 60's - started working on the assembly line - I showed him my assembly manual and asked him about it and he told me they never had anything like that to show the workers bees on the line itself.

After I showed him mine he asked me if they had one for the 47-'53 ones and I told him 'yeah and that one is organized' so he got one to use with his '53.

I dunno, maybe there are some other old GM line guys/gals floating around in here somewhere that can shed some light on it.

-W

Don't want to hijack this thread on the 60s FAM, but just felt to comment on the earlier FAM. The FAM for the AD models is actually a reprint of the 1954 manual. It is advertised by the vendors as covering 1947-54, and, for most things it works fine. However, there are some pages that only apply to 1954 trucks.

Seems to me it is mostly technical service bulletins for mechanics & engineering drawings just kinda tossed together in roughly chronological order. I guess a table of contents was just too much for our $30. It is useful tho.Brian

I noticed there is a lot of stuff in there like that for the '54 trucks - I wondered why.

thanks for the info. Jeff.

-W

It seems like there are some of the earlier pages tossed in here and there...and some just missing entirely - fun if you're working on a medium-duty truck.