1986 GMC Astro rebuild...questions

Yep. Definately started its life as a kroger truck. Its funny seeing the things they specced out. Odometer... don't need that. Passenger sun visor.. gone. Fuel gauge... delete. Seriously why not habe a fuel gauge? Is that 15 dollar savings worth it?

 

It also works well for the back panel. But for door panels use a vynil instead of fabric, And use pressed board. Card board won't hold up to the inevitable scuffing of your boots when you get in and out.

 

An old Kroger truck, now the pieces begin to fit. While Kroger was not in the upper Midwest, I did see their trucks from time to time in Indiana and Illinois. They all ran those cabover daycabs. Kroger was not "brand specific", like say Pumpkin, and probably bought what they got the best deal on. I can't find any pics of your Astro, but I remember seeing them. They used the White "Japanese Freightliner"
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kqk6b6PG3kg/hqdefault.jpg
cabover Transtars, I believe these were the most common, ( note the drivers name on the front, wouldn't see that today, this was "Lou's" truck, they were very proud of their drivers)
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8458/8010797141_00ca8bcac0_b.jpg
and White "Road Commodes",
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8452/8010803128_47a774b968_z.jpg
They were bare bones trucks, like yours. The only less optioned truck I saw was a Corn Flakes Freightliner cabover, with 2 pimps ( tach and speed) an air pressure gauge and a coolant temp. gauge. That was it. Have fun, these types of trucks were during my heyday as a driver. Thx for the memories. And please, let's not start with the Deetroits again. Without ether, they'd never start anyway.

 

Just nothing like the unholy screech come out of a 12V-71 when you stuck a set of 75s in there and racked it to about 2300 is there.

 

You forgot about the Wig-wag!

 

The box on the rear of the dog house is a Kysor A/C unit, add on.
I am not familiar with that suspension but would thank the air bag on the front drive is to push it down when empty and or to get traction on uneven ground. It may have larger tires installed on the drives inorder to alleviate some of those problems. The tags I was familiar with used one or two air bags to lift the tag off the ground when empty.

 

It is listed on the build sheet. The one's I am familiar were labeled as a grease jockey and I got parts from Mid West Wheel in Des Moines. The red boot to the right is on a quick coupler that we connected to a 5 gl bucket of thin grease-thick gear oil and refilled the bag on top. It should have an adjustable timer somewhere so that it cycles about every 15 minutes when the parking brakes are released. It will lubricate everything except the drive line and steering joints. They did a really good job and required little maintenance just a little messy. With the age of yours you maybe better off to trash it and put grease fitting in everything.

 

HA! The 1st truck I drove in the mid-'70's, a 1963 IH R-190 tandem dump, gas job, set of sticks and Hendrickson rubber pad suspension, had a "Wig-wag". Tell you what, that thing drop down, you BETTER pull 'er over quick! ( before emergency parking brakes)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Wigwag.jpg
That container on the back is an auto greaser, like Box Car sez, Schneider had those on their 4070 Transtars. Logic was, the trucks were gone for so long, it greased everything but the driveline, including the cars behind them. That would NEVER fly today, as leaking fluids is a Cardinal sin today.