Shop Manuals

[morlach]

The 325 Classic chassis is identified vaguely as the Chevy P30. I am fairly new to the hunt, but the P30 designation seems to be, even apparently in Chevy circles, a somewhat vague and non-specific bit of nomenclature. The VIN identifies the chassis as a P37, which I understand to be the motorhome version of the P30. However, when looking for parts, there seem to be so many sub-classifications and what-ifs and wherefores that identifying for parts purchase purposes as P30 is about as useful as saying that you need a "propeller" for your "airplane."

This vaguery appears to extend to the manuals and documents...

So, can somebody save me some time and expense and send me in the correct direction for a manual that might at least hit somewhere near my 325 Classic chassis?

[SebasSF]

Great news...it's a Chevy P30, so if you are close to the correct year, parts that were also made for a million step vans all work and are super cheap. Almost any P30 manual or shop book will do the job.

[morlach]

That really is what I am coming to see. The p30, in various applications, has been in production for EVER! And, there does seem to be enough mechanical similarity that parts are plentiful, cheap, and nearly universal. I ordered a shop manual on CD that should meet my needs.


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[dadstoy]

I've always had great luck getting parts from a local parts house and from NAPA by just telling them it is a Chevy P30. Same with the shop I used to have some running gear work done...they usually get their parts from NAPA as well.

There is a Chevy Light Truck manual that I have that is pretty good as well since it covers the P30. There is also a soft cover Chevy/GMC? motorhome manual that I think might have been published in the very early 90's. I have that and sometimes it is more useful then the Chevy Light Truck manual. Good news is you can find it on line as a PDF and simply download it. I don't remember exactly what it is called, but I'm sure someone here will know and might even have a link handy for you.

I do tell the parts house that it is a P30 motorhome chassis just in case, but usually doesn't seem to matter. Also, I usually pull the part off and take it to the parts house when ordering parts. I haven't gotten the wrong part yet!


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[dadstoy]

One thing to look out for is to find an alignment shop that truly knows the P30 motorhome chassis. I have printouts that my dad kept for years of different times he had the front-end aligned. The specs are all different. Most shops will try to align to the P30 truck chassis specs and not the motorhome specs. The red covered Chevy motorhome manual I mentioned has a great section on front-end alignment and components and it has the correct alignment specs. The shop that I have had some drive train work done at cut their teeth on the P30 chassis many years back and understands the difference with the motorhome. Before I had them do the alignment I asked them what specs they align to. They were the same as the motorhome manual. I proceeded to have them align my front-end, along with doing another $5k of work! LOL.


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