Finally Picked up an Astro

[intothewild]

Nothing special, but runs/drives/looks good and I got it for $850.

86 4.3, 170k Miles.....ONE Owner..I've never seen a title this old lol. Paint/body is surprisingly decent for the price. Engine is strong, tranny is smooth. It's not the awd Astro that I've been wanting, but it's a start...Going to drive it back to Arizona at the end of the month. :smiley_drive:

 

[Basement Yeti]

Nice! Welcome to the fold. :victory:

What do you have planned for it?

 

[intothewild]

For now..Just going to focus on the little things, make sure it's reliable/safe to drive 1600 miles in a few weeks. Change the diff fluid, tranny flush, coolant flush, oil change, plugs/wires etc.

After the trip, we'll see how much I still like it once I'm in AZ...I'll have a good idea after driving 1600 miles in it if it's going to be worth keeping or not...Then we'll go from there.

 

[intothewild]

Here's a crappy phone picture, I'll try to get some better ones soon..Speaking of crappy phone pictures, I sure have been disappointed in the droid 2's camera. I've had crappy flip phones that took better pictures.

 

[ihatemybike]

From what I can see thus far it looks alright. Am I seeing a nice maroon red? Makes me think about my 1994, bought in 1997 with just under 50k miles, sold in 2003 with 211k. Never should have sold that van. I'd probably still be driving it if I hadn't.

Check the RPO codes in the glovebox. If you see G80, you are a lucky duck that got a limited slip rear diff, and will need GM's additive when you do the diff service.

 

[intothewild]

Yes, it's a maroon red..Finally got some time to mess around with it a little bit, forgot to check the rpo codes though, I'll run back out and check in a little bit.

Got all the belts replaced, the old alternator belt looked pretty bad! The old sony radio that came with it wasn't working, so I picked up a nice kenwood deck off craigslist for $20, and I installed it this afternoon. Only two front speakers, but they sound pretty decent..Nice to have some tunes in the van now.

I was planning on going and giving it a good bath and scrubbing it down really well after I finished the radio install, but it starting raining! Welcome to Washington I guess.

Still have quite a bit to do in the next couple of weeks..Replace radiator hoses, the left turn signal stopped working on me today, hopefully just a bad bulb. Still need to do all the fluid flushes, replace a u-joint, sliding door only opens from the inside, I'd like to get that fixed before we head to AZ, also want to replace at least 2 tires if funds permit. Overall though, I'm fairly pleased with the van for what we paid...I've put about 100 miles on it now, and it really does run well, tranny feels great, drives nice and straight, brakes are good and firm etc...Anyways, I'm going to knock on some wood now after that last sentence.

 

[intothewild]

Wow I had no idea these things had an optional 27 gallon fuel tank, which mine has. Pretty sweet, each fillup is going to make the wallet cry though!

 

[ihatemybike]

Actually not an option, the majority of them came with 27 gallon tanks. 17 gallon tanks could be had on the 4 cylinder vans 85-89. And some system caused the 97-99 to only hold 25 gallons even though the part number for the tank itself is the same for the 27 gallon tanks.

I really want to find out what caused the difference so I can grab the parts a get my tanks up to the full 27.

My most expensive fill up was when gas was over $4 a couple years back. It was within $2 of $100. Yuk.

 

[Basement Yeti]

Wow I had no idea these things had an optional 27 gallon fuel tank, which mine has. Pretty sweet, each fillup is going to make the wallet cry though!

I've got a 27 too. My tank was below a quarter and I filled it up at Arco down the street and it only cost me 60 bucks. I think my fuel gauge is off. :sombrero: