![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:40 • Filed to: Service Manuals | ![]() | ![]() |
They didn't just make this for the VW Beetle. VW Rabbit, Subaru 1600, Datsun, Nissan,Honda and a couple others, most with crazy good drawings in the style of the Muir book.
Mazda Miata, Ford Panther platform. Get fancier than that and nobody's going to be getting a manual, they'll be cutting checks to the repair guy. So no down-home Ferrari book. A Subaru EJ 1993-up series. That would work.
*I owned the Muir book long before I actually had a bug. Had to read up.
Volvo 240 series: A pamphlet. "Determine early on if you own a gasoline or diesel engine. Buy appropriate fuel."
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:43 |
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It was such an awesome book the way it spoke to the reader and explained things. And the drawings were so epic. I had a few copies of various vintage I would use when working on my VW I treasured them and never wanted to grease them up. I think it's a shame other cars don't have similar things.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:44 |
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And Honda Civic too. The problem was the illustrations were cute, but they said little on how to live with: pressed on rotors, fifty vacuum hoses or thermo reactor exhaust manifolds.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:45 |
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Every car needs one.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:48 |
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Dangit, that's the one I left out, Honda. I should know, a neighbor has one of the tiny Civics up on 3 wheels for like forever. He could use a manual.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:49 |
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BMW through e36.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:53 |
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I got one that came with my 1972 campmobile, greasy as can be and held together by duct tape but it has been incredibly helpful
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:54 |
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And the cartoony but accurate style, imho, causes more retention of information than a bland diagram.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:57 |
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Yep.
The problem is that so many cars now it's not 'take out the plug wire and scrape off the fouled carbon', it's 'set paramater EGOXY2 to 40 cycles a second..'
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:58 |
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Except that the manual won't save the Honda's it covered. They were the pre-1980 years, or junk Honda's.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:58 |
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Oh I know, stupid computers
![]() 10/04/2013 at 18:59 |
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A universal one? Maybe get the folks behind the Daily Show books on America etc. Driver's Manual: The Book you idiots.
(That's the title, not directed to you :)
I need an agent.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 19:07 |
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Well, most of the original series covered some durable stuff. The VW Rabbit one is still relevant, it's still, basically the same motor.
Note they never made one for AMC.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 19:35 |
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The Muir Manuals were titled "how to keep alive your X alive."
With AMC this was not relevant, since the biggest complaint about cars like the hornet, after poor fuel economy was "it just refuses to die!".
For cars like the rabbit, they were handy since it kinda sucked when it came out. Dasher was better, but less popular.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 19:55 |
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Still relevant. I'm using the carb diagram right now. Grease is a friendly warning to the user of the complexity of the task ahead.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 20:01 |
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Carb diagram? on what?
Grease on the manual does show that you used it, at least it was handy when you broke down and didn't have any red or blue shop rags.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 20:08 |
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Hitachi carb, EA81 motor. I'm not a performance freak.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 20:09 |
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"Hitachi carb" ewwwww!
![]() 10/04/2013 at 20:11 |
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Well, I have the spare from a $100 strip-a-junker fest a while back. The last stage before giving in and Weber. Only one component was fused to the casing. All full of our lovely ethanol mix residue.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 20:22 |
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Our fuel sucks, just remember to add stable green (marine), and then it only kinda sucks.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 21:40 |
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Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift-Cultus/Pontiac Firefly/Holden Barina. Because that's the answer to pretty much every question.
![]() 10/04/2013 at 22:10 |
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2nd gen trans am... I really could use an info source that wasn't the internet or Haynes/Chiltons