Yeah, that’s why I like the Halderman books. Last week I posted this reply to a question Drthri035 asked about Haynes manuals.
“Haynes and Chilton books are really helpful to get you into the ballpark on fixing a lot of different cars. Over the years, however, as to older models they’ve evolved to combine multiple model years into one volume and become less specific. In a more perfect world, if you’re trying to fix a specific vehicle, ideally if you can lay your hands on a printed service manual for that car from the manufacturer, you’d be stylin’.”
“Eric covers that subject here along with some comparisons between publishers like Haynes and Service manuals put out by the manufacturer. You can find used service manuals at EBay and Amazon.”
OTOH, if you want to learn a systems approach to repairing cars, here’s a a book on Automotive Technology by a guy named James Halderman who is a great teacher, an excellent writer, and has been in the biz a long time. Amazon has the text books and lab manuals available so you can teach yourself at your own pace or find specific information. A newer volume, used is about $39 bucks. And you can find them here.
http://www.amazon.com/AUTOMOTIVE-TECHNOLOGY-Pri…iagnosis+and+service
Halderman has ASE type study guides available for all his books. They’re also supplied with CD study discs and he’s constantly updating them. I don’t know how this guy finds time to teach but he’s good. Check him out.
Sparks
Sparks