The Value of a service manual

[Don Coatney]

Forum member Todd Brack who lives in Indianapolis is planning a trip north next Friday driving his D-24 and plans on stopping by my house. In preparation of his trip he just called me with some electrical charging system questions. I ask if he had the D-24 service manual and he did so we both pulled our copies out and went over the steps he should take to rectify his problem. Lots of good information can be found in the service manual if you take the time to read it.

 

I have said it many times that if you do not have a service manual for your vehicle get one and read it.

 

[P15-D24]

And I would add a factory Parts Book is nearly as valuable!

[rb1949]

There is sometimes good information on strange pages.

[pflaming]

Don is spot on. I have one for my truck and another for my '54 Plymouth. It is interesting how they differ on the identical item. Both are always in arms reach.

[desoto1939]

Yes  agree the basic information that any owner of an antique car/truck should be the Service manual and any suppliments that were publish for the car/truck and at least the parts manual.  A third book would be a Motors Manual, this also lists some of the major repair items for the car/tuck .

 

You can not always rely on a forum member to provide you with the documentation.  The asking of questions is fair but if you have not research the issue or even looked in the service manual then you need to get these to help you understand your particular car.

 

Desoto1939@aol.com    Rich Hartung

[Dan Hiebert]

In all of my antique auto ventures, a service manual is the second thing I get (after the vehicle), in a couple of instances, I got a service manual beforehand to see what I was getting into.  I have a couple old Chilton's that get me by until I find one.  Although I haven't found one for our Terraplane, yet, I do have a Motors Manual that has a valuable amount of material. 

[desoto1939]

Another good book is a Hollander cross reference book for the years of your car. The Hollander book was used by junk yard to determine which parts from various years and makes and models will cross over and canbe used on your car or truck.

 

Also do not forget about the Rate Books.  Always look at them when at a swap meet they do have part number and according to which rate book they have a lot of cross reference information.

 

The other thing is that you could contact me because I have an extensive collection of cross reference catalogs on the old car/trucks and I have all of these on CD's so you no longer have to have paper copies.  My information goesback to 1910 and upto 1956

 

rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com