Post by Volktales on Oct 18, 2014 13:52:41 GMT -8
If your going to work on your VW, you need a manual, don't yah? Here is a look at some of them you might find somewhere, and should you buy it???
First up are the well known "Bentley" manuals. These are the manuals authorized by Volkswagen of America and you see constant references to them on The Samba. They have the most pictures and diagrams of all the manuals, as well as wiring diagrams for each model covered. Most people accept these as the best, and they are with one exception. Original these manuals all featured nice colourful wiring diagrams for each model. For some reason, the dorks at Bentley publishing deleted this nice feature, and all the diagrams are now in black and white and are very difficult to follow. If you buy one, then download the colour diagrams found in the Samba technical section. I bought all mine at swapmeets, except for the '61-'65 version which cost me stupid money. All of these versions are available new at (C)hinese (I)mported (P)uke if you want them. The later colourful covered ones are around $50 and almost 500 pages. The earlier dark blue covered ones are much larger and contain almost 1400 pages and cost over $100! At least you can easily buy one if you want it. And no rewards for guessing which of these manuals I have used the most....
Next up are these versions by Clymer Publications. They also made a version for the transporters, and possible others. These are not too difficult to find used, and they are well worth it. Lots of pictures and diagrams likely copied from Bentley sources, these manuals are a fine substitute. Although they contain all the necessary wiring diagrams, they are useless without the colours being marked and again consult The Samba... The versions shown have different covers depending on the years..
These small manuals are hardbound books, and were quite common in their day. I seem to have ended up with quite a few of them. Their best feature is lots of pictures and diagrams not seen in other manuals. They were a product of Motor Service Magazine and produced by the Goodheart-Willcox company in Illinois. My earliest copy is 1960, the latest is 1973, Early copies credited Jud Purvis as the Editor, later versions credited Larry Johnson. All versions should have had torque tables separate from the text, but didn't, and again black and white wiring diagrams. Most of the time, the colourful slip covers are missing too.
And here we have John Muir's famous tome, "How to.. blah blah blah, Idiot" book. Some people love it, and it has sold over 2,000,000 copies and is one of the most successful self published books in history. In its favour, it is fun to read as it really is written for people who are not technically inclined. The drawings by Peter Aschwanden are incredible and almost make the manual worth buying for them alone. John's writing style is humorous, and yes he does sound like the hippy he really was... As far as usefulness, it really needs to be used WITH the Bentley manual for pictures to better explain what he means. Much of the info is now far out of date, and some of his ideas are just plain wrong. For example he hated automatic chokes with a passion and explained how to permanently deactivate them instead of repairing. I laughed at how he said when doing disc brake pads on a Bus, you just push the pistons back in with your fingers.... Try doing that in 2014... John lived in dry New Mexico, and many of his ideas might only work there.... I am not a fan. And just so you know, my copies came with VW's I bought...
An finally, here are a couple of rare ones. The large one on the left was produced by the publishers of Gute Fahrt, an early European VW magazine. This is a first edition from 1966 and covers only 1200's and 1300's. Only one wiring diagram is included, but is in colour. Again lots of photos look suspiciously like copies of Bentley..
The book on the right is by Popular Mechanics and features pictures of nasty oily parts. This is done like the Haynes manuals do and take their own photos of used cars they disassembled. This manual has nothing at all to recommend it and is next to useless. I do not have a copy of the Haynes manual but don't like the other versions I have seen for other vehicles. Stick with Bentley!
Here are the two I forgot. On the left is How to Hotrod Volkswagen Engines by Bill Fisher. My Mom bought me this almost 30 years ago when I bought my first Beetle. This book was out of date even then as it was originally written in 1970. Most of the material is FAR out of date, and would be of little use today. It does however have some very cool prototype VW engine photos I have never seen anywhere else... The book on the right is by Tom Wilson and is MUCH better. If you have never rebuilt your own engine, and the Bentley manuals look intimidating, then this is the book to get. I never even knew it existed until Don gave me a copy. It is definitely worth getting this one. Mine was printed in 1987, don't know if available new at this time...
While doing yet another big clean up, I discovered a couple more...
The Haynes Weber carburetor manual isn't mine, it was loaned to me by my friend Brian who finally is working on his Karmann Ghia. It will be posted here soon-ish... I haven't actually used this manual yet so can't give much of an opinion other than there are lots of exploded diagrams and only 14 pages on the IDF's. I have no idea where the Type III manual came from but it was produced in England with Volkswagen Motors cooperation. Lots of decent pictures, crappy wiring diagrams. Is cool that it only contains Type III info.
