Haynes manual

Zombie_donkey

I had my 6 week free service at Halford and after a week the gears are slipping again, as did the crank when climbing a steep hill.

I'm sure I can do better myself once I know what is what so is the Haynes Bike manual any good?

I have found some Car Haynes manuals to be Woeful when it come to the finer details of a job, my favourite being the section on replacing the dizzy cap on a Mk2 1.8 Vauxhall Carlton.

"Step 1, Remove the engine" :shock:

Would it be worth the money?

nicklouse

TBH no.

use the links in my sig and print out what you need.

very soon you will not need the paper to refer to.

the problems with books is that as soon as they go to print they are out of date.

Also using the makers sites for downloads is great for any "new" info.

have a wander over to the tech section in MTB and have a look at some of the links in the tech links sticky.

Or even the MTB FAQs.

But if you really want some paper, the Park big blue book or Zinn and the art of ...... (insert road/mtb) maintenance. but TBH they are great if you are not mechanically minded.

on the Haynes Car book they must have got worse. rebuilt many a Mini engine and gearbox using them...

squeeler

I'd agree about the on-line stuff being very helpful, but I really recommend the Haynes bike manual.
I got one when I first started cycling 3 years ago and it has given me a good grounding in most areas of bike maintenance, it covers a wide range of different areas and is well illustrated with photos. The parktools website, youtube etc are brilliant though.

lae

I've got it and I don't think it's particularly useful. It's really very basic. Sheldon Brown and Park Tools websites are far more useful.

@ Lives Here, Haynes manuals for modern cars have a lot more stuff to cover than in old cars (more available models with different parts) and obviously have to focus a lot more on the electronics, that's why they're not as 'in-depth' as ones for older cars.

Good work on rebuilding the A-Series engine. I absolutely love them, I've had a Morris Minor, a Mini and an MG Midget and those engines are amazing. Smooth(ish), powerful (Minis running with 200+ bhp are pretty common, you can get up to 400bhp with some serious tuning), very compact, reliable, and they make a good noise. And as I found out, you can run them with no coolant for 30 miles with no problems. They weren't in production for 60 years for nothing, you know!

The Rookie

Haynes car manuals have gone downhill, want to replace rear trailing arm bearings on a Saxo, it tells you to go to a dealer, want to do it on a 205 (practicly identical) and it tells you how to do it.....

I got a cheap (about £8) book from waterstones when I started, but soon gave up on it.....

Simon