which workshop manual?

[eman]

hi all I bought a 1971 bay in January this year as the now wife said I could once we got married....now I did buy it several weeks prior to the main event but that's ok.......now I have a question I want to buy a good workshop manual so I can now make a start on this project. What do you all recommend and where to buy.....I have seen a few on the Book Depository?...... :?:

any suggestions welcome

nick

ps new to this whole Kombi thing but have

1961 Ghia
1971 411 s
1974 412 LS
1985 Scirocco mk2 Gt

 

[KevH]

Obvious starting point is Haynes VW 1600 Transporter No 082.

Mark Paxton's 'How to restore a Volkwagen bus', published by Veloce, is complementary as it focuses on bodywork and interior stuff.

I am not great (gross understatement) on the mechanical side but Bentley's manual seems to crop up a lot. If I was able and competent, I'd probably go for that.

And you can't beat the advice available on this forum.

 

[Bwuttonmoon]

The bently manual is the only way to go in my opinion

 

[radish]

Bentley don't bother with the haynes.

 

[Araon]

Bentley - a mass of info
Haynes - another perspective
Autodata - plenty of cool pics and data

 

[sidecargezzer]

I have 3 of them the one I use the most VW for complete idiots,,,,in my case it fits

How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive (The Idiot Book), by John Muir

 

[clyde]

Bentley for the facts Muirs book for the fiction

 

[KevH]

We seem to have opposing thoughts on the Muirs book.

Worth getting or not? :?:

 

[clyde]

It was the first VW repair book i bought and it gave alot of insite to the whole thing.
If youve already started down the VW road then i expect you will have all the books you need.
All the specific books are slightly different, but the mechanics are all pretty much the same
Ive never had reason to consult a book for the van specific bits really.

 

[sparkywig]

We seem to have opposing thoughts on the Muirs book.

Worth getting or not? :?:

Only for a read, a lot of the stuff in there is fairly useless.
If you want a good honest perspective then Bob Hoover's blogs are worth reading.

 

[lard]

We seem to have opposing thoughts on the Muirs book.

Worth getting or not? :?:

I have both books - muirs is a great read with some great diagrams, images e.t.c. - quite querky in places and informative in others, and even more confusing in some more! It works very well in conjunction with bentley as you can read an alternative view on stuff where as bentley is clinical whilst Muirs assumes you are an idiot (which is fair enough in my case )

The phrase "betterbuyabentley" seen mostly on the samba website is of course indicative of exactly how priceless it really is - I removed my engine, stripped it and upgraded it to 1641 on my own in the garage with nothing but a bentley to guide me - worth the investment ten times over in my opinion

 

[sidecargezzer]

agreed, the idiot book is confusing in some places a great read as someone said, I have 3 books and cross referance depending on what the subject is, guess you can never have enough books !

 

[eman]

thanks for the respones I will look into the bently sound good....and that cd you are working on would be good to get hold of too....

I will try and post up some pics once I sort my stuff out a bit.

nick

 

[eman]

ok I hope this works ....here is the bay I bought needs some work but it seems quite sound on the whole...came with a beetle engine not a hanger case but it will help fund some of the work.

now the question is where to start....

 

[eman]

ok can some one explain how to attach images....I thought I had but no pics yet?




:lol:

 

[Trikky2]

ok can some one explain how to attach images....I thought I had but no pics yet?

:lol:

Host pictures on photobucket or similar first then use their image reference link and copy paste into your thread M8

 

[eman]

ok hope that worked still new to this thing......must be old...... :lol:

 

[eman]

 

[67panel]

the only thing no body has said is Bently is a us publication and only covers us busses so any uk/european differances arnt shown,Haynes for uk wiring and rh drive pics and if you can find one I like the Autodata as well.







dave ------------still needs to look in the book to jog the grey matter sometimes

 

[JLT]

the only thing no body has said is Bently is a us publication and only covers us busses so any uk/european differances arnt shown,Haynes for uk wiring and rh drive pics and if you can find one I like the Autodata as well.

Considering how many UK buses are actually imported from the US nowadays, that may not be a problem...

Here's what I do: I first read the Bentley version so I have the official VW method. Then I read John Muir's write-up to give me an idea of what's actually involved in the procedure, along with some of the pitfalls that you might encounter that the Bentley doesn't mention. If there's a major difference between the two descriptions, I go with the Bentley, because there are a few things that really only applied to the split-window buses that John (incorrectly) assumed also applied to the bay windows as well. Where the "Idiot Book" is really useful is that it gives you a fairly realistic view of what might be inside your range of skills, and your comfort zone, and what should be left to those with more knowledge and better tools and facilities than you have.

I agree that the Haynes would probably be more useful for the stuff that's unique to UK models, like wiring and such. I used a Haynes manual for working on my old Renault R16, and found it to be infuriatingly uninformative in places, so I'd hesitate to rely on it as a primary source for all my automotive questions.