Customer Reviews

Ford Pick-ups & Bronco 1980 thru 1996 2WD & 4WD Full-Size, F-100 thru F-350 Gasoline Engines (Haynes Manuals)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Most beginner shade tree mechanics will love it, those of us looking for serious help without going to the dealer, will be disappointed. I was. It gets almost to the point and then quits.. Found as much, no more info online, good for general maintance. Lacked information needed to to trouble shoot.....

Knowing little about auto mechanics I find this manual very informative. It's a great to use as a detailed extension of an owners manual. I use it thouroughly for basic maintenance and repair. As an amature mechanic it's a good resource for getting to know your truck better, with detailed descriptions on every part. I've tried to use this book as a trouble shooting guide with with little success. More often than not it led me down dead end paths and seemed to lack a lot of info in this department.

I was looking for a complete diagram of the fuel system for my ol' 92 Ford truck. I didn't know what was what, people say nasty things about the Chilton's Manual just as much as they say nasty things about the Hanyes Manual. My dad was a mechanic so I was used to using a Chilton. But when I bought my first car I wound up getting a Haynes manual... So which is better?

FOR THE LADY'S...
In my opinion it depends on your level of experience working on vehicles. If you have never troubleshooted an engine or vehicle problem GO WITH A HAYNES. The reason why I am saying that is that the Haynes has a TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE at the front of the book, the Haynes is great for ease of learning about your vehicle and I recommend it for the lady's and the shade tree mechanics. It has grainy black and white pictures and larger exploded diagrams than the Chilton's manual, though I do see they can be hard to follow along because there often mislabeled but it does give you a general idea of what to do.

IN COMPARISON...
The Chilton only has a routine maintenance section with NO TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE, and this is where I think Chilton has lost the majority of their audience over the years. However, it should be noted that a Chilton is written for the professional mechanic, and for the mechanic that knows his way around an engine compartment. For example in the engine overhaul section the Chilton boasts Piston, Compression, and Tourqe Specification charts which are more detailed as it lists all the year models in an easy to read format, it's an easier read than what Haynes offers. Haynes offers some of the same data, but I had a difficult time tracking their data with it because it's printed over several pages as compared to Chilton's data which is printed all on one single page in an easy to read cross referencing diagram. The Chilton boasts a high quality paper than a Haynes. The Chilton has no pictures, but has easy to read diagrams and exploded diagrams of each model year transmission and engine and many other components. Though I recommend a good pair of magnification glasses when observing most of the diagrams and drawings.

All in All...
I recommend the Haynes for the Lay Mechanic, and the Chilton for the Pro Mechanic, and I recommend both for those of you who are serious mechanics who may need to cross reference data.

That is all.

There is no sequence to the picture numbering. "Locate the fuel filter on the inside of the left-side rail (see illustration)" the problem is that there are 6 illustrations on the page and none is labelled left-side frame rail.
Certain factory parts of my truck are NOT in this book. It names some parts but leaves you wondering the purpose or need of said part.

I have used two other Haynes Manuals and have usually found them very useful and well priced. So when it came to getting a manual for my old beat up ford f-150 I picked this one. But just look at the title, it covers 16 years of full sized pickups F-150, F-250, F-350 and the Bronco. Its simply too much for the book to adequately cover. The pictures have about a 1 in 4 chance of looking anything like the components in my truck. I also find it to be very carburetor biased with EFI being relegated to footnotes and references that turn out to be a wild goose chase.

This can be chalked up to Haynes biting off more than they can chew but there is a myriad of other problems with this book. They often reference you to another chapter (i.e. "see chapter x") when they really should give you a page number. This causes needless hunting and probing through the whole chapter for the part you are looking for. There is also the problem of not properly referencing illustrations. They will say "see illustration" but...which one?! There are 6 on the page, each with a number, why can't you say "see illustration 32.8"? The book is also fraught with totally unacceptable references to the right and left side instead of driver's side and passenger side.

There is some good general knowledge, but when its time to get to turning wrenches I want some specifics so I don't ruin something. That's where this book fails.

I bought this manual to use on an '89 F-150 I had just picked up. Unfortunately I found it had a battery drain somewhere in the electrial which the previous owner failed to mention. Normally this isn't that bad of a situation with a multimenter, a test light, and a short finder as tools to find the problem. But this current draw isn't blowing fuses so it makes things more difficut. The electrial diagrams in this version are almost worthless when trying to do this sort of repairs and have limited experience. Maybe OK for mechanical repairs, but forget about digging deep into the electrial systems.

checked this book out in attempt to find why my fuel system wasn't working. If you have a 1987 ford f 350 like me look for a different book. This book is no help to me and is geared more towards the later 7th generation fords.

The manual arrive in great condition; a little yeallowed on the edges but not torn or greasy. I doubt I could keep a manual in such good condition. It arrived in a few days, and the seller kept me informed of it's shipping status and checked to make sure it arrived.

Same review I gave for the Chilton's, another manual, some errors, not everything there, but useful anyway and the price was right.

book is not very useful at all
I'm restoring an old bronco and found everything in this book too brief and with way too few illustrations. If your a mechanic you might find it useful, but for us regular folks working on cars its of very little help. Buy the Chilton version instead.