Need recommendations for a good manual

[JoeW]

I've got a manual for my outboard (1988 100 hp 2+2), but I don't think it's very good. For one thing all pictures are in black&white and the resolution/contrast is terrible. It's hard to make out what part is being described. I think I paid $17.00 for it about 10+ years ago. The other day I saw a different brand manual for sale at a local dealer, but it was shrink wrapped and they wouldn't let me open it to see what it looked like. They wanted $36.00 for it.
Anybody have any recommendations for a really good manual?

 

[gss036]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

Nothing beats a Mercury factory manual and yes, they are about $36.00. Try E-Bay, I got my slightly used one for about $20 which included shipping, all depends on how many people are looking for the same book.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

agree the clymers are horrible, intertec better, seloc better, but all have unclear on in some cases wrong info, the factory manual is the only one in my library.

 

[NBE]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

Definitely go factory if at all possible. Even paying $36.00 is not too much for a little piece of mind and a lot better book.

 

[Motor Boater Bill]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

You can buy Merc factory manuals from www.oldmercs.com for about $50. You can also get them on CD for about half that from Acme. The Merc manual is the best--in fact, in a class by itself. That said, having an aftermarket manual as well sometimes provides some additional information or a different camera angle that can be useful. So keep the one you have when you get the new one, it may come in handy.

 

[Motor Boater Bill]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

Whoops--Just checked, Acme doesn't have the later model manuals on CD. Just through 1974.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

i've got some on CD, but to me there's nothing like the real thing. true you can print out and have a clean sheet.

 

[sloopjohnb]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

I'm in the same boat looking for a good manual. I can't believe the errors I've seen in some of the manuals.

Seloc tells you to test a temperature sensor by putting int in a pot of water and boiling it to 106 degrees celsius. I'm sorry but I missed the shop class on how to re-write the laws of physics.

 

[jpollman]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

I'm in the same boat looking for a good manual. I can't believe the errors I've seen in some of the manuals.

Seloc tells you to test a temperature sensor by putting int in a pot of water and boiling it to 106 degrees celsius. I'm sorry but I missed the shop class on how to re-write the laws of physics.

I've noticed that too. I bought a SELOC manual about a month ago and it's terrible! I'm going to bite the bullet and buy the correct manual for MY motor. Not one that covers every motor for a particular mfg. for a range of ten years. The SELOC that I have says to test a temp sensor to place it in a pot of water and heat the water to 232-248 degrees fahrenheit. I guess I'm not the only one who sees that as impossible! d Unless of course you have a big airtight pressurised room that is. In the section for my motor ('91 90hp Merc) it says that the switch is normally closed. Then it says that the switch will open when the temp reaches 162-178. The next line reads, " The switch will reset back to a closed circuit at 182-198".
Well that is outright wrong because I pulled my sensor and found that it's normally OPEN and closed at 197 degrees and reopened again at 177 degrees. (which seems to be operating correctly)

I just looked at the Merc Parts Express site and it shows that an owners manual for my motor is $21.45 and a service manual is $71.45! That's a steep price to pay seeing that I've already dropped about $35 on my SELOC manual but I've already discovered problems in that one so I'm leaning toward not trusting it too much further.

John

 

[DTS1290]

Re: Need recommendations for a good manual

Last year I bought the Seloc Online manual for my outboard (before they started selling the manual and a subscription in combination together. Was a stupid investment on my part for a couple reasons. First is that its 100 times handier to be able to have a book right beside an outboard when your working on it than printing stuff off. Second is the descriptions are intentionally made somewhat vague so they can accommodate numerous models. I personally like to see pictures or diagrams taken from the outboard I am working on and not ones that are made to be somewhat generic. Last was after I got done looking up the things I wanted I had around 20 pdf. files littering my desktop on my computer. At least you can benefit from out mistakes and go out and by the factory manual like I will be doing and save a bit of money.