How good are these ebay service manuals?

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JamesLond

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I see this and I'm wondering if it's worth it. I'm especially curious how good the wiring diagrams in it are
 

exp500

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Generally they are the factory manuals in a pdf format. If you are really wondering if they are worth it, price the manuals from Helm, the factory supplier.
I have a big binder and when i print a section it goes in binder. Easier navigation for me and I may have a full printed manual someday.
 

MassHoe04

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I got this one as a download... $5.99 + tax

It was legit. PDF. Full manual for download.

I downloaded and save to my Google Drive, so I can access from my phone or any other device/location.

I haven't really had to dive in yet, but I felt it would be good to have available.

The PDF does have wiring diagrams in color...
 
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JamesLond

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Okay, I got one for my 2001 Yukon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3843983685...:Yukon&hash=item597fed9f0a:g:1igAAOSwPQdhQ3WW

My take? It's just passable.

-There's LOTS of missing wiring diagrams and several empty pages where wiring diagrams should be.
Screenshot_20220220-090914.png
There's literally 25 pages in a row that look like this!

-Using Ctrl+f to search doesn't work often enough.

For example, I was looking directly at a page for pinion flange replacement yet searching the word 'pinion flange' yielded 0 results.

-Weird printing errors where text overlaps each other all over the place
Screenshot_20220220-091953_1.png


It was like $8 and it shows. As it is, I guess it's better than nothing. I ended up just going to my library's website and accessing a car repair site through them; much cleaner and easier to navigate.
 

swathdiver

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I see this and I'm wondering if it's worth it. I'm especially curious how good the wiring diagrams in it are

Yes, they are worth it as you cannot properly work on these trucks without a Tech-2 and the shop manual. I bought my pdf manual from SeriousCTBuyer on ebay. A module was missing and he emailed it right away. I have it on disc. Also have a subscription to it at AllDataDIY and use both all the time, mostly to help folks here.
 

Nikolperry

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I bought an eBay service manual once for my old car, and it was a bit of a disappointment. The wiring diagrams were almost unreadable, and some of the repair procedures were missing steps. It's a bit of a gamble because you don’t know the quality until after you’ve purchased it. If you're doing basic maintenance, it might be sufficient, but for more complex repairs, especially for car service manual PDF, it's better to go for autocarmanual. Spending a bit more on a reliable manual can save you time and frustration in the long run.
 
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Doubeleive

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I bought the repair manuals for my trucks on ebay, all of them are similar in distribution (.pdf) file
none are hotlinked so you can jump from a reference point to a particular page, so 13,000 page file that has to be manually searched which is a pain but can be done
one thing you have to keep in mnd when searching such a manual is the "term" used, you can't use a typical "layman" type search, you have to use the technical term and sometimes shorten it up. for instance "wheel bearing" may not show anything, but "hub" will
 
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