Old Online Chevy Manuals | Hacker News Reader

Old Online Chevy Manuals

chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com

84 points1970-01-0119 comments

I am the custodian of a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline in almost entirely original condition. It belonged to my great grandfather and was parked from 1976 to 1997 with only 39,000 miles on the odometer.

Lots of people have opinions on what someone should do with an old car like this but I am trying to keep it as a "survivor" that preserves its original condition even if it is a bit crusty and lacking in perfect upholstery. I drive it far less than 1000 miles per year but enjoy all of them.

Love it. This rather dates back to a situation awareness “joke”. It goes something like this… “in 1970 a cars ownership manual detailed how to adjust the valves, in 2007, it tells you not to drink the battery acid”.

They really need to fix their site certs though :(

Nice, I wish such old service manuals were more freely available for other equipment too. Car ones are generally easy to find, but for some like certain tractors, despite being over 50 years old, aren't freely available and require paying like $120 for a loose leaf copy.

A friend of mine bought a Case 830 gas tractor that stalled out randomly while driving it home and it refused to start again, and another friend came over and tried to "help" by randomly turning all the carb adjustment screws. I thought I could just look up the manual online to reset them properly since it was old as shit and half the people who ever bought them also got manuals for them. Figured it would put us in a good position to diagnose the original problem at that point. But no you gotta pay an extortionate amount for some company to print off a loose paper copy, a free copy of the digital file for printing it was nowhere to be found.

huh, I've never had a problem finding online manuals. Usually $20 ish dollars which I feel is fare for someone to go and find the manual and digitize it.

I usually have better luck searching for parts manuals or shop manuals which is what you really want anyways.

I basically buy the manual before I'll buy anything, other than the family daily driver which is the only machine i own that I don't work on.

I know I have a couple case shop manuals and I own a couple old case machines, never had an issue pulling manuals and wiring diagrams for them.

That's been my experience as well, not much I can't find online with a little digging.

> Usually $20 ish

yup. $29 here:

https://farmmanualsfast.com/products/case-730-830-and-930-se....

There's also ebay, steiner, and of course yt. And if the same or similar model was ever used by the military, and awful lot of those mil manual are available free.

$20-ish dollars for a well written 800 page manual is worth well worth it for stuff like this. old tractors are simpler, 100% hardware, but not really ever easy to work on. i wish it was free, but it's way better than a > $100 paper copy. i think there's just not enough people needing and sharing these to create a market that competes with the $20-ish price point.

Often you can find something by finding the right forum that quietly shares files.

The old JD manuals are the same, and I can't tell if it's opportunists who just managed to snag a paper manual off ebay and scan it, or if it's some policy of the manufacturer. It's a pain in the ass.

I keep thinking there might be copies on some private torrent tracker, but I wouldn't even know which.

Another resource for old Chevy, Ford and Jeep manuals:

http://www.gmpartswiki.com/browse

1924 Chevy manual says "Always use the best oil as it is more economical in the long run." The hand waving ambiguity alluding to expensive rather than most suitable product specifications. It's good to hear that consumer propaganda wasn't a recent invention.

By the way, here's some service-writer lingo: eyewash n. - Customer impressive procedures or checks that either not performed or are a required step in the course of a job used to make it seem more valuable.

Even today there are vast differences in different types of motor oil, and not all are mutually compatible. In the 1920s the oils were more compatible, but standardized specifications had yet to become widespread and home-distilled oils could still be bought in general stores. The amount of gunk between non-detergent and detergent oils, the heat tolerance, the accuracy of the stated viscosity, and even the smell of different oils varied considerably.

If you want to remain cynical, you could say that today's consumer propaganda is a continuation of the no-longer-necessary trend that began during a time of fewer clear specifications, regulations, and large monopolies leading to uniform products across an industry and geographical areas.

A similar project has a lot of old brochures as well - https://oldcarbrochures.org/

I've been restoring a 1954 Chevy 6400, commonly referred to as a 2-ton. There are so many great resources online like this.

I just googled that, what a beauty!

It is! I own a farm, hope to get this truck back into working shape and use it to pick up my monthly grain order.

I never thought I'd see a 1947 truck manual, this is so cool, nice find!

I sent this to my uncle who has a few old Chevys. He said it’s been around a while (shows in the design) and that apparently a lot of the content was scanned in my a guy working out on an oil rig in the ocean. I guess something to do when you’re really really bored.

Here's the one I learned to drive in:

https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyowner/58omindex.h...

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