Engine maintenance manuals

[Oldgenetics64]

Hey all, I'm needing to pick up a manual for my 1989 Johnson 25 hp 2 stroke. What is your preference?
I've seen Seloc and a couple of others.

 

[LDUBS]

Go with the OEM manual if you can find one. Search for shop or service manuals for your particular motor.

There used to be links to shared motor manuals on this site. Sadly, while the links are still there, the contents are deleted. get have been a copyright issue, IDK.

 

[Oldgenetics64]

Sounds good. I'm just wanting to be able to maintain and fix minor troubles myself. I've got better uses for my limited income rather than give it to a mechanic.

 

[LDUBS]

Me too. I hit the limits of my knowledge pretty quick, but will handle what I can myself. I have the OEM shop manual for my Honda outboard. It is incredibly detailed. I think you will find the OEM service manual to be far superior to the 3rd party ones like Seloc. Hopefully you can grab one for your 1989 motor without having to spend much.

I've also found some good stuff on You Tube. However, it does require weeding thru to find videos by qualified people. Try to avoid the guys who like to hear themselves talk.

 

[Smokey101]

I have a Johnson Evinrude 2-35 hp clymer manual that came with a boat I bought.
It tells me everything that I don't need to know.
I get more help from YouTube, and take pictures of stuff when i take things apart.

 

[airshot]

Off brand manuals are a waste of time and money, way to general for finding solutions to problems. Spend the time and money for a factory service manual for your particular engine. I have found what I was looking for on E bay and yard/ garage sales. If a real issue arrises, only a factory service manual will help you troubleshoot the problem.

 

[LaqueRatt]

I'm puzzled by the lack of manual sharing. For cars and bikes I can almost always find a free OEM manual. Is it a copyright violation to share books now? Somebody better inform the public library.

 

[airshot]

I'm puzzled by the lack of manual sharing. For cars and bikes I can almost always find a free OEM manual. Is it a copyright violation to share books now? Somebody better inform the public library.

Only if you profit from the sharing, anyone can copy anything, but if you make any money of profit from the copy, you are now liable.

 

[airshot]

My service manual is well over an inch thick and hundreds of pages, would take a long time to copy!! My Mercruiser manual was well over 900 pages and it took many hours to download onto a thumb drive. It could easily pay to just find and buy a used one. My Merc manual was 15 bucks on fleabay.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Another vote for the OEM Service manual.

 

[LDUBS]

You guys remember from the pre-eTech days the old Chilton's manuals. The one's for a specific year/make/model car were pretty good.

 

[LaqueRatt]

We must be talking about different kinds of manuals. I've actually found manuals for most of my old outboards and they are not all that big, 20-30 pages.

 

[LDUBS]

Owner's Manuals vs shop (or service) manuals. The shop manuals are significantly larger and have detailed information for things that would normally not be handled by the owner. Like this:

 

[LaqueRatt]

Gee I didn't even know they had service manuals like that for outboards. No wonder they're kinda hard to come by. I learn something new every day on this site!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

For my bowrider, there was two 1” thick manuals for the engine and one thicker manual for the alpha Gen 2 drive. The outboard ones I have, are about 3/4-1” thick.

The Clymers and Selec brand manuals are thick as well. They have allot of general info with exerts from the OEM.

 

[LDUBS]

Gee I didn't even know they had service manuals like that for outboards. No wonder they're kinda hard to come by. I learn something new every day on this site!

Well, a few years back the kids asked what I wanted for my birthday. That is how I got my brand new shiny shop manual. Lol.