SL Hardcopy MB Service Manuals

[Engr693]

I have a question regarding MB service manuals. Specifically the two volumes I occasionally see for sale on ebay.

Are the $19.95 CD's from the Classic Center just copies from the pages of the Chassis and Body manuals?

Or are the hardcopy service manuals different with more and better information?

[230/8]

The $20 factory CD ROMs are very handy and are basically pdf files of the factory service manuals. They are not always complete. I have most of the early model CDs and all of them are incomplete with respect to the information you would find in the paper copies. For example, the 114 manual fails to include many things found in the paper manual, and the others are the same.

By all means pick up the paper manuals if you can find them, but they will be expensive. The CD ROMs are a very good alternative if you cannot find or afford paper. There are some CDs on ebay that are bootlegs of the factory stuff, and there are some that are copies of the dealer reference system. Sometimes folks have a hard time getting these to work on their computer without the dealer software system, others seem thrilled to have them...with the factory CDs so cheap it seems senseless to risk buying bootlegs.

My two-cents.

230/8

[Engr693]

I have the CD from the Classic Center, but have been looking to buy the manuals as they become available on ebay or elsewhere. Just wanted to see if I would be wasting money buying the paper manuals. No sense in having redundancy. From what you say they are more comprehensive. Thanks for the info.

[nobby]

Information is POWER!!!

I have it all and it all contributes to the continual maintenance and preventative maintenance of my SL.

MB CD
Two volume hardcopy manual
Engine manual (M110)
1983 "changes to manual" manual
Current IPC with price list.......(IPC = illustrated parts catalogue)
Hayne's
Chilton's


Probably about $400 total.

[BenzToy]

Originally Posted by nobby

Information is POWER!!!

I have it all and it all contributes to the continual maintenance and preventative maintenance of my SL.

MB CD
Two volume hardcopy manual
Engine manual (M110)
1983 "changes to manual" manual
Current IPC with price list.......(IPC = illustrated parts catalogue)
Hayne's
Chilton's


Probably about $400 total.

as the nomenclature changes

so does the price change

And the library expands continually

[Engr693]

I have:
MB Classic CD
Chiltons
Haynes
Top care booklet
Owners manual - MB reprint
MB Technical Companion

Still expanding the library also

[Roncallo]

I have the 107 CD, it is an unreadable and incomplete POS. And it is mainly written for a 1972 350SL.

I also have the genuine MB 117 Engine manual and a Transmission manual, these are great.

Then I purchased on E-bay a genuine MB publication called "Model Year 1988 (USA) Models 107, 124, 126 and 201". I thought this would give me the rest of what I needed in hard copy, but this turns out to be a manual that just describes changes from the previous year and other half useless and totaly useless bits of information. But it does have good wiring diagrams, but so does the CD.

I am still looking for a hard copy of a chassi manual for my 1986 and 1988 560SL's. This should be a manual that would tell me how to do such things as change engine and subframe mounts, heater cores, overhaul the rearend etc. Does anyone know the title of this manual.

I also belive that the AC is covered in a seperate AC manual, I have seen these on E-bay and I intend to get one.

John Roncallo

[Strife]

It's a shame that the 107 manuals are incomplete (and in some cases - illegible - look at the A/C wiring diagram). In the present DVD era, it should be possible to stick every page of the manual series, with a good index, on a dual-layer DVD (with actual usable diagrams). If it wasn't for the copyright issue, some enterprising person would do it...

[Mike Miller]

I have looked everywhere for a hard copy or CD service manual for my R129 with no luck. Every other model seems to have one, but not the R129. Anybody willing to share

[Roncallo]

Originally Posted by Strife

It's a shame that the 107 manuals are incomplete (and in some cases - illegible - look at the A/C wiring diagram). In the present DVD era, it should be possible to stick every page of the manual series, with a good index, on a dual-layer DVD (with actual usable diagrams). If it wasn't for the copyright issue, some enterprising person would do it...

It is possible but the manuals would have to be created from scratch, not scaned images.

John Roncallo

[2dieseljohn]

I have to interject- I also had some problems finding manuals for my W116. I found compleat sets of Body and Chassis, etc.. at www.books4cars.com somewhat $$$ but very nice to have a hard copy when elbows deep in .....
I have no affilation with the Co.

Good Luck

[Roncallo]

Originally Posted by 2dieseljohn

I have to interject- I also had some problems finding manuals for my W116. I found compleat sets of Body and Chassis, etc.. at www.books4cars.com somewhat $$$ but very nice to have a hard copy when elbows deep in .....
I have no affilation with the Co.

Good Luck

I think this was the guy that kept out bidding me on e-bay for my transmission book.

John Roncallo

[Strife]

Originally Posted by Roncallo

It is possible but the manuals would have to be created from scratch, not scaned images.

John Roncallo

Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Assuming that the original electronic text source no longer exists (if it ever did)...it would be possible to OCR and proofread everything, but this would be an enormous undertaking, and then there would be the formatting and illustration work. No one is going to undertake this at this point. But...

I think space limitations on the CD and maybe the technology of the time limited the dots per inch (DPI) of the scans on the official MB CD. With 12x the space on a dual-layer DVD (maybe 2=24x the space), certainly _all_ the pages could be scanned at a better DPI. If it were done carefully, pages with just text could be scanned low, and pages with illustrations could be done higher, although it looks to me like the screen used to do the print was pretty coarse, so it might not do any good on photos. Diagrams (like the CD's illegible climate control diagrams) might be another story.

Again, if it weren't for the legal issues, I'd buy copies of the manuals, cut the backs off, and feed them through a good scanner - I have a duplexing(double-sided) document feeding scanner/printer right in my house that goes straight to .PDF - and do it right. Certainly, people would be willing to pay for a full complete scan of body 1 and 2, engine, and climate control. It would be worth a lot more than the $10-$20 the present disk fetches, bootleg or not. Wonder if MB would actually permit anyone to do this? They really should do this themselves for archival purposes.

[Bob G]

I found a good source through e-bay. I have been buying manuals from Michael Bratts for 5 years now. He is highly resourcefull in locating out of print nice to mint condition work and parts manuals for Mercedes-benz automobiles. I trust him and have never had a problem with what I purchased from him.

mbratts55@yahoo.com
Ebay vender sphere360.

Bob Geco

[LeaUK]

Why worry about paper manuals when the WIS and EPC are so freely available?

Ebay... or, direct from Russia (with love)