I've been trying to search and find if there is an existing discussion on this but haven't found one. Any ideas on which is the best manual to get? I've read a lot of conflicting reviews on both Chiltons and Haynes. I remember the old Motors Manuals and thought they were great. I have a 1999 XLT 4.0 V6 and want a book that is pretty comprehensive yet doesn't try to cover 10 models of vehicle. The old manuals used to take the truck down to just nuts and bolts then back again. Any ideas?

 

your on the best repair manual.
for like a hard copy, i like the service manual. i dunno who its made by, probably ford. but if you can find one, they have just about every diagram and assembly you'll ever need.

 

Hayne's sucks... it covers from early 90's to 2007ish? Lots of different body styles and engines.. and it's pretty vague. I hate it.

 

I'm finding out you're right Stx...this site is amazing and I'm really liking it.

 

x2 on the service manual, such a great resource

 

Helm Incorporated makes the Ford Service Manuals. Unless you want to pay around 150 for them check ebay.

Here is one for the repairs and testing:
Overall Repair

And here is the one for wiring diagrams:
Wiring

 

+1

Aftermarket manuals from Chilton, Clymer and Haynes are OK for some things but they try to cover too many years with too little book. If you want the best, get the Ford dealer Service Manual and the Ford dealer Wiring Manual (aka EVTM for 98-back). There is a dedicated issue of the S/M and W/M for every model year of each vehicle line - 1000's of pages in the service manual, hundreds in the wiring manual.

The Shop Manuals come up on eBay occasionally but it may require patience to find a good deal. Wiring Manuals are usually much easier to find. Expect to pay $40~80 on eBay for a used S/M, $5~20 for a used W/M.

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For hardcore emission, driveability and trouble code problems, there is also the Powertrain Control/Emissions Diagnostic binder, sometime referred to as the "H" Manual. It provides system descriptions, step-by-step diagnostic charts and sample voltage values for just about anything related to the PCM. Ford publishes one per model year and it covers the entire gasoline car and truck range for that model year (diesels get a separate manual). Much harder to find on eBay but may show up now and then. Price varies.

 

buy them all i got a oem service manual for 20 bucks on ebay i got a hayes and chilton and if i had money i would get mitchel ondemand 5 but lucky for me i get access to it at school it gives an idea on labor and parts cost and also does the tsb recall thing but also many common problems and fixes

 

Thank you all for your help on this, and taking the time to give me your thoughts. Guess I might by the Chiltons for now 'cause they're dead cheap then keep looking around on Ebay for the shop manuals. The shop manuals look to be the way to go.

 

Yeah Hayne's is WAYYY vague.

 

if you're of the Downloading persuasion, you can sometimes find these manuals on torrent sites and could print yourself out a copy at work.

just a cheaper suggestion

 

Its how i got my wiring manual for work. so i know they're out there.

 

The Ford manuals are the best, bar none. They are made by Ford engineers (production outsourced to Helm, as noted above) for use by Ford technicians in their dealerships.

There are three important books you should get:

Service Manual (covers most all mechanical repairs)
Electrical, Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual (EVTM, covers all electrical and vacuum diagrams)
Powertrain Control / Emissions Diagnosis (PC/ED, covers all drivability problems, and is easily the most useful of the three for diagnosing issues.)

 

i have both a haynes and a chiltons. between the both of them, normally got everything i need.

 

x2 i got access to mitchell at school its great most of the information is straight from ford

 

I just ordered the Helm manuals myself. While I haven't received the Ranger manuals yet, I have owned them for other makes and models and they were an excellent resource. Not cheap, but worth it if you plan to do any significant work on your vehicle.

I know this is an older thread, but I wanted to add a little information for those interested in the Helm manuals with late model Rangers. I have been looking for a set for my 2011 for a long time now. The problem I have had with trying to source them on eBay is the limited supply. There are usually few sellers and the prices are usually much higher than the Helm prices. I have found a couple other sources outside eBay, but they are asking for similar premiums and have long lead times.

I need them soon and can wait no longer, so I decided to go ahead and buy a set for the best price I could find today. I only found one seller with auctions for the 2011 Helm manuals today. For the workshop manual (both volumes), they were asking for a 30% premium over the Helm price. For the wiring manual, they were asking for a 70% premium. They gave you a break for buying them all together, but still well above Helm prices. They were OBO auctions, so you can probably get them for less than that… but you will have to get them to come down significantly just to get them at the Helm prices. And even if you do, there was a significant handling time on some of those (10 days).

So, I decided to buy them direct from Helm. There seems to be an issue with their website which prevents looking up the part numbers for Ranger manuals (seems to be working fine for other makes and models). The page just hangs after selecting Ranger as the model. It happened to me with multiple web browsers. I recall checking their site a long time ago for these manuals and ran into a similar issue. I believe I reported the issue back then and never heard back from them. Perhaps this ongoing issue is why those third parties are able to get premiums for the manuals.

If you are trying to buy these manuals from Helm and encounter the same problem, I found a workaround until they fix it. I took the URL for a successful Honda Civic manual query and edited the query parameters to try and get a listing of the Ford Ranger manuals. I did't figure out the query value for the Ranger model though, so the best I got was a listing of all 2011 Ford manuals (that URL is below). Then I just sifted through the results to get the 2011 Ranger manuals. You can change the year in the URL to your year model.

Helm Incorporated: Search Results

Also, if you already know the item number for your manual, searches by item number on their site seem to be working just fine.

The 2011 manuals were in stock and I had no problems ordering them once I knew the item numbers. About an hour after my order, Helm indicated they had already shipped and provided the tracking number. Much better than the long lead times from those third parties asking much higher prices.

 

I have both Haynes and Chiltons and agree that combined they work well.

 

Some workshop & repair manuals for Ford Ranger you can find here: https://carmanualsclub.com/ford-rang...epair-manuals/

 

None of those manuals are for the North American Ford Ranger