Shop Manuals

[Florian Feuser /FFF/]

A while ago I bought the Shop manuals on CD off someone on eBay.
The manuals and diagrams come in .PDF format (seem to be scanned - therefore not
searchable) broken into a multitude of files with filenames that do not give you
a cue as to the content.

I assume, the files are linked to from an html index file which may be part of
the original shop manual CD ROM but I assume are missing if you've downloaded
via subaru.com subscription or purchased the same I have.

The usability of these files is really limited without the index file; my
question is if someone here has that file or has gone through the pain of
creating your own index.

Florian

 

[oothlagre]

I actually downloaded mine from the site techinfo.subaru.com These are also
in .pdf format with ambiguous filenames. It actually made it hard to
download them because I did not have an easy way to reference where my last
download ended and where the next should begin.

The manual is broken down into sections, engine, body, powertrain, etc. Then
there are sub-sections there such as fuel-injection, engine lubrication,
etc. What I did when I was downloading was create a folder hierarchy to
match the layout on the web site to sort my files into sections. I still
have the ambiguous filename problem. So at this point I am looking at going
back through the website and rename each file to reflect what it is for.
That is quite a project, because the complete manual I have is nearly 500
files.

For now, a lot of the sections have only a dozen or so files, so once I am
in the folder for the section I need, it is a matter of searching through a
dozen or so files to find the one I need.

I am thinking of offering my CD on EBay or perhaps a different way as well
after I get it all finished. I have the complete manual for 1996 Impreza.
Any thoughts on this?

I also did not see anything in the way of an index file on the site. You do
have the option to buy all the .pdfs on CD for $199. I figured for 72 hours
@ $20 mine was a steal. I got the entire '96 manual and 2/3 of the '93 in
that amount of time.

 

[Doug Warner]

A while ago I bought the Shop manuals on CD off someone on eBay.
The manuals and diagrams come in .PDF format (seem to be scanned - therefore not
searchable) broken into a multitude of files with filenames that do not give you
a cue as to the content.

Does this mean that owners can't buy the full set of shop manuals on
paper from Subaru? If this is true, then Subaru is on my new car
blacklist, along with Volvo.

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@"
Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

 

[Ned Pike]

In

A while ago I bought the Shop manuals on CD off someone on eBay.
The manuals and diagrams come in .PDF format (seem to be scanned -
therefore not searchable) broken into a multitude of files with
filenames that do not give you a cue as to the content.

I assume, the files are linked to from an html index file which may
be part of the original shop manual CD ROM but I assume are missing
if you've downloaded via subaru.com subscription or purchased the
same I have.

The usability of these files is really limited without the index
file; my question is if someone here has that file or has gone
through the pain of creating your own index.

Florian

Google for this (including quotation marks) "4 - Transmission.pdf" and
you'll find several links to the 2002 US WRX service manual.

 

[Nicolas Dore]

I actually downloaded mine from the site techinfo.subaru.com These are also
in .pdf format with ambiguous filenames. It actually made it hard to
download them because I did not have an easy way to reference where my last
download ended and where the next should begin.

The manual is broken down into sections, engine, body, powertrain, etc. Then
there are sub-sections there such as fuel-injection, engine lubrication,
etc. What I did when I was downloading was create a folder hierarchy to
match the layout on the web site to sort my files into sections. I still
have the ambiguous filename problem. So at this point I am looking at going
back through the website and rename each file to reflect what it is for.
That is quite a project, because the complete manual I have is nearly 500
files.

For now, a lot of the sections have only a dozen or so files, so once I am
in the folder for the section I need, it is a matter of searching through a
dozen or so files to find the one I need.

I am thinking of offering my CD on EBay or perhaps a different way as well
after I get it all finished. I have the complete manual for 1996 Impreza.
Any thoughts on this?

I also did not see anything in the way of an index file on the site. You do
have the option to buy all the .pdfs on CD for $199. I figured for 72 hours
@ $20 mine was a steal. I got the entire '96 manual and 2/3 of the '93 in
that amount of time.

I may be able to help: I built a script that can spider the techinfo
site to download PDFs and build a javascript or an HTML menu. They
both make the manual MUCH easier to use...

If you can tell me which model/year you have, confirm that the file
names you have are similar to the names on the techinfo site (for
example, the PDF for "Specifications And Service Data- Awd System" for
the 1996 Impreza, is under "1996 IMPREZA SUPPLEMENT > AWD System" and
is named "29660.pdf") and that your PDFs are all in one big directory,
with no structure, I can build the menus without downloading files
(and needing to subscribe...) and send you the menu files.

Hope this helps.

Nicolas

 

[oothlagre]

I have the Impreza 1996 manual. I left the .pdfs with the ambiguous
filenames that you mentioned. I did build a folder hierarchy for the files,
but I can copy them to one large folder with no problems.

 

[oothlagre]

You can buy the manual for $199.

--
Henry Paul

A while ago I bought the Shop manuals on CD off someone on eBay.
The manuals and diagrams come in .PDF format (seem to be scanned - therefore not
searchable) broken into a multitude of files with filenames that do not give you
a cue as to the content.

Does this mean that owners can't buy the full set of shop manuals on
paper from Subaru? If this is true, then Subaru is on my new car
blacklist, along with Volvo.

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@"
Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

 

[John O]

I am thinking of offering my CD on EBay or perhaps a different way as well

after I get it all finished. I have the complete manual for 1996 Impreza.
Any thoughts on this?

Just one, SoA's copyright. If you do a nice CD, there's always the chance
that SoA will shut down your sale if you don't have permission to reproduce
the material.

--My company does this regularly, as we still sell manuals and all our
copyrights are in place and valid.

-John O

 

[Nicolas Dore]

Sounds good. I think it would be easier if you copied them all into a flat
folder, as I don't know what structure you used... :-/

I'll build the file later today, just email me at the address in this post
so I know where to send the zip (only a few KBs).

Nicolas

 

[Nicolas Dore]

From the techinfo site's FAQ:

Can hardcopy manuals be ordered from this site and shipped all over
the world?
Currently, you can order manuals from this site to be shipped to
residents of the
Continental United States only. For items shipping to other countries,
please call
"Service Technical Information Company" Help Desk at (866) 428-2278 for
availability and shipping quotes.

Nicolas

 

[Todd H.]

You can buy the manual for $199.

That's not bad, actually.

 

[oothlagre]

I already thought of that. I was thinking along the lines of compensation
for putting it together, CD, shipping, etc. Not trying to charge for the
material itself.

 

[John O]

I already thought of that. I was thinking along the lines of compensation

for putting it together, CD, shipping, etc. Not trying to charge for the
material itself.

From a copyright standpoint, that doesn't matter.

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

-John O

 

[oothlagre]

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to stick with BUYING them on EBay then.

 

[Florian Feuser /FFF/]

I may be able to help: I built a script that can spider the techinfo
site to download PDFs and build a javascript or an HTML menu. They
both make the manual MUCH easier to use...

I have the .PDFs in what I believe is the proper directory structure.

Does your script spider the site for links to .pdf files and parse a list of
their associated natural-language links?

Florian

 

[Verbs Under My Gel]

A while ago I bought the Shop manuals on CD off someone on eBay.
The manuals and diagrams come in .PDF format (seem to be scanned - therefore not
searchable) broken into a multitude of files with filenames that do not give you
a cue as to the content.

I assume, the files are linked to from an html index file which may be part of
the original shop manual CD ROM but I assume are missing if you've downloaded
via subaru.com subscription or purchased the same I have.

The usability of these files is really limited without the index file; my
question is if someone here has that file or has gone through the pain of
creating your own index.

Florian

Use the website to find the name(s) of the file(s) you need.

 

[Nicolas Dore]

Yes, it produces folders and files with meaningful names. The problem with
the structure is that it is very hard to match an existing structure to
links in a menu. It is much easier to do it if all the files are in the same
folder.

Like Henry Paul, if you tell what model/year you need I can get you the menu
for it.

Nicolas