Howdy,
I'm going to buy a 1989 GMC S-15 pickup from my neighbour (the S-15 was the predecessor of the Sonoma, and is identical to the Chevy S-10), provided the road test on Friday goes well. The truck is in fairly rough shape as far as the body goes, but the motor/running gear seems to be in decent shape. The current owner of the truck doesn't have the Owners Manual for the rig, however. I've been looking around the Internet for a copy, but to no avail. I was wondering if anyone here on the Fritter knew of a place where stuff like this was digitized and available for download (if that's even possible - I'm not sure on the copyright issues surrounding this).
Ideally, I would like the manual specific to this model, but any S-10/15 manual from the late 80's would suffice. It's a 1989 GMC S-15 4x4, 4.3L V6 (I don't think it's a Vortec, but I could be wrong), 4-speed automatic, regular cab, long box.
Thanks,
The Czar
Just go out and buy the Haynes manual. It'll have pretty much everything the owner's manual does (except all the "here's how to put the car in gear" part, which should be fairly obvious), plus it'll have more info than you'll ever need for doing your own repairs.
I find that both the Haynes and Chiltons books are good for the most part, but in every one I've owned (three), there's always some omission or glazing over of the particular job you need to do.
For example, I read up on changing the tranny filter in the Escort. Pretty simple job, but I wanted to make sure there were no caveats before I started. No problemo, says Haynes. Easy access, away you go.
So I get my new gasket, fluid, etc., get the car up on ramps, and lo and behold, there's this darn big chunk of frame in the way. I had to undo one of the front motor mounts and jack the engine up just slightly, which gave me clearance to *barely* access the bolts on the filter and slide the filter assembly out.
There was some other comparable 'gotcha' in the K-car manual as well, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.
If you really want the full deal, see if you can find the service manual on ebay. They're expensive, but very thorough.
There's also a chance your local library will have the Haynes, and a very slim chance you'll find the service manual there.
I got a haynes manual for my van... I had to do a tranny swap on it. It has all these nice cutaway diagrams of the different transmissions but absolutely NO info on removing them. I was like WTF?
I have the Ford Factory service manuals on CD-ROM for my '95 Escort and '00 Focus. Those are the stuff. Another good service manual company is Helm. A lot of times, libraries have old car owner's manuals and service manuals available for checkout. If you just want some quick info like fluid capacities, fuse locations, and service intervals, I'd just check one out then Xerox the pages you want.
Another thing would be to check out a chevy truck discussion forum. I am the server admin for a Ford Focus forum (www.focaljet.com) and I know many people would loan you a Focus manual on our forum no problem. FEOA.net (Ford Escort Owners Association) would be the same way. I'm sure there are some friendly forums for light-duty GM trucks.
Howdy,
I posted on a GM truck enthusiast forum GM-Trucks.com and someone pointed me towards My GMLink, where I found a manual for a 1993 Sonoma (essentially the same rig, very little changed from 1988 to 1993.
I also didn't end up getting the 1989. She was rusted too bad (being a truck from the West Coast, that is to be expected I suppose. Being in Alberta, you can hardly buy rust, let alone find it on a well-maintained automobile ;-)). In addition to the rust, the CV boots were missing (huge problem there as it means your CV joints are running dry) and it needed a new ignition control solenoid. All in all, I needed to put in about $1000 worth of work on a truck that was selling for $500, not including the new fenders and doors it would need. It was a pig's breakfast. I ended up going across town yesterday and found a 1990 GMC S-15 High Sierra for $50 more that's a year newer, better equipped, in much better shape and a 5 speed manual (which I prefer).
All in all, it wasn't a bad weekend :-).
Thanks for ya'lls help.
Cheers,
The Czar