Mercedes-Benz: Coupes/Sedans/Wagons 1974-84 (Chilton's Total Car Care Repair Manual)

I just recently purchased this manual to work on a 1980 300D that
I bought from a friend. I needed to replace the starter, so I got this book.

I purchased this book sight unseen because repair manuals are
almost always shrink wrapped at autoparts stores (I now think
this may be because the books often stink, so they don't want
potential customers to find this out beforehand and not
purchase the book).

So - how'd it play out?

The instructions for removing the starter were (paraphrased,
but only slightly condensed):
1) Disconnect battery
2) Remove electrical connections from the starter
3) Remove the two bolts holding the starter to the bell
housing.
4) You might need to turn the wheels to the left or to the
right to get the starter to clear.

Here's what the instructions neglected to mention since they
were written in the generic for the 50 trillion different
mercedes models (gas and electric):
1) The two bolts are really hard to get to, and will quite
possibly be really torqued on. I was able to get the
lower bolt to let go only after applying lots of thread
penetrating oil and lots of heat from a propane torch.
NOTE: You really can't get a breaker bar in there to
undo the bolts.
2) Should you actually manage to get the bolts off, you will
find that it is nigh impossible to get the starter out
from the bottom of the car (keep in mind this is the
case for a 1980 300D - your car may be easier, but my
point is, the manual made ZERO mention of this beyond
the useless turn the wheels directive)

I ended up removing the battery, battery tray (4 bolts, not
hard), and the intake manifold (harder but doable). Once I did
this, the two bolts holding the starter to the engine block were
relatively easy to get to (I still had to use a bendy head and
shaft ratchet).

Let me re-iterate, the Chilton's manual had no model specific
instructions and thus did not help me with this task.

Other areas where the manual was sadly lacking (either because
the information is just not there, or because it's not findable
from the index or via skimming):
- No mention as to where the oil pressure sender is, much less
if it has an electrical connection or a pressure connection
to the instrument cluster
- The instructions for removing the intake manifold were
missing if you went by the section headers (only intake
manifold removal instructions were for the gas V8). The
instructions in the exhause manifold section were sortof
right, but they didn't make any mention of the EGR valve
on the underside of the manifold, much less how to
disconnect the tube between the intake and the exhaust.

On the whole, I feel that too much of this book is wasted on
generic car stuff (eg. rotating tires) and trying to cover too
many models in one place.

Chilton's manuals used to be the car "bible", but sadly this
doesn't appear to be the case anymore.

I'm buying the Haynes manual (though I hear that Chilton's
parent company now owns Haynes as well - hope they don't go down
the tubes too)
- diesel, 123 series isbn: 0856966975

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Very General Book - Few Specifics  Dec 29, 2002
AsI suspected whenI bought this book, it covers too many models and is far too thin on the ground. It is little better than a general maintenance book. In contrast to the Robert Bentley manuals which are 5 star+, I found this book to be of almost no practical value.

14 of 15 found the following review helpful:

Don't get your hopes up  Jul 31, 2001
This book is not all that bad. This is better than the Haynes manual any day. Its problem is that it is too vague. The only things it covers are the basic mechanical aspects. If you are having problems with say the vacuum system for the door locks on a 79 450sl, there is nothing. They lead you to believe that they have complete vacuum diagrams. In fact, most of the vacuum system is NOT covered.