New to the 1800 world, open for suggestions to a basic repair manual. Chitons, Haynes, others? Thanks to all who reply. Cris Irvin

In addition to others comments, you should subscribe to Vclassics. they also have the webzine, but When I recently had to do front bushings on a 122 I was able to take the hardcopy with me in the garage. Lot's of good sound tech advice from people that actually work on their cars. Besides that Phil Singher and his cadre of writers are great people and I like to help support them when I can.

Cris;

Dittos to George, Chiltons are suitable for recycling only...Autobooks 122 manual is also very good and includes 1800 (and FI).

if you have a late model 1800 (69-73 S,E,ES) the ideal manuel to get is a manuel made by volvo for that year of car: 1970 part# 7776022-1, 1971 prt#7776025-4, 1972 prt#7776028-8, 1973 prt#7776031-2. if you can't get one of these, then a chilton's or a haynes' will surfice.

if you have an early model 1800 (61-68 P,S) the best manuel to get is the one put out by floyd clymer publications(222 north virgil avenue, los angeles, ca. 90004). it is very good to have. ipd (1-800-444-6473 or ipdusa.com) used to sell reprints of this.

ipd also sells copies of bill webb's swedish iron aka volvo 1800 (an 1800 nut's must have)

also, go to vsa.org

good luck,

ryan

tulsa, ok.

Chilton is trash, Haynes is pretty good.

Chilton uses mostly generic info from GM.

I actually have a Chiltons titled Volvo 2 that I have found to be quite helpful. It covers the 1800, 160, and 140 series from 70 to 73. Sorry, don't know specific Library of Congress code or anything. I agree that the Chiltons that covers from 70 to 93 or whatever is terrible, but they aren't all that way. Mine's even hard bound and has a lot of pics from Volvo advertisements of the various cars in scenic coastal areas.

A bit hasty in my reply. I also have a Haynes. The best. Also an old Autobooks manual that came with the car. Much is repeated between the 2, but sometimes it's nice to have a different perspective. Finally, I have a neat old Clymer book that's sized exactly like a boy scout manual. It's huge, goes back to the days of B14(!!!) and has plenty of pictures. Not very useful for cars after 62 or 63, but it's not for that. I just like to look at it.

I don't think you can make a perfect manual (considering they

are mostly written when cars are new and there is little in the

way of real-world failure experience to let you know what kinds

of repairs will be required most frequently. I think I would have

to say that the Chilton manual was done by the generic "checklist"

method and when all the blocks were checked they went to press.

There is some good info in there but it is not nearly as good,

nor as complete as the Haynes manual (nor as fun to read). The

green Volvo manuals are the best that I know of but still have

a few shortcomings. Because of the problem cited above, the LATEST

issue of a Volvo manual for a certain car may be better than the

older one. I really don't know how much updating they do but I'm sure

that they do some.