news & reviews:

Workshop manuals.

You know the score, it's Sunday afternoon, it's raining and there's a job that just can't be put off on the Land Rover.  Out comes the trusty workshop manual so you can get it done but, what's this?? ...it isn't covered in the manual.

It's a familiar scenario, one that I've come across loads of times and when this happens you end up making either:

a) a best guess,

b) a complete hash up of it,

or

c) the decision to 'do it next weekend'.

Well, we've found workshop manuals that you don't need to anymore.  This isn't an advertising feature but, to be honest, if someone had told us about these manuals years ago it would have saved me a lot of time, effort and aggravation.  The manuals we're talking about are the 'Land Rover Repair Operation manual' and the 'Land Rover Parts Catalogue'.

The Repair Operation manual covers everything you could possibly wish for and it's precisely explained and has good diagrams, although sometimes it can be a little technical.  At first glance, when trying to do something, the instructions can seem a little daunting - but don't let that put you off.  Once you get stuck into it the instructions all fall into place.  I've just managed to rebuild my Series III gearbox, successfully I might add, and it's the first gearbox I've rebuilt - ever (and I'm certainly no gearbox expert, although I'm getting better now!!).

The Parts Catalogue is, in it's own right, handy for ordering parts as it has all the Land Rover part numbers for each individual item so you know exactly what you need and what numbers you should be getting per part.  But, it has a secondary use and that's as a backup for the repair operation manual.  You see, every component has an exploded diagram that can be used to 'see' how it fits together.  Combined with the Repair Operation manual no job should be to daunting and you should not be unable to fix any problem (obviously within your own limitations).

We buy our manuals from brooklandsbooks.com. (But you can also buy them, online, from amazon.co.uk by searching for the publisher and keywords: Brooklands Books (publisher) and Rover (keyword).  This gives you a comprehensive list of nearly 100 to choose from).

Something to suit everyone I think you'll agree.

Points to note:

• Range Rover is a separate section from Land Rover
• We are talking about the Workshop Manuals and not the Owners Workshop manuals.  (My Series III manual has the bright Green cover).
• Brooklands Books claim they always have every title in stock and they dispatch each order within 12 working hours.

>back to news & reviews