Doing it myself

[Gabbyinda602]

Where can I get a very detailed know how on fixing and maintaining? Everyone keeps telling me my car is special, and i need to take care of it. Am i getting in way over my head in trying to maintain the car myself?

 

[olympic]

Here's a couple of sources:

Factory service manual from ebay or www.helminc.com

www.shotimes.com

60k video from www.shonutperformance.com

 

[sdpatt]

Welcome to the Forum. You can use the search tool available at the upper right of the Forum's pages to find out a great deal of information on many of the normal service items and most common parts failures. These cars are getting older and we are defining the lifetimes of many of the components. Join in the fun.

 

[rangerj]

Gabby,

If you have the basic automotive mechanical skills there is no reason why tou cannot do most upkeep items yourself.

If your automotive mechanical skills are minimal, but you have the desire to do the work, look around your area for a vocational school that does adult education in auto mechanics.

rangerj

 

[luigisho]

There is alot of support available for these cars. They do require some maintenance. Don't let it scare you.

 

[shojuan]

Gabbyinda602:
Where can I get a very detailed know how on fixing and maintaining? Everyone keeps telling me my car is special, and i need to take care of it. Am i getting in way over my head in trying to maintain the car myself?

Do you have basic hand tools or are you willing to buy them? How about a place to safely work on your car? Between those things, the desire to do it yourself, and the support you can get on the forum here you'll have a pretty solid base. The Helms manuals are very nice to have. You should think about getting a set. It wouldn't hurt to take your time to find a really good deal on a used set of those manuals unless you're in a real hurry. Read the guides here. There are some links in my sig. Check out the care and feeding sections on http://www.shotimes.com as well. I don't think you're getting in over your head by trying to do it yourself. As long as you've got the free time you're willing to spend when the need or desire arises you'll be far better off over the long term than if you just pay somebody else to do the work.

 

[jasonty]

I bought this car my senior year of high school, and it broke A LOT! I spent $2000 in repairs my first 3 months of owning it, then I went broke and learned how to fix it myself. Then I got pretty good at it and joined the Air Force to be a car mechanic. They sent me to school for 4 months, and now I've been doing this stuff for 4 years. Lots of us on the forum have pretty good mechanical backgrounds, and everyone seems happy to help someone in need around here. Welcome to a great community.

 

[SHOTerror]

I have the mechanic manual, and i'll tell you what I never look at that thing, this forum is such an awsome resourse it blows all the others out of the water... I think it would be a great idea to pull all the awsome FAQs people have made with pictures on the forum and put it together as a book and sell it and all procedes go to keeping this forum alive. thumbs_u

<small>[ March 23, 2003, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: SHOTerror ]</small>