March 6, 2001


i'm a big nerdy nerd.
So, because I have no life whatsoever, I spent the entire evening tonight chatting with people online and reading through the new Suzuki service manual (this is made even more pathetic by the fact that the person I was mostly talking to lives like six blocks from me).

This service manual rocks. I have seen the light, and it is this service manual. This service manual has relatively easy-to-understand text (with only the occasional non-native-english-speaker descent into grammar hell). It has pictures. Nice pictures.

You know how much I love you? I'm going to scan in some of these pictures, so that you too can know the joy that is this service manual. This is probably illegal, but I risk it for you.

Later

Well, OK, I scanned in one page before the karmic boomerang reared its ugly head and caused my scanner to freeze up. So here it is, in all its glory:

Changing the oil.
yes, i know it's big. i wanted y'all to see it. quit complaining.

See what I mean? It even has a little section in the back with pictures of every tool they talk about in the manual; whenever a specific tool is mentioned in the text, they put in a little toolbox icon and tell you exactly what kind of tool they mean (i.e "Tool: 09915-40610: Oil filter wrench"). Whenever there's some measurement you need to take, they put in a little graphlike icon and tell you what the measurement should be (i.e. "Data: Engine idle speed: 1,300 +/- 100 rpm"). I bet you all wish you had Suzukis now too.

I'm literally reading the manual cover to cover, just because I can, and it's cool. I paid particular attention to the steering column section of the manual, and was pleased to see Suzuki advising me to use a chisel for the steering stem lower bearing inner race. This was accompanied by a picture of a steering stem with a race on it, looking very familiar, and a huge ass chisel wedged right under it. This made me very pleased. None of this "pull the race off with your hand" bullshit like the Clymers tried to feed me. None of this "use a screwdriver to pry off the race if you can't pull it off" mumbojumbo. Nosiree. You take a *chisel* to that race. Someday I'll see a manual with a person attacking the stem with a chainsaw, or even a blowtorch, and then my life will be complete.

It made me nervous how many times I saw the word "bearings" in the Suzuki manual, though. I'll even have to remove bearings to take the front wheel off. The bearings are laughing at me.

I'm going to stop this entry right now, before we all truly realize how sad it is that I've spent all night in supreme ecstacy over a manufacturer's service manual.


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