Need to pick up a service manual for the '97 Softail I just got. The Clymer manual was about $35 less than HD. Is there a big difference? Anyone have any experience with Clymer's?

 

Will have most of the information you need to do basic maintenance but the HD one is a lot more precise...I have used a few Clymer manuals for a few Metric bike si had before...they weren't too bad...

 

You pay for what you get. Spent few more dollars and buy HD manual. They
are better and more precise Clymer sometimes skips some proceeders.

 

Some parts of the Clymer manual I have for my wife's bike are awful, just awful. The HD manuals are more complete and I would believe more accurate. My suggestion would be look for a used one on eBay or Craigslist. I picked up a Sporty HD manual for $15 and it was like new.

 

HD manual. There is no substitute.

 

I have always been a proponent of OEM factory manuals. I buy one for every vehicle / boat / bike I have owned and believe there is no substitute for an OEM manual vs. an aftermarket manual.

However, the MoCo '93/'94 FX/FL Softail models official factory manual for my my bike is terrible. Worst one I've ever had. Wiring diagrams are in black and white with something around a 4 point font identifying wire colors and a 6 point font for everything else. I have to stare at it forever with a magnifying glass to be sure I have traced a wire correctly. Funny part is that the diagram for oil flow and for fuel flow are in color.

The index and table of contents has about 1/10 of the entries needed. This really shows up when you go to reassemble something. Instructions say to do this and this and then see the section on X. When you finally find the section on X, it has you do a couple of things and then see the section on Y. The only way to find these sections is to flip through every page in a chapter until you find it. On top of that, the disassembly and assembly of something could be in an entire different section of a chapter. I find myself writing "see page xx" all over in the manual.

Then there's the stuff that's glossed over or just plain missing. When installing my apes a couple weeks ago, I was looking for torque specs on the handlebar risers. There's two pages devoted to the risers for a Springer (which are completely different from the FL) but they don't even mention risers or the torque specs for the FL. While this may be a trivial item, it seems like there's more stuff missing from this manual than is in it. Even worse is when that they don't give step by step of how to install something especially when step D has to be done before step E. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to rip something apart that I just installed because the manual didn't state the importance of a sequence of some part of the installation. I don't have this problem working with other manuals.

On the other hand, I bought a Clymer's for my gf's 2004 Sportster a few years back because it was the only thing available quickly. This manual is many times better than mine; color diagrams, good index, better reference when needing to jump around in the manual even though there's a lot less jumping around required. The Clymer for the Sportster is also 25% thicker than the MoCo for the FLST. There's always the possibility that the MoCo 2004 Sportster manual would be better than the Clymer's and that the 2004 manual is better because it is newer but I've had many old auto manuals, my first one was for a 1973 Pontiac LeMans, which were complete.

*climbs down off soapbox.

 

What he said.

I would also include the HD factory parts manual for your specific model.

 

What he said. I waited 20 years to buy the parts manuals for my bikes and wish I had done so sooner.

 

Both. I've found each have their benefits, but if you have both it's more likley to have everything covered. For the little bit of money, comapred to $75/hr for a shop it's well worth it.

 

For brands where a factory manual is not available a Clymer or Haynes may be all there is, but they are very general, cover a wide range of models and years and either miss or simply don't cover what can be important things. When my wife bought her SuperLow she bought me the factory service manual for it and that's how it should be!