• Protip: Profile posts are public! Use Conversations to message other members privately. Everyone can see the content of a profile post.

Service Manuals Index / Searchable Table of Contents

Joined
11 January 2021
Messages
591
Location
Ontario, Canada
Edit: Up to Chapter 10 so far.

I’ve been using the service manual for a few jobs and the lack of searchability, and a decent index, is killing me. :confused: I have a paper 1995 service manual. All it has is a table of contents for each chapter. I’ve tried the downloadable 1991 and 1997 service manuals in a big pdf, but the text can’t be searched in them, and the 1997-2005 service manual with a zillion linked pdfs keeps crashing.
I note this has been an issue for at least 20 years, but my search of Prime hasn’t found a solution:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...Pages-question?highlight=service+manual+index
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...vice-Guide-PDF?highlight=service+manual+index

I have made a Google doc shared spreadsheet that anyone can access to search for terms and find things in the service manual. I broke the years down into groups (in columns). There may be some more year to year changes, but this should get you close. I left out the first few chapters since they’re more spec based.

Here’s what I propose. When you need to find something in the service manual, check this index spreadsheet doc. You can use the find feature in Google sheets. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, look manually like you always would BUT, when you find it, please update the Google doc for the next guy/gal. Perhaps the MOST important fields may be the rightmost column, “Other search terms”, where people eventually find what they’re looking for and then update the spreadsheet row for the next person who is looking. The heading titles are fairly granular, so please add things to the "Other search terms" column. For example, the ’95 rearview mirror is on p 20-46 but it doesn’t show in the table of contents. The length and number of items are not limited by the width of the column. Things may not appear in the box, but will be found on searches.

Suggestions to improve this are welcome (PM).

I'll keep chipping away at this, but I’m opening it up if anyone else wants to contribute, especially the columns for other year manuals that I don't have. Here is the link you can use to edit the spreadsheet. Do be careful not to erase previous work and note that freeze is activated to allow you to pan right to get your correct year page numbers closest to the text Right now. I may try to add a read-only link in the future to help avoid accidental data erasure:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ykHJU6iBEUlNwdOqOQ6ATgx1aw3YEz4z15_vYl3QKA4/edit?usp=sharing
Also, if you’re on Google & want direct access, pm me your Gmail address & I’ll invite you.
(I really hope this hasn't been done already and I just couldn't find it.)
 
Last edited:
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by drew
https://beta.nsxshop.com/



?



Hallelujah! Off my to-do list!
I'm glad I didn't go any farther, but I wish I was better at searching.
This needs a shoutout in VANSXTC's sticky for new owners in "New Owners & Car History (1st Gen)".
 
Last edited:
There needs to be a consolidation of all the manuals in pdf form.

We also need labor with OCRing existing PDFs if you're up for it.

NSXprime needs a real wiki too.
 
Last edited:
Maybe I'm weird but I really prefer my physical service manual to any PDF, searchable or not.

The funny thing is the manual that consists of hundreds of linked PDFs started out as a single searchable PDF with an integrated table of contents, at least according to the metadata.

Then someone split it into the behemoth that it is today, probably due to internet speeds being much slower and RAM being much more limited back in the day so it kinda makes sense looking back. Does anyone know who initially created it? At some point they would have had access to the full searchable, indexed PDF released by Honda, and maybe they still do?

I've never had it crash though, I just open it with adobe reader and it works alright aside from the constant "opening new document" warnings every time you click anything.
 
Last edited:
> If you find broken or incorrect links, please contact me on NSX Prime (username: oddomatik).
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...anual-now-available-online!-(ongoing-project)

It appears to be analog to digital scan with OCR. There are detached paged manuals out there. Scrape down the data, and consolidate...easy enough, but I don't have a subscription (!) to Adobe. The file names seem to be in format: chapter, page number and an "a" suffix (CCxxxxa.PDF).

As a side note: he did integrate my HTML only parts database that I extracted about 15-20 years ago (I've still got the SQL and code on my machine, but spinning it up would be an effort.)

**

I have some full PDF scans of other NSX manuals...I just have no place to put them.

*


"A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books and no matter what happens books will survive." --Douglas Adams
 
Last edited:
Definitely prefer my hard copy manual when working on the car. A little grease on the pages is better than on my keyboard and I can lay out 3-4 pages from different chapters on my freezer...
That said, I can't search it, so I appreciate the searchable copy to get me to the correct place in the manual. I've wasted quite a while looking for how to dissassemble a couple of things before Drew let me know about https://beta.nsxshop.com/
 
Back
Top