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basselam's avatar
basselam
Explorer
Sep 18, 2013

2013 Ford E450 Service Manual

Hi all,
I am looking at the different options to get a service manual for our new coach, the only one I found so far would be the CD/DVD version sold by helm for 170$.

I have a concern regarding this medium, it seems that helm would not replace the DVD if it stops working for some reason (not sure what is the lifespan of a plastic disk, but I have seen them melt in temperatures over 100degrees). And you cannot make a backup copy in case the original gets damaged - blocked by security software.

Any insight into this?

Thanks!

10 Replies

  • rwagner43 wrote:
    I got the service manual and electrical schematics for my 2010 E-450 from e-bay for $50. They were used but in good condition.
    Now you are talking!

    I bought every manual I could find for our 2007 model year, service, schematic, body building, etc. I try to get both soft and hard copies of all and have them on my personal laptop and at work. I take my laptop on trips but not those big books.

    I haven't had trouble yet, but they did help me determine if my chassis was key-fob ready (it is not :( ) and it helped me remove my center rear-view mirror to mount my rear view monitor there.
  • gmctoyman wrote:
    Ron, the manuals for the E series start in 2004, but thanks for the link .
    I just pulled up the 1996 model year manual. I wonder if some model years in between are not available...possibly some holes in their databank.
  • I got the service manual and electrical schematics for my 2010 E-450 from e-bay for $50. They were used but in good condition.
  • Ron, the manuals for the E series start in 2004, but thanks for the link .
  • Download to your home computer, the Owners Manual & Warranty Guide Books free from Ford in pdf format by CLICKING HERE.

    Input the year, make, and model, then hit the "Download" button located a little lower.

    You can get owners manuals as far back as 1996.
  • I would not consider this cheap... ;-) I did this for my car (Subaru), got a 72h subscription and printed the procedures in PDF one by one. Time consuming but at least I can have the instructions for a job either printed or on a tablet.

    I did not consider this option, sounds like the best so far.
  • If you're cheap like me, you could sign up for one month of online service manual access and download the whole thing. It is a bit time consuming to do this but it's cheap.
  • For the official service manual, you need the CD/DVD to be physically present in the hard drive to be able to run the program. Installing the software is not enough. There's no paper copy of the service manual anymore.

    The copy right protection kicks in whenever you try to install the program, it would block any installation from either a backup CD/DVD or a CD/DVD image.

    PDF does the trick though, many thanks for the offer.
  • Hi,

    I have some pdf manuals. Private message me with your email address and I'll send what I have.
  • I've not yet melted a DVD-RAM or data CD, nor have I had one become unreadable. Contents will be at most 8GB, most likely less than 5, and should be something you can copy to hard disk or a thumb drive. Data disks, with respect to copy protection by encryption, are not the same as video DVDs. Copy protection is usually at the wholedisk level, to prevent duplication, rather than preventing installation on a computer.

    Expecting media replacement for a book supplied digitally, in the event of destruction by you, is like expecting the publisher to replace a paper book if you drop it in the water while reading in the tub, or leave it sitting out in the rain.

    Helms no longer offers manuals on paper? I know most shops now keep them on the network server, but didn't know paper was no longer available.