Who has '04 or '05 Service Manual updates? Please help me correct Prime's updates and create year-specific versions.

[Wild Turkey]

Addendum re work in progress 2024/07/15: 97 Manual & Yearly Updates Checked:

1997: missing 11:65-106. Other omissions?
1998: Updates received from @centerpunch. Working on stitching.
1999: Updates received from @centerpunch.
2000: missing 11:48-56, 11:59-72, 11:74-88, 14:2-5, 19:4-5, 19:13-28, 23:4-28, 23:30-33, 23:36-38. All missing pages scanned.
2001: Updates received from @centerpunch.
2002: missing 4:-7, 11:3-5 (1st set), 11:32-35, 23:4-28, 23:30-33, 23:36-39, 23:51, 23:54-57, (almost all of what's missing would be in the electrical manual)
Oddly, Prime pdf includes 17:18-30, all about Manual Steering, which is not in the hard copy version. Could they be from the 2001 Update? Were any manual steering NSX's made after 1995 other than the 1999 Zanardi/Type S's?
2003: Appears complete. Just missing 4:2-7 (Maint schedule, only ref changes) - Thanks @The King !
2004:
2005:

For 1998+ NSX's, the service manual is a bit of a challenge. The last complete service manual is 1997; 1997+ years use the 1997 service manual with yearly updates. Fortunately, the 1997 manual ,and the updates, are (mostly) available on prime:
https://www.nsxprime.com/resources/factory-service-manuals.11/
I have noted the page [HASH=1429]#’s[/HASH] for the start of each update as well as the 1997 SM starting p 375.

The issues:

1. The yearly updates are NOT CUMULATIVE. The new ABS system and wiring changes are detailed in the 2000 update, but not in 2001, or 2002. The 2000 update is missing the updates from 1998, OBD II/Honda PGM reader etc. So you need to get and review every yearly update up to your year. With a 2004 NSX, that could be a lot of checking?
2. The 1997 SM pdf is incomplete, missing pages 11-65 thru 11-106.
3. The 1997 SM is missing the Table of Contents page for every chapter. The index at the back seems to be from 2005.
4. Some yearly updates in the prime document are also incomplete. I only have the hard copy 2000 Update to compare to the Prime document, but for 2000, the electronic document on Prime is MISSING 92 PAGES from the bound 2000 update. Are other years similar?
5. The updates are paged by chapter, but restart the page numbers, not keyed to the pages they replace, so you need to look at the update text, section headings, and diagrams to see what applies to the section you're working on. I added electronic markings to mine of the original pages they replace.
6. (Minor) The printed copies are now only available in a large book form that does not stay open easily - not as handy as looseleaf pages in a 3-ring binder?

So: Is there an appetite to produce more correct document/documents? I applied the Prime 1998 updates to the Prime 1997 manual to make a 1998 manual and saved it. (Yes, that takes a while, with a lot of checking.) I then applied the 1999 updates to that to get a 1999 SM, and then 2000, before noticing the missing pages from my printed 2000 manual that were not included in the Prime document and wondering about my 1998-1999 updates.

As I see it, this is what we need to make updated pdf documents to print at your leisure and put in a binder (or skip printing some sections, like the AT chapter if you have a 6-speed) and also just have one document to look at, without consulting up to 8 update books. So I'm looking for folks who could:

1. For the 1997 document, someone with the printed 1997 SM would need to scan the Table of Contents for each chapter & send it to me as a pdf. Try to scan in "OCR" or "text recognition" mode.
2. For the 1997 document, someone with the printed 1997 SM would need to scan pages 11-65 thru 11-106 & send it to me as a pdf.
3. If anyone is aware of any other omissions from the 1997 SM, please let me know.
4. For 98, 99, 01, and 03-05, someone who has a printed copy would need to compare their print copy to the document on Prime. If any pages are missing, they would need to be scanned and sent to me. I've checked 2000 but not scanned the missing pages yet.
5. It would be helpful if someone who is familiar with the 2000+ ABS system could have a look at chapter 19 in my updated 2000 pdf. I’ve swapped and added the obvious pages, but there are a few pages that I suspect should be deleted, but I’m not sure enough to delete them. Specifically: do 2000 update pages 19-6 & 19-7, “ABS Control Unit Terminal Arrangement”, replace 19-42 & 19-43, or 19-44 & 19-45, or all four pages of 19-42, 19-43, 19-44, & 19-45? But I also wonder if there are any other pages or diagrams that should be removed. Let me know if you're willing & I'll send over the document.
6. The Prime SM document is searchable, thankfully, so it is not just a collection of images, but has most of the text in it as “text”, to be “found”. If someone can send me a PM on how to ensure that the other stuff we scan as part of this project is also searchable, I would appreciate it. I’m not an Adobe expert – I don’t even have the full version so I use Apple Preview to insert/delete pages and the mark-up feature to add the original related page [HASH=1429]#’s[/HASH] to the update pages. Apple Preview allows adding individual pages from one pdf to another and deleting individual pages from a pdf fairly easily so that's what I've used to make the 1998, 1999, & 2000 cumulative manuals that I've made so far.

Interested to receive any other suggestions, Tim

 

[The King]

Tim

When I got my 2003 I ordered the 1997 manual. I also got the 2003 supplement, the 1995 body repair manual, and the 97-04 electrical troubleshooting manual. At the time I didn't realize that I should have got the supplements for the in between years also. I would be willing to chip in with some money for your cause so I could get what I'm missing. Also let me know if what I currently have could help your efforts!

 

[Old Guy]

With respect to your question #6, when you scan the document it has to be scanned and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) applied to convert the image to text. Depending on the scanner and supporting software it may need to be scanned first then OCR applied or you may need to indicate that it is to be scanned as a text file at the time of scanning. These days, if you have a desk top laser printer / scanner most seem to come with some form of OCR software (you may have to dig for it). I have a Brother laser printer / scanner and the included application does a fairly good job of text conversion on good scans. OCR text conversion will make the document searchable for text. The function of creating an active link from an index page to the actual page is something that resides in Acrobat (if you are using .pdf) and I think you need Acrobat professional for that. I can (or used to be able) to do that in MS Word; but, I don't know that the links would survive the export to .pdf format. You also need to generate the links on the whole completed document so conversion of the existing .pdf files to .docx, linking in Word and then exporting back to .pdf may not work. Assuming you want to retain the .pdf format I think you will need to explore the Acrobat Professional functionality.

I have the 1997 manual and 2000 supplement so theoretically could help with #1 and #2. I say theoretically for two reasons. The small issue is right now the manuals are locked up in the car which is in secure storage so I will not have access to them until mid April. That is a small issue. The big issue is that they are bound copies of the manual. That means that, short of cutting the manual apart, the pages will not lay flat when being scanned and that really throws a wrench into the OCR software works. In order to get a good scan that the OCR software doesn't choke on (at least my software) the scanned text images need to be rectilinear (nothing that looks like those swirly Captcha images thank-you). I have on occassion scanned pages from my service manual to create a couple of pages to work from and the edge text and images were significantly distorted. The later versions of the service manuals that came from Helms were all issued on loose leaf for insertion in a three ring binder. If you can find someone with the later loose leaf version of the service manuals that would be ideal because the pages will lay flat for good OCR conversion and with a good scanner you can use the auto feed function to eliminate the tedious scan a page at a time. I recall that good scanners will flip and collate double sided originals.

If you can source a loose leaf originals, a good copy shop may be able to scan the originals into a collated .pdf text file which is searchable and linkable; but, you may need Acrobat Pro to add the links in later. This would be the way to go because scanning and merging individual files is not without its problems sometimes requiring a lot of manual intervention (merging files can really mess with the formatting particularly if they were created from scans) . Staples might be a good place to check out in terms of finding out costs and what they can do for you. As an observation, even if all you do is want to combine scanned .pdfs provided by other Prime members to make one complete document I think you are going to need Acrobat Pro since the free version has the file merge function blocked. I am a Linux / Windows guy so I can't comment on how that Apple Preview thing would work.

It appears that Helms no longer publishes any of the first gen NSX service manuals. A brief search on line indicates that the full 1997 service manual in paper appears to be un obtainable. Pro Car Manuals claims claims to have a .pdf of the 1997 service manual; but, a quick look at it shows that it seems to be one of the versions that is mixed up and missing a lot of parts. The big challenge might be finding someone with a loose leaf version of the 1997 manual who is willing to share it or have it scanned in.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Thanks @The King for comparing the 2003 update pages in the prime pdf to your printed copy.

Thanks @Old Guy for the info on scanning and I will start trying things with my scanner, a recent "home-office" Epson 2830. I'm not too worried about the embedded links working, since they don't work too well in the original and I'm not willing to fix a couple of thousand of them. They wouldn't work in the print copy anyway.

 

[Honcho]

I think this is a wonderful idea and we will fully support it. I can make whoever needs it into a "Librarian" with access to edit and update the library. I'll probably have to do a training session over Zoom for you guys.

 

[nfaiz]

I have acrobat pro from my last job if you guys need someone to merge the documents.

 

[Wild Turkey]

I've scanned the missing pages from 2000, 400 DPI, but the Epson OCR software has difficulties with it, so there will be no searching of those pages. Apparently doesn't work well with "small fonts" or "text in tables", which is most of what the SM is, ironically.

Can other software scan my pdf & OCR it?

 

[vivanshah]

I have a 1997 complete manual and a 2001 update. I can dedicate some time to this in March

 

[Wild Turkey]

Bump. Anyone with the updates, especially '98 & '99, willing to compare them to our Prime service manual?

New idea: PM me if you'd be willing to loan them to me and I'll check them, scan any discrepancies, & courier them back to you.

 

[centerpunch]

Bump. Anyone with the updates, especially '98 & '99, willing to compare them to our Prime service manual?

New idea: PM me if you'd be willing to loan them to me and I'll check them, scan any discrepancies, & courier them back to you.

I have 98, 99, 03, 05, in hand, and allegedly 2000 en route.