I have collected 4 Haynes manuals over the years, of which I recently have questioned it's accuracy. Two books have a spark plug wire diagram in the first section under "Routine Maintenance", and two books don't have the diagram at all.

Tuning my GT the other day, I replaced the plug wires and cap with Fiero Store wires and the premium Borg Warner cap with brass tips from PepBoys.

Installing the wires, I followed the diagram in the Haynes manual. Apparently plug #1, on the cap diagram is one position off. It should be counter clockwise by one position.

I followed the diagram, but had to adjust the distributor by one plug stem position to set the timing correctly, turning the cap til the ignition module was facing rearward, not toward the EGR.

I then moved all plug wires counterclockwise by one position, and everything worked perfectly. The wires also could be routed properly too.

Given I pulled everything apart at the start, counting on the Haynes to assist me for reassembly, I never noted the way it was prior.

A picture in the Haynes shows the V6 engine bay. My "corrected" wiring matches the photo perfectly.

I think the Haynes diagram is wrong, and was deleted from reprinted books....Yes? Anyone else experience this?

BTW: the Fiero Store wire set is definitely a winner. "Perfectly" match wire lengths to the factory original set. The red color is close to original too. $35 +$7 in shipping. Well worth it.

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Ron Dittmer - Driving A Mint 88GT, Automatic, Medium Red Metallic, Gray Interior, Black Lace Wheels, With Sunroof and Wing, in the Chicago area.

In the section on replacing the pickup coil and such it shows a V8 HEI distributor, the kind with the coil in the cap. Really built up MY confidence in the validity of the technical information...

Thanks for the warning on the rest of it.

Ed

I always draw sketches or take pictures/video before I start tearing apart anything because you can't depend on the manuals, even the factory manual.

When I installed the new long block in my 85SE I took a long slow video of everything I could see prior to teardown. It sure came in handy when it came time to reinstall the wiring harness.

I hate Haynes manuals.....they're so general and the info is not not always accurate. Anyone who uses a manual much should get the original service manual for the car from helm.com for sure. Makes all the diff in the world!

Phil

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GTDude
OVER 25 years GM experience

My favorite Haynes boo-boo, is in the last chapter where it describes changes for the 1988 model Fiero. A drawing shows the oil-filter-in-the-pan setup for the 4-cylinder, balance-shafted engine, which is fine. But the sketch shows the engine in the front of the car!

Classic...

Ron, I had the EXACT same trouble on '88. I thought it was becuase I had jumped a tooth on the distributor stem when I replace it.... While I was at it I did the plugs/wires/cap/rotor/coil. Dang thing would not start! Aaaaghhh! what have I done?!!!

I go back and double check and triple check everything. Are the plug wires seated on the back bank? Did I blow my new mag pickup? Did my new coil go bad? Checked firing order again against the Haynes again and again... something did not add upp...
Did my grasp of English suddenly go awry?

In frustration I turned the crank to TDC and found I was off by 1 on the distrib cap. Friggin Haynes! I threw it in the trash.

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REMEMBER: stoplights synch'd for 35mph are also synch'd for 70mph.
(and for 140mph, now that I think about it.)

LOL... Haynes = Retarded!!

Check the section on body repair, it shows pix of an S-10 pickup bed being bondoed!! Heh Heh!!!

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'88 FORMULA 2.8L V6 5 Speed Getrag

blakeinspace,

Your story was exactly like mine. I removed distributor to replace pick-up coil, After I put it all back together with new wires and cap following the Haynes instructions, the car would not start. I had to turn the distributor counterclockwise by one wire position to get it to start. That got me to qustion the book. Especially after my cap and wires looked different than the underhood picture in the Haynes.

Not to bash Haynes at all here.

I really like to refer to it. It is a simply explained manual with lots of pictures which I appreciate. It just has a few quirks, like the wire harness diagram and a few other issues as you good people have mentioned. It is a nice compliment to the factory manual, not a total replacement though.

We just need to make a few edits in the Haynes along the way. Just make note that there is a bit of bad info in them.

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Ron Dittmer - Driving A Mint 88GT, Automatic, Medium Red Metallic, Gray Interior, Black Lace Wheels, With Sunroof and Wing, in the Chicago area.

The Haynes Manuals Suck .Especially the electrical diagrams .

Galen Smith
Red 85 Sport Coupe
Founder of Suncoast Fiero Club

Chilton isn't any better either.

Heck the chiltons manual (84-85) has a red fiero on the cover an they have the intake vent on the wrong side (passenger side). They sure know what they're doing...don't they!

I don't put much faith in either book!

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Keith F.

I like the section where they illustrate how to fix dents on body panels. "Tap with a hammer near the edge of the dent to help pop the metal back to it's original shape".

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1988 Fiero Coupe 2.5L
1990 Trans Am GTA 5.7L

I ALWAYS keep a haynes manual handy just incase Im stuck in a precarious position without any toilet paper.

but honestly, the POOR wiring diagram in a haynes manual added one whole month to an engine swap, I couldnt figure out WHY my 3.1 was running soo bad. When I was cleaning out the extra fuses in the RS electrical fuse box, (its a W body thing) the haynes manual said that ALL 6 injectors ran to 1 fuse, It took me a LONG time to figure out why my engine had so little power. When I checked the plugs, 3 on one side were like they were untouched, the other 3 were fouled, thats what made me figure it out. Factory manuals are the best.

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Matt D
1984 Indy Fiero 4sp.
1985 2m4 now equipt with a 1996 3.4 DOHC.

Haynes manuals blow greasy chunks. Always have.

Another misleading tid-bit of information (but not from the Haynes manual);

The STANT radiator cap that is listed for Fieros is a VENTED cap. This is INCORRECT.
Fieros use a NON-VENTED radiator cap.

When you park with the nose of a Fiero slightly down and the system cools down, the Vented cap will allow coolant to siphon out of the radiator, through the overflow bottle, onto the ground. Non-Vented caps do not allow this to happen.

i have noticed the new haynes manuals have simplified the diagrams. i can't find my old one and recently gave up and got a replacement. things are much more generalized. if you find an old edition it would be worth getting.

Ok so will someone please post the correct way of installing these wires? Cuzz i went by the Haynes manual and it seems like its missing or something. I also have a 2030 compucam. Is it normal for it to sound like its missing with the 2030?

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Fierokid's Web site:
http://www.angelfire.com/sports/sfiero
AIM: Fierokid87

bump

The correct way is and always has been to replace plug wires one at a time. DUH....

If you are also replacing the dist cap, you replace the wires, and then transfer the wires on at a time to the same post on the new cap.

You don't need a book for that job.....

Yes, radical cams can make a engine sound like sh_t. Deal with it or replace the cam.

Haynes is a POS.... Chilton is only slightly better/worse depending on the car.

Don't waste any time emailing Haynes.... They know the books are POS and they don't F'ing care. They have no intention of fixing the miriad of mistakes in them.

Just spend the money and get a Helm factory book and order ALLdata for a year. ALLdata has all the TSB's, which include manual updates and other things like Recall details, transmission issues, general dealer notices, etc. There are hundreds of TSB's for any year of car.

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11-Sept-01, The day the world as we knew it ended.

From 88 "Helm" Fiero manual...
"Exhaust manifolds are made of cast nodular iron".

At least they get the important stuff right.

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Raydar

From the Department of Redundancy Department.

Sorry I don't use Haynes manuals at all, for those reasons. You start questioning it's accuracy making a difficult job harder.

Earl