I was looking on e-bay & saw a workshop service manual, what is the differance between this and a factory service manual, both seem to have been printed by Mazda, the workshop manual has a green cover & the factory manual has a light blue cover, but other than that ??

jeff

 

Does the light blue one have the word "Haynes" on the upper right corner of the cover like so:


My FSM is Green... Though it does say "Workshop Manual" on the cover. Different years are different colors though.

Looks like this:


So your light blue may be a different year.

 

I had the oppurtunity to compare a Haynes manual with my Cosmo FSM. The Haynes wasn't as good as the FSM. I even noticed a mistake where they show which direction to install exhaust manifold for a thermal reactor. Haynes recommended installing the gasket backwards! That'll produce a leak.

 

i was less than impressed with the wiring diagrams in my 79 fsm. finally found what i needed in the chiltons, only for 79-81 though. fsm's are good for the s3's because the haynes was first written for the older cars so anything for an s3 is in the back under revisions. knowledge is power though, i say buy every book you can.

 

The factory workshop manual for the 1985 RX-7 is blue and the one for 1984 is green. I got my blue one on ebay for about $25 plus shipping a few months ago, they come up fairly often and you can get a good deal if you are patient and avoid ebay dealers like that guy who wants $59.00 for the '85 manual. The Haines manual is good too, easier to read and less expensive so I don't mind taking it out to the car and getting it all greasy. But I do like the slick production, details and nice photos of the Mazda manuals.

Ray

 

Yea, I prefer the factory manuals. The Haynes manuals just aren't detailed enough in many cases, and don't always cover the item I'm working on. That having been said, there are many times that I use both in order to figure out whatever it is I'm working on. I'm surprised to hear that Midwest 7's doesn't like the factory wiring diagrams. I've always found them to be quite complete and accurate.

Just my $0.02.

Rich

 

I have both, the green 84 FSM and the Hayes. I keep them both on the work bench and find that the pictures in the FSM are not very clear they must have gotten muddled in the reprinting process. Sometimes the Hayes has a clearer picture, but the FSM has better written info.

 

My '85 manual is green. I paid $80 plus shipping from Mazdatrix... AND it's a reprint with terrible copies of the photos.

I think I got pwned.

 

Here's my 83 FSM:

 

Watch out when you buy on ebay! Some guy figured out he can photocopy his original Mazda FSM hundreds of times and either bind it himself or have Kinkos do it and sell it on ebay for $59.00. What you see on the site is an original FSM. What you receive is what Pele is talking about (lousy photcopied illustrations.)

 

I'd say get both. The FSM has great diagrams, but sometimes the Haynes will tell you how to do something in a little more detail. When I was doing my suspension a few weeks ago, the Haynes specifically told me how to remove everything, while the FSM just said "Remove hub and strut assembly." The FSM pictures were great though.

However, sometimes the Haynes manual is wrong, and if you have a GSL-SE it doesn't have much info about the differences. If you search a little on Google, you can find a PDF of the FSM.

 

Why dont you save your money and download it from here.
http://www.wankel.net/~krwright/cars/rx7/manuals.html.

Whenever im working on something that requires a manual, i just print out the pages needed.

 

Kudos to Mr. Wright, that website is a real nice resource. Thanks for pointing it out Kim.

Ray

 

I'm greedy. I have like 8-9 FSMs, Haynes, Clymers, Chiltons, How to Modify Your Mazda RX7, an 80 differential manual, all in hard copy, and every FSM from 79-89, the competition prep manual, the carb manual and a couple others on the computer in the shop and a few of the eBay ones on cd. I do find the wiring diagrams in the earlier FSMs lacking compared to the later ones.

Knowledge is power as they say, and before anyone PMs me, none are for sale, except maybe the RX4 FSM, as my collection is not yet complete.

If anyone has a line on the 77 REPU manual, PM me. I may be needing one soon.

 

Trochoid,

77 REPU? I didn't know there was one.

 

74-77 were the model years.

 

does the fsm cover the omp in any more detail than the haynes manual does?

 

There is a downloadable copy of the 85 FSM in the faqs. Section 2, Lubrication system, covers the mop.