Service & Spares Bulletin Database

[Philk]

Over the past six months (making use of Covid Lockdown and a lack of JEC and local events), I've been working on a Service and Spares Bulletin Database (given these very much enable you to pin down the exact specification your car would have had on a given build date). Whilst it is great to have some of these documents scanned in the Knowledgebase, they are image only, watermarked and are in large single documents (which are not searchable). I've therefore been tracking down and buying Service Bulletins and Spares Bulletins, colour scanning them and then indexing them in a searchable Excel database.

Within the Database, you can filter down to specific models and Sections (e.g. all service bulletins relating to Engines for E-Type Series 1). Having read the relevant titles, you can then click on the bulletin number you wish to read and it will then automatically open the scanned PDF File. For those bulletins that cross-reference other bulletins, additional links are present.

Screen Prints below (these can be enlarged if you click on them):



The Service Bulletin Database (snapshot of 43 bulletins spanning all models in ascending date order)



Filtered down to E-Type S1 and with a specific bulletin clicked on



The Spares Bulletin Database (snapshot of 47 bulletins spanning all models in ascending date order)



Filtered down to E-Type S1, Body Section and with a specific bulletin clicked on.

I am still working on the database so you can search on a specific term (e.g. clutch) so it would then display all relevant Service and Spares Bulletins. The database is complete in terms of the bulletins I thus far own (over 1,100 Service and Spares Bulletins) but there are more I still need to collect so if you have any spare please let me know.

This was a project I would never had countenanced in ordinary times but it is proved a useful hobby over the past months (and has definitely broadened my knowledge of the marque).

[Gfhug]

Phil, simply put:

Geoff

[Herzeg]

John

[Heuer]

Epic work Phil. Do you want to put them in the Forum KB?

I have the JHT CD copies of the Bulletins but they cannot be shared digitally as they are protected by Locklizard although I can get digital copies of individual bulletins if I need to. I also have a full set of Service Bulletins (colour photocopies) if you are missing any which I was going to scan and put on the Forum but it is a lot of work with a home flat bed scanner.

[Philk]

Epic work Phil. Do you want to put them in the Forum KB?

I have the JHT CD copies of the Bulletins but they cannot be shared digitally as they are protected by Locklizard although I can get digital copies of individual bulletins if I need to. I also have a full set of Service Bulletins (colour photocopies) if you are missing any which I was going to scan and put on the Forum but it is a lot of work with a home flat bed scanner.

Hi David

Many thanks - you are right to refer to it being a bit of work. I was using a flat bed scanner and, using its software, I was able to define a specific scanning template to scan the 8" x 10" page size. However, with many of the service bulletins spanning multiple sides (and with a number not being fully straight from their original printing), I rapidly realised it was going to be a marathon rather than a sprint. I ended up doing between 10 and 15 per sitting and, over a number of months, the total slowly added up. I then had to embed the relevant data from each of them into the spreadsheet as well as hyperlinking to the relevant directory where they were all held. Many late nights!

Thus far, what I have scanned relates to what Jaguar referred to as Volume 2 of the Service Bulletins (running from January 1960 to February 1972 and thereby capturing Series 1 and 2 E-Types). The first set of Service Bulletins (which I would also like to obtain at some point) run from 1946 to 1959 and total 277 bulletins. Roger Payne provides useful info on these on the old Jag Lovers forum.

I am missing 120 Service Bulletins (those issued in Jan & July 1968 and those published from April 1971 onwards) so am keen to source these so I have the complete set. I am also very keen to source the Spares Bulletins I am missing (which span a range of dates).

In terms of the KB, I am not sure how useful 1,100 individual bulletins would be on their own. It works best by having the spreadsheet with them (which then needs to be configured to point to the relevant directory where the folders are located). On my "to do" list is to set up a parameter file so those details can be edited, loaded into the spreadsheet when it opens and have the spreadsheet then locked so things don't get corrupted).

Still a work in progress which needs more bulletins (particularly Spares Bulletins) so it can be complete.

[ysmalkie]

Phil,

Fantastic work --

I just wanted to say that (almost) any PDF can be OCRed and in turn made searchable.

If you place all the PDF's in one directory, using Crtl-Shift-F you can actually search through entire library of PDF's.

Let me know If I can be of help with OCRing,

Best Regards, Tadek

[Philk]

I just wanted to say that (almost) any PDF can be OCRed and in turn made searchable.

This could be worth exploring further. I did experiment early on in the process with OCR conversion (using a number of online converters) since having searchable PDFs as opposed to pure scans would definitely have been beneficial.

However, I found that many of the technical terms used in the documents were not recognised by the converters which therefore gave variable results. I therefore abandoned this approach in favour of the linked spreadsheet given the Bulletin Titles provided sufficient detail to search upon (e.g. Clutch, Speedometer etc).

[ysmalkie]

Hi,

Just sent you a PM, Tadek

[Philk]

Just sent you a PM, Tadek

Many thanks. Reply sent.

[abowie]

Phil I would absolutely love access to your work, complete or not.

If your intent is to produce it commercially I'd entirely understand that, and would buy it.

If not, putting it up in the KB and updating it as you progress would be an invaluable resource for all of us.

[Philk]

Update: The database is now on the Forum Knowledgebase

I have used the various lockdown periods since November to continue to enlarge the Service and Spares Bulletin spreadsheet database. Specifically, all of the bulletins available in the forum knowledgebase that were not already present in the database have been individually extracted and their details captured. As a consequence, 760 Service Bulletins (88% of the total published between 1960 and 1971) and 807 Spares Division Bulletins (75% of the total published between 1959 and 1968) are now fully referenced.

I have discussed with David how best we can bring this to the benefit of the forum members. Whilst we cannot upload the 1,567 individual bulletin PDF files and get the links in the spreadsheet to work for these, we felt the spreadsheet could still be of considerable benefit to forum members since it can be searched and, very quickly, relevant bulletins can be identified. With the bulletin numbers then known, it would then be possible to scroll through the bulk bulletin files already present on the knowledgebase to find the underlying detail.

As such, David has kindly uploaded a link to the Bulletin Database into the Technical Section of the Forum Knowledgebase. It is just under the Series 3 section and simply has the bold heading of "Bulletin Database" with a dropbox link beside it.

When you click on the link, you can then download the Excel Spreadsheet.

How to use the database

There are two worksheets in the database with named tabs at the bottom of the screen. One is entitled "SB Vol 2 1960-1971" which has all the Service Bulletin data present and the other "Spares Bulletins 1959-1968" has the Spares Bulletin Information present.

On Row 1 of each worksheet are a series of Column Titles (e.g. Date, Section, Bulletin contents). Filters are already enabled on each column so they can be searched on or what is displayed can be narrowed down.

For example, on the Service Bulletin Worksheet, Column R shows whether the bulletin is relevant for S1 E-Types (shown by a X against each relevant bulletin). To simply display those bulletins relevant to S1 E-Types, you click on the downwards arrow just under the column title and deselect the tick box for "blanks". The screen will immediately change to simply show those bulletins with an X in that column. You can then do a further selection (for example on the "Section" column to only select those bulletins relating to Brakes. Very rapidly, you can then arrive at the list of relevant bulletins.

Finally, a 3rd worksheet is present entitled "DB". This contains links to the directories that would contain the actual bulletin files (in PDF format). If you have any of these yourselves and would like to be able to link to them from the database then please drop me a PM and I'll let you know what you need to do.

Next Steps

I am very keen to add more detail to the database. I am still missing the details of 98 Service Bulletins
(mostly for 1968 and 1969) and 269 Spares Bulletins across the years. If Forum members have their own copies of bulletins that might fill some of these gaps please let me know.

The next phase of the project will be to add the next generation of Spares bulletins published after 1968 as well as the Service Bulletins published between 1946 to 1958. I already have some of these (albeit heavily watermarked) so if anyone has clean copies, these would be gratefully received. If I get enough detail together then additional worksheets can be added.

In the meantime, I hope you will find the database useful.

[MarkRado]

Wow, invaluable!

[Philk]

Wow, invaluable!

That's kind of you to say. Thank you. Glad it will be of use.

[Mich7920]

Thanks a lot !

[1954Etype]

Fantastic work Phil!

[ysmalkie]

Thanks so much Phil!

[Philk]

A new version (2.1) of the Bulletin Database has been loaded onto the Knowledgebase today (thank you David). This has added a further 40 bulletins to the 1960-1972 Service Bulletins series (bringing its coverage to 93.5%), plus references to where Service Bulletins have been superseded by later issues and other minor changes.

I am currently working on adding two further series of bulletins to the database - the 1968-1973 Jaguar/Daimler IMPART spares bulletins (which cover the Series 3 E-Type) along with the 1972-1975 Service Information bulletins. For those with an interest in XK120-150 models, I am also working on a third series (the 1946-1959 Service and Spares Bulletins).

Further updates to the database will be issued in due course to reflect these additional bulletin series plus any further updates to the existing bulletin series.

[Philk]

Over the past few weeks I have received in the post the next material to be scanned and captured in the Service & Spares Bulletin Database (a continuing good use of lockdown time).



Left to Right, the Service (and Spares) Bulletins from 1946-1959 (covering, amongst others, the XK series of cars), the IMPART Spares Bulletins covering Jaguar and Daimler cars from 1968 to 1973 (including S2 E-Types) and the Jaguar Daimler Service Information Bulletins spanning 1972 to 1975 (including S3 E-Types).

Time permitting, the IMPART series will be added to the database within the next few weeks followed, in due course, by one or either of the other sets. I shall post an update when the next version of the database is available within the knowledgebase to download.

Separately, I have been approached by a few Forum Members as to whether the directories containing the scanned bulletins (which are linked to in the database) are potentially available. Feel free to PM me on this.

[Heuer]

Brilliant work Phil. The whole project makes research a lot easier and being able to search through the bulletin database is fascinating and quick.