Noggin01

Note that this requires you to have a motorcraftservice account in order to access the content. This account does cost money. At the end of this method you will have the FSM, and only the FSM, in HTML format.

You will NOT have the wiring diagrams or any test procedures, except for those that may be found in the FSM. However, if you want to spend a few hours of time, you can manually print out to PDF the wiring diagrams and test procedures from Ford's service website. However, I will not go over how to do so as it is just a tedious click-link-and-print operation. I do NOT have a method of downloading / printing this automatically.

This list is from memory, if anyone tries this and finds something that doesn't work please let me know.

1. You must use Firefox for this, so if you don't have Firefox installed, install it.
2. Install the Scrapbook+ plugin
3. Restart Firefox
4. Using Firefox, log into your Motorcraft Services account.
5. You should see a "Subscriptions" link now, if I remember correctly. Click on that, then click on whatever link it is that it shows you.
6. This should bring you to a page where you are asked to enter the VIN for your truck. Enter it, then click "GO"
7. Click on the "Workshop" link and select "Workshop Home"
8. On the left, you should see an entry titled Alphabetical Index, click on that
9. In the frame with all the links, the new one that just opened, right click and select "Capture Frame As..." (not page, FRAME)
10. In the new window that pops up, leave the title as it is. Create a folder named "F150 FSM". Put a checkmark in all boxes (Images, Styles, JavaScript, Image, Sound, movie, Archive)
11. Set depth to 2
12. Set timeout to 0
13. Set Character set to UTF-8
14. Click Capture
15. In the new window, click "Start"
16. Drink a beer
17. When it is done, right click at the very top of your Firefox window and select "Menu Bar" so that the menu bar is shown
18. Select Scrapbook Plus --> Show in Sidebar
19. Right click on the FSM and select "Export"
20. I think you'll be shown an option as to where you can save it. Select it and let it run for a while.
21. Optional: When it is done, download these files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/533f5s8mr...XXDtd4Uma?dl=0
22. Optional: Put those files in the folder you just exported and run the .bat file (not the .exe)

When the FSM is first downloaded, it'll have a ton of links that are broken. The fsmfix program is one that I wrote over the last couple of days that will fix the majority of the links. I make NO promises that the program will work for you, but it did work for me on my 2016 F150 FSM. It mostly worked on my wife's 2010 Mustang FSM. I don't plan on doing much in the way in improving this software. It did what I wanted it to do... fixed all the broken links in the downloaded FSM.

Edit: The 3-day, $20 plan is good enough to get the files for hundreds of different vehicles. The program I wrote is made to work with the 2016 F-150 FSM, but will probably be fine for the 2015 model. It'll have varying levels of success with different vehicles.

bamorris2

First of all, thank you for posting this. I purchased the 3-day subscription and would like to download it. I tried following your directions but it's not working right. Can you check my work to see if everything looks right? The problem is that after everything finishes running, I have a folder full of image files but nothing that resembles a collated manual.

Noggin01

Your capture window looks different than mine. Can you confirm that you're using ScrapBook+ and not Scrapbook? When I first started trying to download the data, ScrapBook (not plus) was one of the tools I tried, and I think I remember it not getting the HTML and only getting the pictures.

Note that my download options look different, my right click menu says "ScrapBook+" on the option for bookmarking, and my FireFox title bar says "ScrapBook Plus"







Edit: Looks like you have ScrapBook X. I tried a few different add-ons in Firefox until I found the one with the same window you see when you download.



In case the link to ScrapBook + isn't working for you, or if you don't want to use a link...

bamorris2

Thanks Noggin. Yup I was using the wrong ScrapBook. Got the right one and it aligns with your instructions. However the end result is similar. The folder that I exported to has thousands of images and HTML files. So to confirm, is this method supposed to create a PDF version of the FSM, or not?

Noggin01

Third sentence of my first post states that you'll have HTML files, so it looks like it is working.

If you open the index.html, you'll see a whole bunch of links just like in that frame you saved. Those links should work without any issue. So, open index.html, press <ctrl>+<F> (Find) and type in "muffler." This will bring you to the muffler stuff. Click the link. You'll see how to remove the muffler.

The links on THOSE pages WON'T work, UNLESS you run the two optional steps in my instructions.

I strongly prefer this format over the $70 PDF option that factory-manuals provides because none of the links in the PDF version work. Here, you can start looking at a section on the engine, and click through the links that'll bring you to the section on removing some widget or another.

bamorris2

Got it, thank you! This will come in handy.

Great white

iTrader: (1)

Looks like ford might have wised up.

All I get is 403 errors when I try to download it...

Great white

iTrader: (1)

Spoke too soon maybe.

Even though I got all 403 errors while downloading, it appears it worked!

Great white

iTrader: (1)

Well, denied!

While my subscription was valid, it appeared my downloaded manual worked.

Once the subscription expired, it's all "access denied" when I click on any of the links.

I followed the instructions to the letter, all I can figure is ford wised up and those 403 errors I was seeing were the process hitting a wall.

So I downloaded the alphabetical index and not much more. I go back in to scrapbook plus and sure enough, all the downloaded files are in the 500 kb range, not Mb.

That sucks.....

I did have to buy from factory-manuals since my credit card was not being accepted by Helm, so at least I have the PDF from them. I also downloaded all the wiring diagrams I needed from the various cars I needed (have a paper copy coming for the F150) while the account was active, so that's something I guess....

Noggin01

Dang, sorry to hear that. I'm not sure how they'd force a 403 error since Firefox (and therefore the plugin) would have access to everything. But I'm far from an expert at this kind of thing.