Anyone know how do the Clymer's Harley model specific manuals compare to the factory books?

 

Nothing compares to the factory manuals. If you want to know how to do it right, there is only one place to find out and that's in the factory manual. The bike costs a lot of money and the difference in cost between anyone elses manual and the factory manual is well worth it.

 

Buy the Factory Service Manual, The Electrical Diagnosis Manual and the Parts Book. Anything else is just a Cliff Notes version of the real thing and Murphys' Law says that whatever it is that you're working on . . . that will be the part they decided to leave out.

 

If you can....get both.
Sometimes you'll glean some good information/tips from the Clymer book. And the factorys books can make it past printing production with errors...don't always swear by them. Christ I wasted many hours one night following the HD print, staring at it and getting confused as to what my eyes and hands were seeing, finally got pissed at it..went inside, Googled...and found many others found the same thing I had....yup, the text and illustrations got mixed on a couple of pages...and thousands of people doing this job themselves wasted time and effort on it.

As to Haynes vs Clymer...sometimes one gives tips or steps the other doesn't, or words it differently..it a way that makes more sense to you. Other times..the other way around. Haynes sometimes has that slight British twist in language..but usually that's not a stumper for peeps. If your budget can swing all 3...get all 3. On a particular big job, read "how to" in all 3...it will probably prepare you better and give you a much better chance of success than just following 1 guide.

 

I've got both for my Sportster. The Clymer has all the DTC's that you have to buy an extra Harley manual to get. Lots of good pictures in the Clymer manual too.