What you could do is have your friend scan it at high resolution. While the JPG file may end up being massive, it could be zoomed in for details, or at least SHOULD print out really nice for better examination.
Ideally, most printers can do 600dpi no problem these days, even my HP 5550 C can do 1200dpi(my disc printer DOES do 1200dpi).
Converting those JPG files to a PDF will mainly serve the purpose of possibly rebuilding the manual, or as a minimum, reduce the file size of your scans since the PDF format is highly compressed(wherever possible) format.
If you can read whatever you have now, then it can be scanned and then sent off.
Obviously, if it's something that doesn't have a manual online, it's either old, crap, or old crap, or a crappy company, or an old crappy company. Most of the stuff ADJ sells does come from China(yes, I read the labels and my new 64 LED Pros all have stamped on them "made in china"), as do the products from many other lighting companies. It's so cheap to run a web site, especially a simple one, that any company that refuses to support their products with an online presence is one I would avoid.
Seriously.
I'm to the point where I don't even deal with MySpace sites. Come on, spend some money, show you give a damn. But no, it's this whole "market the internet to retards and lo and behold, they came" thing. Sorry, gots no use for MySpace. I got a real domain.