MediumD
Dedicated LVC Member
So is there some trick to changing the plug wires I don't know about, or was my car playing a cruel trick on me? I go to try out some Autolite AR94 plugs yesterday, which obviously means pulling the wires. So I pull on the top of the boot like I have on every other DOHC car I've worked on. It doesn't want to move. I'm not Hulk Hogan but it should still pop off without too much trouble. I go get some channel locks and get to pulling. Pop! It worked...
No wait a minute, son of a bitch it just pulled the rubber top of the boot, the hard plastic tubular piece is still in there. Fine. I move on to the next one. Same thing. So I get some needle nose and get to pulling. Crack! Pieces of the plastic are breaking off instead of coming off the plug. Violent swearing commences for the next 2 hours as I pull off 2 more wires, which do the same thing. I tried screwing a big wood screw in, but that just broke more plastic off. So I spent today using a long screwdriver to break pieces of plastic off, then vacuuming them out of the hole with my shop vac (until it died, then I had to use the upright vacuum..) I get enough plastic out of the way to where I'm left with the rubber ends of the boots still on the plugs. After some thought, I cut apart a coat hanger, make a hook out of one end, use vise grips to shove it down around the outside of the rubber piece, and yank really hard on it until either the vise grips tore metal off the coathanger and sent my hand into the hood or the rubber piece came up.
Then I proceeded to have another fiasco trying to get ahold of new wires, since half my old ones were completely destroyed, but I won't bore you with the details there. Although I will mention that I ordered wires from Checker's website, and when I returned them, they credited my card the in-store price, which was $15 more than I paid through their website.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant, and ask WTF the damn deal was with these bastard plug wires I had, and all told I spent about 3 hours doing it... PER CYLINDER! And something isn't right when that happens...
No wait a minute, son of a bitch it just pulled the rubber top of the boot, the hard plastic tubular piece is still in there. Fine. I move on to the next one. Same thing. So I get some needle nose and get to pulling. Crack! Pieces of the plastic are breaking off instead of coming off the plug. Violent swearing commences for the next 2 hours as I pull off 2 more wires, which do the same thing. I tried screwing a big wood screw in, but that just broke more plastic off. So I spent today using a long screwdriver to break pieces of plastic off, then vacuuming them out of the hole with my shop vac (until it died, then I had to use the upright vacuum..) I get enough plastic out of the way to where I'm left with the rubber ends of the boots still on the plugs. After some thought, I cut apart a coat hanger, make a hook out of one end, use vise grips to shove it down around the outside of the rubber piece, and yank really hard on it until either the vise grips tore metal off the coathanger and sent my hand into the hood or the rubber piece came up.
Then I proceeded to have another fiasco trying to get ahold of new wires, since half my old ones were completely destroyed, but I won't bore you with the details there. Although I will mention that I ordered wires from Checker's website, and when I returned them, they credited my card the in-store price, which was $15 more than I paid through their website.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant, and ask WTF the damn deal was with these bastard plug wires I had, and all told I spent about 3 hours doing it... PER CYLINDER! And something isn't right when that happens...
