Spark plug wire change

[whiteshark]

well as my luck would have it, on my way home from school for the weekend, the car starts misfiring, and i get a flashing ses light. i had the plugs changed over the summer, so i highly doubt that's it, so wires would be the next logical guess. i have to go back to school on sunday, so no mechanics work between now and when i have to go back. so i have two options. either get the codes pulled and try to replace the bad wire(s). or i can drive a ford ranger back to school. i Really don't want to drive the crappy 98 hp ranger. but i've heard that changing plugs and wires in a 3.8 is really hard. so taking into account that i know nothing about cars, what should i do?

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: whiteshark ]</p>

[triad]

Its not all that hard, its accually more time consuming than anything. If you are familar with Chevy engines at all and where spark plugs are then you shouldn't have too much trouble. I'm not a very big mechanic and it took me about 3-4 hours to complete with the plugs on top of the wires.

Get your car on some jackstands and get a good set of wires (do a search and you'll see the types most use, I personally went with Accel Custom Fit's but Taylor wires are popular too - make sure they are 8mm) Also get some dielectric gel too, for the wire boots, and if you don't have any - some boot heat shields.
Do each wire one at a time too - or you might get mixed up.

The Driver and Passanger side front two wires can be replaced from the top, maybe the passenger middle if your hands are small. String the rest of the wires from the top and crawl underneath the car to connect them, adding the gel to each boot too.

Should only take you a couple of hours, not all that hard.

[Guardsman]

You'll have lots of fun going back and forth, from the top of the engine bay, to under the engine. Actually, the hardest part was all the ****ING wire looms that were hung all over the engine. Of course, the hardest ones to get to, also have the opening side facing away from you, so that they're even harder to open. You'll want a pair of small needle-nose pliers for those. Oh yeah, and prepare to get your forearms tore up. I still have marks on my arms from when I changed my plug wires 3 weeks ago.
As to dielectric grease, I bought a big tube of it (like a toothpaste-tube size). Use a Q-tip, just get the grease on the end of it, not the sides, that way, you don't get the grease along the insides of the boot, just on the metal contact area. If you get the grease all over the inside of the boot, it will form a seal, which won't let the air out, and the boot will want to come off. Also, be careful putting the heat shields back on the plug-end boots. I was having a misfire problem, and it turned out that my #6 plug wire had come off of the plug - just fell off. My best guess is that when I put the heat shield on, I accidently pulled the wire loose on the plug, and it eventually worked it's way loose.

[whiteshark]

woohoo, my dad took my car down to a guy he knows at a tire shop. they put it on a lift and then $45 in labor :mad: , and a couple bux in parts later my car was fixed. yipee, i get to pass people on the way back to school. :D

[TrikdOuTbyrd]

i changed my plugs and wires but i never put any dielectric grease what is the purpose of this.... could i yeild better performance i put some of this grease on

[Only4U]

if you don't put this grease on, the plugs will be hell to get off.

[John_D.]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Only4U:
if you don't put this grease on, the plugs will be hell to get off.<hr></blockquote>

And it does need to be on the rubber part of the boot in order to help... Just not too much, or it causes the air to get trapped like guardsman said above, and the air bubble can push the boot off the plug again. But a light coat, will keep the boot from sticking like glue to the plug when you have to take it off the next time.