I am a pretty fair shade tree mechanic, but when I looked at the engine to install a set of spark plug wires on a 95 LT1 it looks pretty daunting. Is there any trick to installing the drivers side wires on the distributor without removing the water pump? Maybe from underneath? The passenger side boots look to be pretty easily accessible, but I can't even get my hand down the driver's side... :confused:


[Modified by khoerner, 6:27 AM 4/23/2003]

 

There are many here that have done it, but I'm 6'3" and my hands are too big for certain jobs (like this one). I took a 15 minute look at the job (with the car on jack stands) and decided to have a mechanic do it. This was when I first bought the car almost 4 years ago. Given another chance and having much more familiarity with the car now, I would probably tackle it myself, though I'm sure I would be doing a lot of :cuss :cuss :cuss along the way. :lol:

 

Ok, I know it can be done with effort, but it's sure not going to be the 1/2 hour job it used to be! Just hoping there was some "trick". :banghead:

 

Remove driver side dust sheild from inner fender well. Wires are tight, but can be pulled out from underneath. I removed my belt, and put a wrench on the tensioner pulley and pulled it all the way out of my way. I was able to access the opti from where the tensioner pulley would have been with the belt on. Set aside some time, and have patience. Good luck.

 

Hey thanks! That looks like it will work pretty well. Actually, it looks like removing the belt, then both the tensioner and idler pulleys (the two small ones) would open up a nice access area even from the top. Thanks for the idea!
:thumbs:

 

Well, I'm can't personally speak for their quality yet, but I purchased a set of SplitFire Dual-Mag wires along with the SplitFire spark plugs. I have researched them and found both pros and cons on the web, but most of the cons had to do with the price. However, SplitFire is offering rebates of $2.00 per plug, and $15.00 per wire set. http://www.splitfire.com/rebate/rebatesf.htm

They also have a 30 money back guarantee, and a Lifetime warranty.

I paid $82.00 for the plugs and the wires (found a really cheap place http://www.247autoparts.com/store/index.html, prompt shipment), and with the rebate I'll only have paid $51.00 for the whole shebang. My thinking was that if they sucked I wouldn't be out that much, but now I see I'll be out an afternoon of labor whenever I want to change them. :eek:

The wires look to be very good quality though; extremely low resistance (good), spiral wound, kevlar cores, thick, etc. The one thing I've read that makes sense on the plugs themselves it that they should be gapped a bit higher than factory recommended so the spark is forced to be "stronger", i.e. since there is more available area with the SplitFires the spark can theoretically be weaker when it crosses the gap. In that line of thinking, increasing the gap corrects this. I plan on going to .054 from the recommended .050.

I'll post with the results when I've tested them out.



[Modified by khoerner, 10:21 PM 4/25/2003]

 

i got these plugs and wires for my C3, never installed them yet. let me know how they work out. :cheers:

 

Those would be the wires for the #6 and #8 cylinders. It is important to make sure these two wires each have a plastic wire protector sheathed over them as they pas by the dipstick tube. Look what the dipstick tube carrier is bolted to-- the exhaust manifold. It gets hot. I even took the precaution of physically putting a slight bend on the dipstick tube to increase the distance between it and the plug wires, even though I have the high temp wire protectors on my #6 and #8 plug wires.


[Modified by Lone Ranger, 4:02 PM 4/24/2003]

 

Had to stop for a few minutes, I'm about 6 hours in, but the end is in sight. I'll make a full report when I'm done, including every trick I learned. I think it would only take 4 hours or less knowing what I know now. :cry

 

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: It would have been faster to remove the water pump.... :lol:

 

Its a smooth black plastic that is spiral wound and you thread it onto the wire like a spiral, sort of. But the corrugated type you mentioned would probably also work-- that kind is what is on my ignition coil wire, but the plug wires have the spiral kind.

I think you can get it at a dealer parts dept. Be sure to specify high temp resistance spark plug wire protectors.

 

Also Lani, I would replace the two wires with new ones if they have been perforated by a burn-through against the manifold or the dipstick tube. Even if you insulate them enough with tape or wire protectors to stop arcing/shorting they probably still aren't delivering voltage as efficiently as they did before the damage. On the passenger side like that they shouldn't be too hard to swap out.

 

:yesnod:

 

I just used the old ones. The wires I used are rated 1000 F, so burn thru should not be a problem. See above. Let me know if you have any questions on install.

BTW, there is no reason to remove the water pump. In fact, it wouldn't even help much.


[Modified by khoerner, 10:23 PM 4/25/2003]

 

I thought dealer parts dept. had them, because when dealer installed new wires on my car during GMPP warranty claim they put on some of the spiral slit wire sleeves. I searched the net using 'spark plug wire guard', 'spark plug wire sleeve', and 'spark plug wire protector' with no luck. Couldn't find them on Summit racing site either. Weird. Would think they would be sold where plug wires are sold. I'll keep checking...

 

Let us know when you get through!

 

Try specifying spark plug wire heat shields, part # 12132232, this may be the correct designation for the parts guy at the dealership to find it. Maybe not . I found this part number on a Impala SS LT1 discussion.