I am replacing my spark plug wires.

The passenger side was somewhat straight forward. Felt pretty good about.

Started the driver side....yikes....

I started it late in the afternoon and it basically ruined my evening. Spent all night trying to understand how to do this and woke up at 0430 hrs and could not go back to sleep. At 0530 made coffee, watered plants, and stared at the 'beast'......went to breakfast with a bunch of guys from church and then came back and decided to start over.....

Now, I know a lot of people of done this..... and .... start and finish the job in 1 hour, never get their hands dirty, everything fits perfect, and then spend the rest of the day watching ESPN......

For some reason, this never works for me, no matter how many blogs I read, or utube videos I watch......So, my procedure:

I need to preface this with the fact the this is the 'old' man way to do this.....so, you young guns can enjoy the laugh.

1. Put the front tires on the corvette ramp and back tires on home made ramps to raise the car up. Why? Because it hurts my back to lean over for four hours turning sockets..... Definitely not necessary but comfortable.

2. Remove front left tire and rested on jack stand. Why? Because I get so frustrated working in cramped areas and removing the tire gives me a much better visual and access to everything. Definitely not necessary but reduces my stress later on.

3. Remove part of fender well and move ASR out of the way.....rather standard.

4. Remove top radiator hose and air intake from air filter to top of engine. Why? Same answer. Convenience, comfort, and better access to everything.

5. Remove serpentine belt. Standard.

6. Remove power steering pump pulley. This uncovers the bolt for the tensioner. This was THE 'critical' step for me.

7. Remove tensioner. This really helped.

8. I also removed the other small pulley a few steps back but forgot to put that down. Old people do this to confuse the young people. So, anyway, I removed the small pulley earlier.....really easy.

9. Okay, back to remove tensioner step.

10. The plug wire ends going into the opti-spark distributor are now fully exposed and very easy to remove without being a gymnast and double jointed.

11. In addition, I also found it easier to remove the bolts holding all the spark plug wire looms rather than trying to pry open the old brittle plastic. The old plastic seems to always break. It is different if you do this everyday, but when you do it once every 10 years.....the plastic breaks. Once wires and looms are removed, I opened up the looms....much easier. This also makes excess to the plugs really nice.

Anyway, I wanted to post this for anyone who was frustrated trying to remove their wires from driver side.

Now I am looking for looms for 8mm plug wires (if they even make them) and hope to finish job next weekend.

Got to go .... and watch some ESPN.

kc

 

I decided to go with headers and looked at those wire looms from gm and said 'noway'. and they look ugly and in your face and too close to the tubes to get fried so I did something different. from the opti I ran them down the side of the block. passenger side was pretty open and the drivers side I pulled them between the power steering tubes. cylinders 1,3,2,4 I ran the wires up between the block and the motor mounts and then to each plug. numbers 5,7,6,8 I ran thru the knock sensor bracket and up to the plugs. had an old set of 2-wire looms so I drilled them out for the 8.5mm wires and clamped 1-3, 5-7, 2-4, 6-8 right below the plugs. they are away from the headers and out of sight.

 

Any pictures? I'm going to be ordering my headers in a couple of weeks.

 

I can take some tomorrow and post later. the early c3's had a v-channel that bolted to the side of the block and routed the wires from the distributor along the side of the block to the plug areas.
what headers are you looking at? I bought the small tube stainless works headers and had to send the pass side back and waiting for it to get back to me. the air tubes were welded 15 degrees off clockwise and the pass side was pointing right thru the valve cover. and it was correct according to their fixture and there was no 4th o2 sensor so I have to drill and weld in another sensor. needless to say, they are not my favorite company to do business now, summit racing had to step in and mediate this mess.

 

You must have a 92 and up Corvette. Us L-98 Vettes do not have problems running spark plug wires.

 

Nice write-up. You made me smile the entire time I was reading.

 

I changed my plugs and wires while doing my water pump replacement. I don't know how these people do this job without removing stuff.

I found it easier to unbolt the alternator inside top bolt and shift it up and then unbolt the power steering pump and move it forward. This gave me access to route the wires under the pump. I also removed both the idler pulley and tensioner pulley but I left the tensioner arm in place.

I too removed the inner fenders. I cleaned them while I had them out as well.

I believe the driver side was easier for plug replacement and the passenger side was easier for wire replacement. Both sides sucked equally in their own way.

The only car I have worked on that was more labor intensive to change plugs and wires was a Grand Prix 3800 FWD.

 

. Always nice to read input in a not so serious way. Crap happens to us all at some time. Like you, my back just doesn't like bending over for long periods. Also, this is the first time I am grateful for having a L-98 instead of the LT-1. That's a switch.

 

Here's some unsolicited advice: Never undertake this task on a V8 Chevy Monza, if any of them still exist. I can promise you it's even worse -- far worse -- than the 3800 GP FWD. Most of those Monzas only ever got seven-plug tune-ups!

Live well,

SJW

 

here are some pics from my cell phone, they're not the best so you may have to look closely.

this shot is of the passenger side where the wires come out of the opti and thru the ps brackets and block. could not get a shot of the drivers side unless I got the car in the air.





this is where #2 and 4 plug wires exit thru the motor mount, same for plugs #1 and 3 on the drivers side. wire separator has not been added, waiting on header for positioning.





this shot you really have to look for it. the #6 and 8 wires are at the top of the pic just coming out of the knock sensor bracket, same for plugs #5 and 7, and then going up to the plugs. same thing, wire separator not attached, waiting on header for clearance.




this is #5 and 7 with the header installed and the wire separator in place after the wires come out of the knock sensor bracket.




here is a pic of the pass side air tube before I sent it back to stainless works for rework, and it has been a fight with them to correct the issue to my satisfaction. notice the 15 degree angle puts the tube straight thru the valve cover, which they say is correct to their fixture.

 

I had a 1976 3.8 Monza so I can relate. Never had to worry about changing plugs because something always happened to require the motor to be pulled before the plugs had a need to be changed.... Don't remember ever having to change the oil either. Usually added a quart at every fuel up. It was a running joke to check the gas and fill the oil....

On the GP you have to unbolt the rear engine mount and remove the upper engine mount then roll the engine forward before you can even see the rear three plugs. Imagine changing plugs while standing on your head.

 

Sleazy Rider thanks for the pics and write up. Nice and clean. Now I am defiantly ordering headers without air tube.

 

Correct, the LT-1 can be a costly bit of 50 HP over the L-98. I look at my L-98 as an old 350 except for all the smog stuff. Wish state laws would let me remove it.