So I've got my car out and about today, and at a stoplight it starts missing like its going to cut out, LCD speedo display flickering noticeably when it does it. I'm like, OH SH*T, WHAT NOW!?

I just installed a new set of 8mm Taylor Spiro Pro plug wires last weekend.

So I get it home, and I'm listening for the miss with it running and I notice a distinct snap-snap-snap sound in rythm with the miss. I pull the fuse for the hood dome lights to darken it up a bit since its daylight still, and Lo and Behold what do I see? I see a healthy arcing shoot from the 90 degree plug boot of wire for the #1 cylinder to the exhaust manifold. Its throwing about a 1/2" long bolt of lightning.

WTF?!?! They're brand new wires!

Not in contact with the manifold heat shield either! With the ASR and everything in the way its hard to tell exactly from where on the plug boot it is originating from, but it LOOKS like its coming from the middle of the circular thumb-grip area, if you're familiar w/ Taylor wires you know the area I mean. They have this round grip thing on them to grasp when removing them.

Anyone ever dealt with Summit on wire returns? I mean, I'm expecting them to blame it on me that it was touching, but it wasn't.

Can you get just a single wire? If I have to buy a whole damn set I GUARANTEE YOU it won't be Taylors!

Man, am I pissed right now... freaking had to be on the DRIVER SIDE, too, just had to....

P.S. I took extra care when installing these things to clock each boot on the plug in a manner to maximize clearance. I just don't understand it.

Adding this pic of the defective one to the post today (10-31-04), to me its as scarey as any Halloween picture, very small defect area where the arcing was coming through is has a graphic I added circling it:

 

Don't deal with Summit, contact Taylor. If they are worth half a damn they'll send you a wire for free. If they won't send you a replacement, start dealing with MSD. Their wires don't fit the looms but they stand behind their product.

I e-mailed MSD the other day and told them that I pulled apart my coil wire boot the last time I had it off, I asked if I could buy a single wire. They are sending me a new one for free! The product failure was not their fault, but they are replacing it for me anyway. That's a company I like to deal with!

 

Man That Sucks.

 

 

You're right, direct to Taylor is going to be the best route to try. What really blows is I have a four day weekend, off Monday and Tuesday, and even if I do get a wire sent from Taylor it won't get here until I go back to work. All this free time that was going to be full of Vette driving and that COULD be used to get it changed out, are for naught because the time its going to take to get the wire.

 

I am local to Summit, so I mostly deal with them at the store. I got a faulty therostat and they replaced it no questions. Also took back some parts I changed my mind on, no trouble.

Go either way, but I personally have had real good luck with Summit....

I agree Taylor is more likely to be in a position to send just one wire

 

That is strange. You must gotten a bad quality control on the plug wires. I have been using Taylor spiral Pro on my LT1 for yrs now, I have never have any problem what so ever, it is inconvenience but you should be able to get a replacement in exchange for the defact wires.


Bruce


Bruce

 

I had a problem with a MSD wire burning close to a header pipe and they just sent me a new wire with no questions.

You might call Summit Tech though, maybe why can send you out one wire. If you can't get a new wire in time, just pop back in one of the old wires.

 

Hi,

I had a similar exprience with Taylor wires. Then I purchased stock wires. Same thing! Some people say they have wires glowing-I had this too. My shop manual say the glowing is normal and calls is corona. Some people told me it could be a bad dist-cap. What you should do is ohm out the wire to check the resistance.

I ended up changing to a Delteq.

If you are close to Long Island I will give you a wire to try.

Good luck,

Steven

 

Steve, thats way cool of you to offer, but I'm far from you... midwest. No biggie, but thx for offering. Its not corona, I've seen corona effect before (different car). Nope, its arcing. Clearly a visible spark jumping from the left side of the boot to the manifold. Quite a powerful arc, I might add...

 

I would bet dollars to donuts that the contact was damaged in manufacturing or shipping. For it to arc through that silicone requires a hole of some kind.

 

Oh I agree Summit is usually very good to deal with, but they really aren't the ones responsible for the defective product, that's why I recommend going to Taylor. If they won't stand behind their own product you couldn't expect Summit to. If I sold you a brand new car and it broke a week later who would you talk to? Me or the company who made the car? I find it's generally best to take out the middle man whenever it's possible.

 

I had a problem with a brand new set of wires from Taylor appearing to arc to the nearest metal. It was doing it on all the wires, everywhere the wire was an 1/8" or less away from metal (which is just about everywhere on an LT1). Anyway, emailed Taylor about it, and they told me to take the wires back to the speed shop I bought them from. They said that was the preferred way of doing a return. Well, I got to the speed shop and told them about my wire problem, and before I even got a chance to tell them I'd spoken to Taylor about it, the speed shop owner said, "Oh, let me just get you a new set." So he gave me a brand new set, no questions asked. Now that's service.

Anyway, I sold the new ones to VictorRussell'92 and went back to stock.

 

Lone ranger, you AINT alone.

I had an MSD 8.5mm wire spark arc from the ignition coil to opti wire against the water pump.

I wrapped the area in electrical tape and then slit a hose and put it around it for good measure.

MSD products are $hit, dont just think its Taylor.

I bought my MSD 8.5mm wire set at summit.

 

If I have further problems, I'm yanking the entire set and trying Moroso Blue Max Spiral Wound 8mm's. Hell, I might anyhow.

This experience is a bad omen against Taylors.

And as mentioned above by HammerDown, the trendy design Taylor used on their plug end boots makes for closer than necessary clearances from the boot to the manifold heat shield.

Moroso claims their Blue Max's deliver the most spark energy of any spiral wound ferro core wire, and appear to have the independent lab tests to prove it:

http://www.moroso.com/articles/artic...&catcode=39022

 

I think we can just prove that almost any company will have a bad product every now and then. The difference is how they handle it. Do they admit their fault and replace it or do they leave you high and dry? I know Dizwiz seems to have had more than his share of problems with MSD, what can I say, $hit happens. There are people who would never buy a Chevrolet too! I honestly think that all the major brands make a good product and they all have some failure rate. People will naturally stick with whatever product works for them. If you get a few bad MSD products you'll never buy them again when it could be just strictly bad luck. Same goes for any other brand. I'll never buy a Sears Die Hard battery after I had one leave me stranded with no warning.

Brand loyalty, it's a wonderful thing ain't it?

 

Do you know if the plug gaps are correct?
The LT1 motors are well known for having the platinum pucks falling off the OEM plugs. The voltage at the plug is directly proportional to the plug gap -- after the voltage arcs the gap and current starts to flow, the voltage does not increase.
So, the smaller the plug gap the lower the high voltage is on the ignition wires.

Just a thought.

Tom Piper

 

They're AC Rapidfire #14's, no pucks. When I installed the wires last weekend, part of what made the job take longer was I also removed each plug, inspected the burn patterns (read them), and checked gaps. Nah... had to just be a random chance defective boot on that wire. That's me, though-- can't win the friggin' lottery, but I can draw the only bad wire out of a run of tens of thousands...

 

Dont worry.. SLOWRIDE seems to find any situation to be
Thats his responce to everything

 

I was being a Good Sport about it, hence the toe tappers. I use those little fellas every opportuity I get