
Installing Plug Wires Into Your Classic Car Engine
Brent Ackley & George VondriskaDescription
Well, I'm down to installing the last plug wire on the '56 here. And what we started with was universal plug wires which means we actually had to lay them in there measure them to length, cut the ends off, and then crimp a new end on there. I've already laid this one in there and measured it. So now I'm just ready to crimp a new end on. So what I'm gonna do is very, very carefully, so you don't cut into that conductor.
Take my wire stripper and pull that, pull the end off to expose the conductor. And then there's a little bit of fuzzies there that we're just gonna take a razor blade here, trim off. So now Ive got our conductor exposed. We fold that over. Take our end.
We'll use my strippers to start it. And then what I'm gonna use is a ratcheting crimp tool. This is a handy tool to have in your toolbox. You can set it. Gives you a lot more torque.
It gives you a very, very precise setting on any crimps that you're making. So what we'll do is we'll set that in here. Then we can ratchet that down. Now I've got a nice crimp on the end of that wire. So now we take the boot, I'm using electronic cleaner.
Silicone spray would work. You can use dielectric grease on the boots if you need to. We're just gonna spray that a little bit. Get it to slide over. Make sure that that plug wire end comes all the way into the end of the boot.
And I can see it in there. So this is actually ready to install. Now, one of the things you need to check, double-check, even triple check, is the firing order of the engine. Every engine is different. So you need to check the manual, check the internet, check wherever you gotta check to find the right firing order.
Sometimes if you're not using an aftermarket intake the firing order will be stamped right on the intake. But make sure you get the firing order right. Because that will really mess you up when you go to try and start it. And speaking of trying to start it. I'm install this.
I'm gonna go find George. And we're gonna try and start this baby. Now, one of the reasons we went with a universal kit is so we could cut them to fit. So there wasn't extra ones. Because you can buy plug wires specific to a 350 engine.
But they're gonna be a little bit long here and a little bit short here. So you're not going to get a nice, perfect tight clean fit in here. And we wanted this to look really nice when we got done. So there's also, we're using standoffs here. Off the valve covers to hold it out away from the headers.
And we're using little clips to hold these wires together. Down next to the valve cover. I'm gonna go ahead and snap this one on and we're in it. All right. I think we're ready.
I'm gonna find George. And we're gonna see if we can't start this baby up.
Sorry to say that the demonstrator made a mistake. The distributor side boot gets slid over the wire BEFORE crimping on the electrical connector. You can cut, stretch, ruin the watertightness of the smaller side of the boot when you slid it over the metal connector. I've been making wires since the late 70's. You could also add a comment about solid core conductors and the radio and TV interference that they cause.