Does anyone know the resistance ratings per foot or per spark plug wire?

[porshapower]

Want to test my wires with my multimeter. I have the 96 explorer 4.0 with the slight unsteady idle stumble. Want to test them before I dump more money into "the money pit" Thanks Nel

 

[Aussie Explorer]

Something around the 5000ohms per foot mark

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Yep, anything over 10K ohms per foot is considered marginal.

Sometimes the resistance will be OK, but the insulation has degraded. An entertaining check is to open the hood at night, and see if there's a light show near the spark plugs......

 

[porshapower]

Something around the 5000ohms per foot mark

How would I test them? With my 2 contact leads on my meter? Pull complete wire off or? Thank you!!

 

[porshapower]

Yep, anything over 10K ohms per foot is considered marginal.

Sometimes the resistance will be OK, but the insulation has degraded. An entertaining check is to open the hood at night, and see if there's a light show near the spark plugs......

I will look for sparks! Thank You! So anything over 10,000 is no good? How do I test the wires with my meter? Pull the whole wire off? Thanks again!

 

[exgmman]

Yeah, pull the whole wire off, and put each lead from the ohm meter into each end of the wire, do not peirce the boot!

While you have the wire off, wipe the outside clean and check for cracks and burns...

 

[porshapower]

Yeah, pull the whole wire off, and put each lead from the ohm meter into each end of the wire, do not peirce the boot!

While you have the wire off, wipe the outside clean and check for cracks and burns...

Thanks! So anything over 10,000 is bad..5,000 is good?

 

[exgmman]

Yep, sounds right.

 

[porshapower]

Yep, sounds right.

Thanks again! Nel

 

[porshapower]

ohm meter testing of wires.

Yep, sounds right.

Got a spark plug wire. Put connectors at each end and set it at ohms 20k value on my meter. Getting a 17.4? This mean 17,400?

 

[MalcolmV8]

Yes but take that reading and divide by the lenght of your spark plug wire. If it's 4 foot long 17400 / 4 = 4350 per foot.

On a side note I never realized how much resistance stock wires had. The accell wires I have on my 94 Ranger measured 500 ohms per foot and the MSD wires on my 92 are 40 ohms per foot.