jremington59
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- October 28, 2009
- Messages
- 1,933
- Reaction score
- 9
- City, State
- Watertown, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997, 99 and 2000 5.0's
My 97 5.0 runs pretty damn good. But after talking to the sole owner of the vehicle for it's entire life last night, and finding out the plugs hadn't been changed since 2001, and the wires were original factory, I just couldn't handle it.
So this morning I jaunt off the the local parts store and grab me a new set of beldens and some platinum plugs, for what should be a couple hours of fun.
The passenger side was a nightmare. Two of the wires were practically soldered to the top of the plugs and three plugs refused to come out. After two hours of sweating and a half dozen bloody knuckles later I finally got her done.
I then looked at the other side and talked myself into waiting and doing them another day. But about the time I got things put away, I felt a little better and said lets do it. This is where the hell began. The boots on the plugs were so old and dry that they were frozen right to the plugs. Boots and all. One of them, after pulling with all my might finnaly came off, but of coarse I smashed my hand in the process. The other three after similiar pulling and grunting, had to be cut off the plugs. Then I had to take pliars to pull off the metal connector to the plug because they were frozen on there.
Number 8 plug came out quite easy and I figured I was on the downhill slide. Nope. None of the other three plugs would budge.. I break out the PB blaster and give it an hour. I finally got one out. Two left. Not a prayer. I got out the torch and heated them, Blastered them again and finally got one more out, along with a couple burns and the blaster burning the half dozen cuts on the hands. I kept trying to get the last plug and it wouldn't move. I sprayed it again, put the heat to it and twisted on it for another half hr, the whole time picturing pulling the head to get the broken plug out. After putting a small pipe on the wratchet handle it finnaly broke loose. I didn't dare look because I thought it broke, but it was coming out.
It took me 5 1/2 hours to change these plugs and wires. The funny part is how well the vehicle ran. I'll never laugh again when someone tells me they aren't looking forward to changing their plugs.
Anyone else ever have one that was a nightmare like this?
So this morning I jaunt off the the local parts store and grab me a new set of beldens and some platinum plugs, for what should be a couple hours of fun.
The passenger side was a nightmare. Two of the wires were practically soldered to the top of the plugs and three plugs refused to come out. After two hours of sweating and a half dozen bloody knuckles later I finally got her done.
I then looked at the other side and talked myself into waiting and doing them another day. But about the time I got things put away, I felt a little better and said lets do it. This is where the hell began. The boots on the plugs were so old and dry that they were frozen right to the plugs. Boots and all. One of them, after pulling with all my might finnaly came off, but of coarse I smashed my hand in the process. The other three after similiar pulling and grunting, had to be cut off the plugs. Then I had to take pliars to pull off the metal connector to the plug because they were frozen on there.
Number 8 plug came out quite easy and I figured I was on the downhill slide. Nope. None of the other three plugs would budge.. I break out the PB blaster and give it an hour. I finally got one out. Two left. Not a prayer. I got out the torch and heated them, Blastered them again and finally got one more out, along with a couple burns and the blaster burning the half dozen cuts on the hands. I kept trying to get the last plug and it wouldn't move. I sprayed it again, put the heat to it and twisted on it for another half hr, the whole time picturing pulling the head to get the broken plug out. After putting a small pipe on the wratchet handle it finnaly broke loose. I didn't dare look because I thought it broke, but it was coming out.
It took me 5 1/2 hours to change these plugs and wires. The funny part is how well the vehicle ran. I'll never laugh again when someone tells me they aren't looking forward to changing their plugs.
Anyone else ever have one that was a nightmare like this?