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I've been trying to track down a really annoying, totally random, morning cold crank/no start condition with a strong smell of fuel. After breaking the 30 Amp Main fuse and replacing it with a 50 Amp circuit breaker I dove back in and went through the ignition system with a fine-toothed multimeter.
I believe I have found the problem but imagine my surprise when what I thought were Accel 8.8mm metal core spark plug wires turned out to be fancy 8.8mm graphite wires. The Accel ignition coils and wires that I put on Columbo came in a bucket of spare parts when I bought "Old Faithful", my '79F, but the wires themselves were covered with a black plastic shield and taped over with electrical tape that covered most of the Accel logo and all of the descriptive text on the wires. I never did check the resistance of the wires (D'oh!), just the coils to make sure they were ~3 Ohms so I didn't fry the TCI.
Four bad Accel 8.8mm Graphite RFI Suppression spark plug wires were replaced with:
6 feet of bulk NAPA Belkin BEL 734803 7mm steel core spark plug wire @ 63 cents/foot
4 NAPA Belkin BEL 727402 90 degree silicone spark plug boots @ $2.25 each
4 NAPA Belkin BEL 727006 90 degree Snap Lock spark plug wire terminals @ 45 cents each
4 NGK and Denso resistor-type spark plug boots were free but I had to dig them out of a corner in the garage, then modify them with dummy plugs to eliminate their internal resistors for use with the NGK BPR6EIX resistor-type Iridium spark plugs.
The dummy pugs are made out of stainless steel 8-32 x 3/4 inch flat-head machine screws (33 cents each) with the heads clipped off and filed smooth.
Since I already some old NGK and Denso spark plug boots the cost to rewire was only $17 and change for all of the new parts, plus a few hours fitting the dummy plugs to the spark plug boots and assembling the wires.
These Accel spark plug wires are only about 16 inches in length but after 5 years and 75K miles on the engine they have roughly 9K Ohms of resistance and were causing the engine to misfire.
Accel 8.8mm Ignition Wires Details:
8.8mm Graphite Suppression
Silicone Spark Plug Boots
550 Degree Double Silicone Construction
Fiberglass Braid
Carbon/Graphite Core
Magnetic Suppression
Fiberglass/Kevlar Core
500 Ohms Resistance
These old wires are TOAST!
After installing the new spark plug wires the engine started almost before I touched the Start button but I'll have to wait and see if I found and fixed "The Real Problem" or if just made a lot of work for myself adding a circuit breaker and changing spark plug wires.
I believe I have found the problem but imagine my surprise when what I thought were Accel 8.8mm metal core spark plug wires turned out to be fancy 8.8mm graphite wires. The Accel ignition coils and wires that I put on Columbo came in a bucket of spare parts when I bought "Old Faithful", my '79F, but the wires themselves were covered with a black plastic shield and taped over with electrical tape that covered most of the Accel logo and all of the descriptive text on the wires. I never did check the resistance of the wires (D'oh!), just the coils to make sure they were ~3 Ohms so I didn't fry the TCI.
Four bad Accel 8.8mm Graphite RFI Suppression spark plug wires were replaced with:
6 feet of bulk NAPA Belkin BEL 734803 7mm steel core spark plug wire @ 63 cents/foot
4 NAPA Belkin BEL 727402 90 degree silicone spark plug boots @ $2.25 each
4 NAPA Belkin BEL 727006 90 degree Snap Lock spark plug wire terminals @ 45 cents each
4 NGK and Denso resistor-type spark plug boots were free but I had to dig them out of a corner in the garage, then modify them with dummy plugs to eliminate their internal resistors for use with the NGK BPR6EIX resistor-type Iridium spark plugs.
The dummy pugs are made out of stainless steel 8-32 x 3/4 inch flat-head machine screws (33 cents each) with the heads clipped off and filed smooth.
Since I already some old NGK and Denso spark plug boots the cost to rewire was only $17 and change for all of the new parts, plus a few hours fitting the dummy plugs to the spark plug boots and assembling the wires.
These Accel spark plug wires are only about 16 inches in length but after 5 years and 75K miles on the engine they have roughly 9K Ohms of resistance and were causing the engine to misfire.
Accel 8.8mm Ignition Wires Details:
8.8mm Graphite Suppression
Silicone Spark Plug Boots
550 Degree Double Silicone Construction
Fiberglass Braid
Carbon/Graphite Core
Magnetic Suppression
Fiberglass/Kevlar Core
500 Ohms Resistance
These old wires are TOAST!
After installing the new spark plug wires the engine started almost before I touched the Start button but I'll have to wait and see if I found and fixed "The Real Problem" or if just made a lot of work for myself adding a circuit breaker and changing spark plug wires.
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