I finally took the plunge and replaced the spark plug wires on my '80 308 (chasing down a sputter). I'd studied several threads and though i'd had it all down 'till i went to remove the coil wire from the distributor but it seems there isn't a screw for the coil wire. What am i missing? How do you remove/replace the coil wire? thanks
The plug wires end in the distributor and contact is made with a screw that goes through the wire. The coil wire ends in the distributor too but there isn't a screw to make contact. There is a little black spring loaded cap but not screw like on the plug wires. Regular plug on coil side but i can't figure out the distributor side. Accel 4040r work great BTW... $31 too.
Take the black carbon center that is on the spring and pull it out . Under it you will see a screw just like the other plug wires. Unscrew and replace the coil wire. Then just push the spring and carbon tip back into the hole. You are now done.
I see...thanks!!!! God i feel so bad now after using so many pejoratives when cussing the Italian designers of the system.
"God i feel so bad now after using so many pejoratives when cussing the Italian designers of the system." Don't feel bad, you were right; it's a dumb way to do it!
The wires can be found at most major auto parts stores. I just followed a replacement guide on Birdman's site. Accel 4040 wires in R for red or Y for yellow. I got the 4040r. Kit comes with eight plug wires plus one coil wire. Enough leftover to make a second coil wire with the included ends and boots. You can use your existing boots to slide over the plug ends and they plug right into your extenders on the plug side. On the distributor side you just plug them in to the holes (with a little soap to lube) and clamp down on the set screw to make the connection. The distributor is easy to remove using a small ratchet and an 8mm socket. I had to use an extension to get the screw off located under the cluster of spark plug wires (retarded design). I couldn't get it to budge using a screwdriver.
Replacing the cable from coil to distributor with anything but a resistance wire can cause problems. I have recently experienced this with my 1983 Mondial QV. My wires to the spark plugs are solid copper (or stainless steel) and I am running Bosch WR7DC resistor plugs. Problem was sporadic ignition at idle with backfiring and above idle there was a loss of performance. The original problem was that I was only firing on one bank of cylinders, which I traced to a defective resistance cable from coil-to-distributor. I later replace both of the cables with solid copper cables. That is when my problems began, but not right away. After a few hundred miles, the tach was unsteady and the ignition started to break-up throughout the engine speed range. So I O'scoped-out all crank sensors, installed redundant grounding, installed an iginition switch bypass relay to provide charging voltage directly to the Digiplexes. Probem still persisted. Finally, after running out of possible fixes, I replaced the copper core cables with the original resistance cables but with no effect. I then sent the one Digiplexes that feeds the tack to Jose Pain of ecudoctors.com, who found problems and repaired the unit. The car ran better but still had problems. I sent the other unit to him and he found a problem with an intermittent wire connection to the ceramic PC board. Normally, there is no way of re-attaching components or wires to this board using conventional soldering. However, he has a technique of doing this now. With both Marelli units overhauled, the car ran better but still had sporadic ignition and backfiring at idle. So as a test measure, I inserted a 5K ohm 1-watt carbon composition resistor at each ignition coil. Problem solved! Then I replaced each coil to distributor cable with a resistance cable having about 4K ohms resistance. I believe that the use of low resistance solid copper or stainless steel core cable between coil and distributor causes some sort of crossfiring that in many cases could be incorrectly attributed to defective Marelli Digiplexes. The inclusion of this cable within the bundle of cables that enter the boot around the distributor cap may be the cause. In any event, my Mondial runs better than ever now. It took me over two months to straighten things out.
Thanks for the heads up and description. A few questions. Wasn't your car having misfire with the original coil resistor wires? You say when you replaced the cables with solid non resistor wires your problems began but wern't you having problems originally that caused you to replace the wires? Maybe i'll just keep the magnecor coil wires with resistance (i think they're resistor wires) and use the accel wires to the plugs and see if that fixes the problem. It sounds like in your case the spark was jumping to the points or you were having induction of some kind without the resistance. I was a little concerned about using these wires but fiqured i had resistance with the black extenders but had never thought about resistance from coil to distributor. I guess where the resistance is in the chain makes a difference in some cases. BTW: the wires are 3000 to 7000 ohms per foot of resistance...says they are a composite graphite core and that tin ones are also available. Accell 4040
The idea that solid wires are better than resistance wires is based on some old ideas, not on reality. Originally, resistance wires were just carbon impregnated cotton or other fibre and they tended to break down after fairly low mileage. So us "hot rodders" replaced them with solid wires. Resistance wires were used by carmakers because solid wires caused extreme static in the car radio (and adjacent cars' radios). The military used solid core wires but with a metal shield around them to eliminate the interference but this was an extremely expensive solution and not practical for street cars. In the late 60's, spiral metal core resistance wires became available, which essentially eliminated the wear-out problem of the old carbon wires. These types of wires have become common now because resistance wires are even more important than they used to be. In the old days solid core wires just affected your (and other people's) radio. Today, they can totally disrupt the electronic engine controls. Contrary to popular belief, there is no power to be gained by running solid core wires and non-resistor plugs. BUT running this combination can cause all sorts of electronic engine system problems. The more complex the system, the greater the potential for difficult-to-diagnose problems. Either the plugs or the wires need to be resistor types and with the specified resistance to ensure no problems with the eng management systems.
I have a 1984 QV. There are several posts stating that Accel 4040 is the wire of choice. Though their specifications are confusing to me: http://go.mrgasket.com/newproducts/CAT_PDF/ACCEL.pdf Accel's Superstock Spiral wire is 500 Ohm per foot, apparently the Covis replacement. These are the 5000 series cables. I would prefer avoiding them. Accel's Superstock wire is 3000 - 7000 Ohm per foot. My preference, as I have non-resistive plugs and I plan on running the wires directly, by "fishing" the plugs as others have done. (Too many posts discussing extender problems). On page 24, I can't tell if the 4040 has the tin copper tin core or the high resistive carbon graphite conductor. Has anybody measured the resistance on the Accel 4040 cables? Is it in the order of 1000 Ohm for the 2 ft wires or is it in the 10,000 Ohm range? Thanks in advance.
