Hot Rods Ah the joys of what I consider idiot engineering.

I stated a couple of weeks back I was push'n my coupe to the back of the shop and taking a breather from it for a while. I'm back on it now installing a new MSD distributor, wires and also rebuilding the front brakes with all new "stuff". I am intentionally taking my own sweet time and at present I'm making up the wires, just started this afternoon. I even went to u tube and watched how the professionals get-er-done boys suggest doing it. Took my time even doing a practice piece with out completing it because there are only enough parts to do the job.
I did nothing with the dist. end boot cause I figure how hard can that be. A boot, a little lube slide it on remembering to do this before the terminal was the only real issue I thought.
It went like I expected, crimp looks factory, so I lay out the wires on the engine and start with # 1 wire, making sure it is long enough to reach with the wire cover in place, (Hemi ya know), cut it to perfect length, take it to the bench and the trouble with the engineering started. These are MDS 8.5 mm wires with a .3215 OD and the boot is the same if not smaller and it is "L" shaped of course. Instructions say use some electricial grease on it and the terminal and wire will slip right on through. Yeah right. I learned real early in life doing this mechancial stuff if the hole and what goes in that hole is the same excact size it dosn't work that way, especally if its rubber or rubber like, against rubber or rubber like. But being somewhat confident of my todays younger mechinacl engineer colleagues I gave it the old college try anyway. Well some time later after turning the shop air blue, wondering what kind of a braniack would design like that I gave up. My solution was to split the boot on the back side after crimping the terminal, sliding it right over the wire so easy of course and pushing the, "can I call it the hood", down over the dist. and then using a couple of 3/16th wide black tie wraps around the wire side of the boot. It looks trick and will work just fine and I'll not be spending alot of time cursing the idot who designed such basterdly confounding idiotiotc, should be simple enough, install. And instead be enjoying myself, like one is supposed to be doing when working on your pet toy.

Edit...……...I'll take pic. or two to help illustrate my fix when done.

 

I did a quickie tech on this a few years back. it’s so simple with a ball end Allen wrench.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-week-shop-quickie-spark-plug-boots.993580/

Here you go!
All we gotta do is outsmart the wire. The wires and boots want to be water tight. So the slip fit is tighter than a frogs ass.

 

Generous amounts WD40 has worked for me in the past, and you end up with nice smelling plug wires as an added bonus.

 

90* plug boots are a paint in the ... yup.

I use silicone spray and a small set of flat nose needle nose pliers to grip the wire and pull it through.

 

Maybe use some wire heat shrink wrap for the split boots.

 

You don’t want to split the boots, they need to be water tight. Plenty of lube should make it easier to pull the wires through the boot

 

And of course...

• Put the boot on the wire BEFORE you crimp the terminal
• Crimp the terminal
• Add WD40/silicone spray and then pull the terminal into the boot

 

Must have missed that one. Brilliant. Now just need to outsmart that brake fluid!

Chris

 

yeah, them damn engineers!

Oh...the engineers that designed the engine specified 7mm wire.

 

I use straight boots on distributor, like late 50's. Those angle boots look tidy and were used later as hoods got lower.

Phil

 

Looks like you should have taken some time to research a little bit more before you took the knife out and ruined the boots.

And much better looking than a sliced Boot with tie wraps around it.
( We just found the idiot engineering the thread refers to )

 

When/If you get caught in the rain, the high voltage will leak out at the split you added and you'll redo wires again correctly, they are tight for a reason. Anybody besides me remember the clear red wires 60's, when got moisture involved. spectacular light show, car ran poorly to say the least. Sometimes it's not the train drivers, it's the people trying to improve the train.

 

Yeah, but think how much faster it will run with the 8.5 mm wires! Especially if they're bright red or yellow!

 

LOL I thought that turning the air blue was part of making up and installing plug wires.
Hmmmmmnnnnnnn maybe that's why they didn't let me do that when I worked at the Buick dealer.

 

Splitting the boots will surely lead to multiple misfires

 

I always use spit lube....

 

Moroso used to make these with the numbers for cylinder id. Not exactly traditional, but neither is duct tape and tywraps. Good luck.

 

I'm in Washington, the Seattle region, we don't get wet here.
Thanks but the open wheel type hotrod doesn't get out in that stuff.
Using the wire ties one up close to the "L" and one at the end
really pulls it back together close to water tight, but thanks a
lot for the info. (This is why the HAMB is so damned good).

 

That's not the science class I remember. Did the legs move just the same?

 

What this thread proves is that you can design or engineer something to work as intended when properly installed.

What you can’t do is engineer the idiot out of the end user.

 

Do yourself a favor and order some new boots.

 

Yep^ Then lubricate as needed. It works.

 

I keep a bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid in my shop. It works great for lubricating all things rubber and washes right off.

 

just get an aerosol of your favorite brand of Ignition Sealer.
Cant remember the brand we used, but it worked great; might have been something NAPA sold.
Use a little to slide the wire through the boot.
Crimp the end on.
Then, spray some more into the boot and wire end, and pull it back to where it needs to be to fit distributor tower opening depth.

Thing is,....you gotta work fast so that the sealer doesn't set up until the wire is in position.
Follow up with some more sealer spray on the boot & distributor tower, then push them on.

LOLOL

 

Idiot Engineering or Installation.

 

Any reason you couldn't drop them into a pan of hot water to persuade them to loosen up a bit and be more flexible prior to trying to slide the wire through?

 

You’re right @34Larry, we don’t get wet here, we rust.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Thanks all for your suggestions and considering me an idiot. I posted intentionally to get the responses to my spitting the boots and getting the reactions that came. Incidentally I am abandoning doing this, but I should have said I split only the back side of the boot not cutting it completely in half.
Further investigation on my part revels the boot passage is only 8.0 mm while the wire is 8.5mm which I knew. Pretty damned tough to push through with 81 y.o. arthritic hands, maybe you critics will encounter that in your life times also.
I approached my good buddy's at the local speed shop yesterday and they acknowledged the issue and are ordering a special lube they use when making these up for customers.

20 mins later:

Just spoke with summit, new boots and terminals on the way, should be here this week end.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Singed: the idiot engineer himself, 34Larry.

Edit again 2-1/2 hours later. I work with the guys at a performance shop known as Honest Performance. Got a great lesson from their guy, Jim in how to get this done. He is the go to guy for customers and his specialty is assembling these things. He demoed his method and damn it works like a glove. He uses Liquid Wrench Silicon spray. What a difference this stuff makes. Had I went there to begin with there would have been no problem.
One thing more. In the past I always slid the boot on first before assembling the terminal. Since this MSD Distributor cap has male connectors for the wires to connect to you use the "standard female connectors not the "L" longer terminal. That makes it nice since you are able to assemble the standard terminal first if you so desire and it using this LW spray makes it possible to get the terminal and wire through the boot.

I strongly urge you ignore any more outbursts from me in the future and just go about your business as you can see that I am often confused and have entered my "idiot" mode of which it takes a while to escape from. Now entering my "twilight zone" to re-approach the making of MSD Plug wires and canceling my morning order for more Summit boots and terminals.

 

I’m telling you try my trick it works quite well too