65 BB (maybe 66-7) RH spark plug wire routing

[Wayne M.]

'65 AIM has a drawing (UPC U69, Sht. A11) that shows an orientation at the rubber grommet that goes into the pasenger side distributor shield support bracket as I've shown in thumbnail below. I've superimposed the sketches over the Burrough's restoration photo of a 396 (Michael H's old car)[page 88], and his wiring arrangement seems to agrees with the AIM, although it ain't elegant .

Is this typical factory configuration that the judges look for ?

Notice that plug wire for # 8 cylinder goes OVER #4 wire between the grommet and the black plastic retainer (known as the "3+1" because of the offset of the end slot), and then goes UNDER the #6 wire before attaching to the plug. The wires coming immediately off the distributor cap connections are shown as view 'B', and have a somewhat different routing than the view for the 'other' 90 degree boots found on fuel cars.

UPC L78, sht. B3 (ie. without radio) shows the wire numbers that go through the DIVER side grommet, and there appears to be general agreement with this logical arrangement on many cars, with or without radio.

I post this question because you hardly ever see this RH configuration, even on magazine road test cars in the 1965-6-7 period. Were there revisions in the latter C2 years ? What is the reason for the 3+1 separation of the end wire ? On one side of my retainer it is marked "Outside", and if mounted on the valve cover stand facing the fender, then the isolated wire slot faces the front of the car, not the back. In fact, it shows this way on a GM photo of June 1965.

[William C.]

Re: 65 BB (maybe 66-7) RH spark plug wire routing

Generally seperated wire paths were the result of engineers being concerned about "Crossfire" due to inductive coupling between the parallel wires. Real or imagined, that is the rationalle generally used for some of the "less than intuitive" wire routings.

[Michael H.]

Re: 65 BB (maybe 66-7) RH spark plug wire routing

I post this question because you hardly ever see this RH configuration, even on magazine road test cars in the 1965-6-7 period. Were there revisions in the latter C2 years ? What is the reason for the 3+1 separation of the end wire ? On one side of my retainer it is marked "Outside", and if mounted on the valve cover stand facing the fender, then the isolated wire slot faces the front of the car, not the back. In fact, it shows this way on a GM photo of June 1965.

I agree Wayne. I always thought that the wire slot that was separated from the others was to be in the front for cyl #2. I'm not sure though.

I have an overhead shot of a new 66 425 HP car that may show us. I'll dig it out.

The 66 AIM appears to be the same as the 65 in the routing and clock position of the wire retainer.

I can look at my 66 but, as I remember, it had a more conventional wire stantion on the right side. I don't remember it having one wire that was separated from the others. Probably incorrect??

[Michael H.]

Re: 65 BB (maybe 66-7) RH spark plug wire routing

I post this question because you hardly ever see this RH configuration, even on magazine road test cars in the 1965-6-7 period. Were there revisions in the latter C2 years ? What is the reason for the 3+1 separation of the end wire ? On one side of my retainer it is marked "Outside", and if mounted on the valve cover stand facing the fender, then the isolated wire slot faces the front of the car, not the back. In fact, it shows this way on a GM photo of June 1965.

Wayne.... I just dug out a picture of a new early production 66 425 HP car. I noticed that the RH wire retainer/stantion is different than the one shown in the 66 AIM.
The 66 AIM drawing shows the same retainer with one wire separated from the others. I wonder if the part number changed from 65 to 66? The 66 number is 2977555.