spark plug boots of the 50's

[Roy B.]

I drive my 55 and after a while the plug wire boots get hard and brittle and cause a spark jump so I installed from the 50's these end boots , and never had a short. Any one remember these.

[Robert J.]

Re: spark plug boots of the 50's

Hey Roy; Do they still make real plug wire ( not resistor ) ? I don't like the idea of dropping 20 OHMs throught the wire.....I think I will try and use my outer cable an thread new wire through them....Have you done this? bob

[Gene M.]

Re: spark plug boots of the 50's

Robert,
You can still buy solid core wires. Choice of copper or stainless steel. I find them on the internet and speed parts suppliers.

[Jack H.]

Re: spark plug boots of the 50's

Hey Roy; Do they still make real plug wire ( not resistor ) ? I don't like the idea of dropping 20 OHMs throught the wire.....I think I will try and use my outer cable an thread new wire through them....Have you done this?

What 'bothers' you about resistor wires (other than they have a wear profile that requires eventual replacement)?

The plug wire resistance is almost negligible (compared to that of the spark plug's air gap). The technology was introduced to thwart RF radiation (into YOUR car's radio as well as into the radios of cars on the road adjacent to you) as a 'good neighbor' safeguard...

Go run a tail pipe emissions profile of a car equipped with fresh/proper resistive plug wires and compare it to the same profile of that car with solid core wire. I don't think you're going to find any appreciable increase in HC (unburned hydrocarbon) to prove the plug wire resistance is 'robbing' you of performance...

[Roy B.]

Re: spark plug boots of the 50's

Hey Roy; Do they still make real plug wire ( not resistor ) ? I don't like the idea of dropping 20 OHMs throught the wire.....I think I will try and use my outer cable an thread new wire through them....Have you done this? bob

Yes I ran wire wires through the wire plug shielding but you have to use the older thinn parkard wire and you can still buy them.

[Robert J.]

Re: spark plug boots of the 50's

Thanks guy's. The trouble is I think they use a pretty cheap resistor wire (not cheap to buy) in the braided 55 Repo. wires.......They get hot (by the starter) and break down. I noticed on Roy's 55 that he put a larger piece of braided shielding around the wires to dissipate a little heat. Bob

[Stuart F.]

Re: spark plug boots of the 50's

Back in the day, thanks to my solid core wires, my folks could always tell when I pulled into the driveway by the interference on their TV. Yes, they had TV's in those days. Later, as we lived below a long hill, I preferred to annouce my arrival late at night by down shifting my column 3 speed into first and charge down the hill, then backing off with my glass pack mufflers at 6500 rpm. Not only was it noisy, but it rattled windows.

Stuey's home.

Stu Fox