Best place to buy braided wires??

[Christopher A.]

I bought a set of dated braided wires and they have had major issues. I am not sure where they were made, but 3 of them have failed so far with less than 250 miles total on the plug wires.

So, before i throw a hundred or so bucks at another set of wires, I thought i would ask where to buy 66 braided wires with the correct clips. At this point, i do not care if they are dated. I will take a point deduction to have decent wires that work correctly.

Thanks

[Mike M.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

remove the crappy plug wires from the braded external sheath, then insert packard 440 wires into the braded sheaths, then use the ends off the defective plug wires to make a new set.mike

[Christopher A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

How do you manage to snake the new wires into the braided stainless mesh? Any tips?

Thanks so much!

[Ken A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

Compress them like a Chinese finger puzzle.

[Christopher A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

Ill give it a go, but only one at a time. Something tells me this is going to be a bit time consuming.

[Bill C.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

Compress them like a Chinese finger puzzle.

I have not been able to remove the braid from existing wires, the braiding fits very snugly and attempting the reverse finger puzzle has not been fruitful.
It will not open up and expand.

The wires are from Lectric limited, is the other suppliers braiding wound looser allowing it to expand for wire removal and installation of new ones?

[Clem Z.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

back in the day i was able to change the cable in the original GM shielding with no problems

[Ken A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

I have not been able to remove the braid from existing wires, the braiding fits very snugly and attempting the reverse finger puzzle has not been fruitful.
It will not open up and expand.

The wires are from Lectric limited, is the other suppliers braiding wound looser allowing it to expand for wire removal and installation of new ones?

The "finger" method works easily with GM wires. Also used to work with the repo sets, as well. Cut off the spark plug end & slide back toward the distributor end. The factory print called for some tape on the distributor end to keep the braid from sliding off.

[Tom L.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

Has anyone contacted Lectric Limited to see if they'd make a set of wires with the type of wire Mike M reccomends? I have not had conductivity problems with my wires (yet) but that may be a solution and make a lot of people happy.

[Christopher A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

I'm going to call them on Monday and simply see if i can send these wires back to be fixed. Well, that is assuming they are the ones that made the wires. I bought them from Corvette Central in spring of 2009 and they are the dated version. I don't know why they would not use a high quality wire, but clearly from my own experience and what i have read here and elsewhere, these wires fail quite frequently. I have seen other cars with AC delco wires in the shielding, but they were the 67 up design that have the ground terminal which bolts to the shielding and does not clip on like the 66 design.

[Scott K.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

I'm going to call them on Monday and simply see if i can send these wires back to be fixed. Well, that is assuming they are the ones that made the wires. I bought them from Corvette Central in spring of 2009 and they are the dated version. I don't know why they would not use a high quality wire, but clearly from my own experience and what i have read here and elsewhere, these wires fail quite frequently. I have seen other cars with AC delco wires in the shielding, but they were the 67 up design that have the ground terminal which bolts to the shielding and does not clip on like the 66 design.

Christopher, we're sorry to hear of your experience with these wires. However, they have a warranty (including those purchased in 2009). You can send them back to us and we will replace them. Please reference this post when arranging for the return.

[Jeff A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

Christopher, we're sorry to hear of your experience with these wires. However, they have a warranty (including those purchased in 2009). You can send them back to us and we will replace them. Please reference this post when arranging for the return.

Scott,
It's gratifying to hear that your company is willing to step up to the plate for Christopher. The overarching issue, however, is the poor quality of the braided wires currently available on the market (most, if not all of which are supplied by Lectric Limited). Just check the archives for a litany of failure stories. Based on those tales of woe, I used my reproduction wires once for judging, then replaced them with the old, somewhat scuzzy, but trustworthy wires. There are a lot of us big block guys who would jump at the chance to purchase a reliable set of braided wires, dated or not. I see a money making opportunity. Any chance that CC would be willing to take on the challenge?
Jeff

[Scott K.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

This brings up an interesting point. If we are discussing big block cars, then it's a safe assumption that customers are using transistorized ignition (TI).


Just as GM did, Lectric Limited uses 7mm Packard carbon-core wire. This wire type is suitable for non-TI cars. However, for cars with TI, the wires get pushed to their voltage limit. If customers were to upgrade their wires from the 7mm to 8mm wire, that would have better insulation properties. However, the 8mm wire will not fit through the metal spark plug wire holders/retainers. As a result, use of 8mm wire is not a viable option.


Additionally, Lectric Limited recommends against using di-electric grease on any part of the spark plug wire's terminal. It will cause higher resistance through the spark plug wires. On a wire that's already pushed to its voltage carrying limit, this resistance can cause ignition problems.

[Christopher A.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

This brings up an interesting point. If we are discussing big block cars, then it's a safe assumption that customers are using transistorized ignition (TI).


Just as GM did, Lectric Limited uses 7mm Packard carbon-core wire. This wire type is suitable for non-TI cars. However, for cars with TI, the wires get pushed to their voltage limit. If customers were to upgrade their wires from the 7mm to 8mm wire, that would have better insulation properties. However, the 8mm wire will not fit through the metal spark plug wire holders/retainers. As a result, use of 8mm wire is not a viable option.


Additionally, Lectric Limited recommends against using di-electric grease on any part of the spark plug wire's terminal. It will cause higher resistance through the spark plug wires. On a wire that's already pushed to its voltage carrying limit, this resistance can cause ignition problems.

Unfortunately, this issue is not just isolated to 427 cars equipped with the transistorized ignition.
There should be high quality 7mm wires on the market that can handle the factory TI system. However, you do bring up an interesting point....when cars have their TI systems rebuilt with upgraded components, then perhaps the voltage is too much for the smaller wires.

[Wayne M.]

Re: Best place to buy braided wires??

This thread, as part of its title, so far seems to concentrate on the wire and not the braiding. My question is: Is the factory original braid weave detectably different from later Delco service sets, and more recently, repop wire sets ?