What gives. I just changed the plugs on my F-150 1997 4.6 now I can't keep the sparkplug wire boots connected on the plugs. About 2 or 3 pop out everytime I drive it. Is there something that I'm missing here? I have the right plugs and these are OEM plug wires. What is it. Please help. A new set of wires are $75 and I truely don't think that my wires are bad.
Ace in KY
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Try pushing them on further. Did you get grease on the plugs? You should be able to twist them back and forth while pushing them down on harder. you should feel a click. Also if you pulled on the wire at all when removing them you may have moved the metal part of the wire into the boot further. So when you put them on they may not be making good contact. hope this helps.

 

Actually here is the resolution to the problem. I took it back to the shop that gave me the tune-up. They changed the 2 plugs that the boots kept poping off of. Not a problem since. I'm guessing that the 2 plugs were just a hair to small and would not hold the boots in place. Sounds crazy but that is the only explination to this crazyness. The guys at the shop, who I trust very much with my F-150, were as dumbfounded as I was about this ordeal. However, problem solved with the changing of the #2 & #3 plugs instead of changing the $80 plug wires. I was so happy that they corrected the problem, I bought the guys pizza for lunch the next day.

Ace in KY
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Hey Ace, Did you try to change the plugs yourself? If you did,
what's the secret? I got one plug out and panicked about the rest. I put that one back in and walked away. Maybe that's why the dealer wanted $600.00 for a tune-up.
It's a 98 4.6L.

 

Yea, it's a pain in the butt. I had a local tuneup shop do a complete tuneup including changing the plugs for $80. They wanted $120 for labor to just change the plugs. Humm, which would you do, $80 for a tuneup or $120 to just have the plugs changed? LOL, It was called Percesion Tune. See if you have one in your area. They are a pain to mess with. Let me know your outcome....
Ace in KY
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I changed the plugs in my 98 4.6. i used a 10" extension and a swivel. I used a pocket magnet to get the plugs out of the hole. Be sure to blow the holes out before pulling the plugs in case there is durt in the holes

 

I changed the plugs on my 97 4.6 this weekend and to my surprise a 5/8" spark plug wrench just slides down into the hole the spark plugs are recessed into. A handfull of different length extensions, a swivel and about an hour of knuckle scraping and I was done! Since the plug socket was such a good fit I didn't even have to worry about cross threading the plugs.........now if anyone could tell me a good way to get the oil filter off this thing I would be set.