SORRY FOR THE LONG POST.....

I purchased a 1998 F250 light duty a bit over a year ago for fire abatement on our cabin in the mountains.
Truck was pretty dirty, dust EVERYWHERE!!!
But with some clean-up, it was a good work truck.
About a month ago it started sputtering.
I figured it was time for at least some new spark plugs.
Bought the plugs and changed to front 2 plugs from each side.
Figured I was just 'too old' to fight with doing the back 2 from each side.
Truck sat for a couple of weeks before the local mechanic came over to do the back plugs.
ALL the plugs had dirt in the plug 'hole'!!
Mechanic did the 2 on the drivers side, but could not do the passenger side!
Sprayed WD-40 and let is soak overnight.
When he came over today I saw him break the 3 cylinder plug.
But after 10 more minutes he told me that he would have to take the cylinder heads off to get the plugs out.
I thanked him, paid him for the work done and told him I would think about it.
After he left I was able to get #3 changed, and got a 'grip' for #4 plug, but need 2 'u-joints' to get to the plug and can't get good torque to break it.

So, is there a 'trick' to get that #4 out??

The second part to this post is that while the truck was sitting in the driveway squirrels (or mice) decided that the engine bay would be a nice place to make a winter home!!
Wires/tubes got chewed!!
Here is what I found chewed....
I believe the wired part is the ignition advance, and have read that it belongs near the drivers side fender, but cannot find any 'loose' wires.
The tube I believe is vacuum tube (passenger firewall), but also do not see the other end of the tube!!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

which cylinder are you calling #4? The rear cylinder on the passenger side is #4.

 

I think the part you are holding is the spout that is unplugged to set the base timing. The truck will run without it but the timeing won't advance. The wires should be on the driver's side fender near the firewall.

 

Get some of these magnetic spark plug sockets from matco. I was able to get to all of mine on my 96 with a 460, if i remember, i had to get under the truck to get good leverage on #4 and #8. I also broke the #3 plug off in the head, had to pay a good mechanic $300 to drill and run a tap and clean out the cylinder, but he was able to do it in place after i cut the inner fender well out of the way.

 

That is the one I am speaking of.


A picture of the exact location would be great as I have looked and cannot find it.
If the mice/squirrel chewed the wires close to where they first appear I am guessing I will never find them.


Thanks, I will check them out.

 

You might get better response in the 1997-2003 F150 forum.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum25/

 

Darn......I thought I had posted this on that sub-forum!

If an admin sees this maybe they can move it over easily?