I changed the plug wires on my '02 f-150 xl today. You would think that would be simple enough, but nooooo!!!

Upon completion of the job I fired 'er up, and , cough !! sputter!!pop!! It ran horrible, I bought JBA 9mm wires. I figured that they would be of good quality. I tried everything, even checking the wires with an ohm meter. Then as I was spraying wd-40 in the plug boots and coil pack, I wiped the dust off the coilpack and saw the little sticker that says what plug goes to what wire. Then I realized that the passenger side coil plugs are sequential(123). The coil plugs for the driver side are not ( 465) . The next time I will be more careful and I will also read the directions first!!

On a good note the ohm meter says that the new wires for the driver side have 1/5 the resistance of the stock wires with 92k on them. The passenger side has at least 1/2 the resistance. It idles so smooth now and revs more easily. Am I the only one that had a brain fart today???


DOH!!!!!

 

Just be careful when you do a brake job!
That could get nasty. I'd hate to see you with the driver's door open and one foot planted in the asphalt trying to stop your truck!

 

I changed the plug wires on my old 95 Chevy once and had a problem. I had a brain fart too. I accidently switched the 3 and 4 wires and got them backwards. It took me forever to figure out how dumb I was. Don't worry, you're not alone.

 

travlnman,
if it makes you feel better, I changed my manual tranny fluid today for the first time. It took me about 1 hour and 1 quart of tranny fluid covering 2/3 of my body to finally realize that I was going to need a suction gun to fill the tranny back up.

For the spark plug wires, I did the same thing on my Civic once. Anytime I work with the plugs or wires, I always do them one at a time.

 

Thank God I'm not alone. I actually thought abut doing them one at a time, but I figured , there's only 6 wires , how can I screw that up?? Famous last words. BTW as for the tranny fill up , I use an old bottle for differential fluid with the tapering spout, and attach a curved piece of old hose (actually old fuel line from some other forgotten car) and tilt 'er up and squeeze. I'm sure the other way is better though, I'm just too cheap. Brian, you see a white st.cab w/ tinted windows and the driver's door open and a black boot sticking out, get outta the way!!!!

 

travlnman
Thanks for the tip on filling the tranny back up. That actually sounds easier than with a suction gun. I changed the differential fluid today too.
Looks like I have to go dig in the trash for a differential bottle.

 

You just gotta angle yourself just right under the truck, to be able to tilt the bottle just right. I'm not saying you won't spill any, but it will definitely be less. BTW I did what you did on my '99 Ranger, I broke out for days because of tranny fluid all over me, are we having fun yet???

 

LOL!!
I walked inside today after bathing in ATF; and my wife says,
"Man!! You stink!!"

 

whats worse is when i brain farted and forgot to replace the oil pump pin on the bottom of the distributor of my mustang (the beefed up 5.8L one) and wondered why the oil pressure wouldnt go up....after about 5 min i remembered and put it in....DOH!!!

 

Yikes!!!

James that sounds like the time I changed my oil on an old hot rod truck I used to have that was "another" make. I wondered why I didn't have oil pressure and when I looked under the truck, with it running of course, oil pouring everywhere. The old filter gasket had stuck to the surface where the filter mounts. The two gaskets combined could not take the pressure. The more I think about it, maybe I should not have started this thread, I'm becoming more and more aware of how dumb I really am!!

 

So is there any secret to getting the dang wires off the plugs. I'm having a hell of a time gettin' them off.

 

No secret. I had a hard time too. Just pull real hard. (hope you are planning on putting on new wires too.)
I'm in a hurry right now, but I'll come back and post on changing the transmission fluid.
I figure out a way....10 mins and NO mess. As easy as chaning your oil!

 

Actually I'm wishing to do a compression test. Got a tap and wanna rule out a starter noise.

 

One time I hooked up a mechanical oil pressure gauge and forgot to tighten the ferrel at the engine connection.I started it up and only had oil pressure for a breif second then none.I was revving the chit out of the motor to see if it would come back up then shut it off.When I looked under the hood there was a stream of oil running down the driveway under the motor and the oil line laying to the side! DOH!

Marine,if Ford did not put dialectric grease in the plug boots you will need to pull really hard and pray you dont break one!

 

on the topic of dumb stuff....I let the oil drain plug drop into my pan....I figured I could fish it out later...and didnt want to stick my hand in hot oil.....well the plug plugged the hole in my drain pan and the stuff went everywhere....to make it worse in my struggle to stop it..I kicked over the open quart of oil i used to lube the new filter. Now I hold the plug tight...and cap the oil...luckily no one saw me do it...I pride myself on the do it yourself fluid changes