Spark plugs
Spark plugs
Elder User
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 638
Likes: 7
From: Birmingham, AL
Most people will tell you to go in through the wheel well but I have a better way, at least for the newer body style, maybe this will work on your older bodied van as well. Remove the dog house and look at the rear of the engine on the passenger's side. You will see a vacum contolled valve with a couple of hoses about one inch in diameter attached to it and a vacum line. Unplug the vacum line and leave the other hoses attached to the valve. There is a special bolt that holds this valve to the engine. It's like a bolt that has a smaller diameter bolt extending out of it's head with a nut on it. Remove the nut and (as I recall) the hose bracket that it was holding on and then remove the bolt. At this point the valve with the hoses attached will move upward out of the way and you can reach the front two plugs on the passenger's side.
A pair of spark plug boot pliers are almost essential to get the plug wires off of these two plugs and are helpful on the others. The other six are easy to do. Just use Motorcraft standard replacement plugs with a little Never Seize on the threads and silicon boot grease in the wire end and take a close look at all of the vacum lines and fuel lines that are exposed with the dog house open. You will likely find some leaking or deteriated to the point of replacement.
If the old body and older engine are much different that the later models, disregard. Mine is a '94 with 351 and this method is a piece of cake except for fooling with the dog house.
Gene
A pair of spark plug boot pliers are almost essential to get the plug wires off of these two plugs and are helpful on the others. The other six are easy to do. Just use Motorcraft standard replacement plugs with a little Never Seize on the threads and silicon boot grease in the wire end and take a close look at all of the vacum lines and fuel lines that are exposed with the dog house open. You will likely find some leaking or deteriated to the point of replacement.
If the old body and older engine are much different that the later models, disregard. Mine is a '94 with 351 and this method is a piece of cake except for fooling with the dog house.
Gene
Elder User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 512
Likes: 0
On the 302 in my '90, all of the driver's side plugs are accessible from the doghouse. The front-two passenger-side ones through the dog-house as well, working basically blind. The front two through the wheel well, which would have been relatively easy had the rear heat & a/c lines not been in the way...
