tune up difficulty
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New User
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 21
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From: texas
tune up difficulty
I did a basic tuneup on my 96 F150 302 today, cap, rotor, wires, and plugs. It took me almost 3 hours in my driveway to do this. The driver side was relatively easy compared to the rest. On the passenger side I was inventing new cuss words, but couldn't mutter them out loud because my 3 year old was running around. On the 3 and 4 cyclinders on the passenger side far back I actually had to take off the passenger side tire and reach in the fender well through a gap in the fender well to pull the plug wires off and the remove plugs. Is it normally this difficult to change the plugs for ya'll? BTW, it looked like this has never been done since my uncle bought the truck in about 97. Some of the gaps on the plugs were about 0.065 when they were supposed to be 0.044. On my ramcharger I can do this same work in about 1 hours time.
Elder User
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 550
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From: Hillsboro, OR
Welcome to the world of compact (cram it in there one way or another) compartments. I had the same problem with my rig and it is ready for a tune up again. Mine is older so I have a little more room but it is pretty bad. My wife has a '99 Durango with the 360. I can't even see the plugs (or the heads for that matter). I have even read here that you have to remove the intake manifold to replace the right valve cover gasket. Go figure.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,324
Likes: 4
From: Michigan
Yeah, the label under the hood on mine says .052-.056.
Next time you do the plugs use a u-joint adapter on the plug socket, and then an extension. I can do them all in about 20 minutes taking my time.
Next time you do the plugs use a u-joint adapter on the plug socket, and then an extension. I can do them all in about 20 minutes taking my time.
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New User
Joined: May 2008
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From: texas
I had to use a swivel and an extension on all of the plugs on the passenger side. I asked the person at autozone what the gap was. She said it was 0.044 and the haynes manual says ALL ENGINES 0.044.
Senior User
Joined: Dec 2006
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From: churchville, ny
My haynes manual was wrong it's .052-.056, Did you put never seize on them when you put them back in?
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From: Wendover, NV.
Another thing you can do to make changing spark plugs easier is to replace your front clip with a fiberglass tilting front clip for about $2,000
May not be practical but the coolness factor would increase and make it a LOT easier to get to most anything on the engine
May not be practical but the coolness factor would increase and make it a LOT easier to get to most anything on the engine
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