I did a spark plug and wire change in my Dodge Caraavan over the weekend. It was no where near as hard as in my 5.4 Expedition (that took an entire weekend and a little blood). But it did take me about 3 hours. I has to pull the alternator and its top bracket, and numerous hoses and wires. Whats wrong with vehicles today? Is there still such a thing as routine maintenance anymore? It seems like nothing is easy anymore. I can't remember the last time doing a repair on my vehicles didn't take more than an hour. Sorry, but I just need to vent!!

 

Today? Well, 100,000 mile spark plugs do limit the number of times most folks have to fool with this, unless you have a Triton with pot metal heads that needs to be fiddled with all the time lest they freeze in place etc.

Let's stroll down memory lane for spark plug issues:

1960s, late to early '70s, some big Chrysler V8s, get them through the fender behind the wheel, and remove and dump the A/C unit for others.

'67 up BB Mustang/Cougar & '66 up BB Fairlane. Best have delicate hands.

'71 Cougar with a 351C--one plug you can't get too, or at least that's the way my buddy's car was.

Chrysler Hemi: gas it through the gears, pull over, replace the plugs.

So, your 3 hours was not a walk in the park, but you're not the first to suffer.

 

My 1st car was a 67 Ford Galaxie with a 289. There was more room in that engine compartment than in my 1st apartment. I didn't have any trouble doing work on that car. And I did a lot of work.

 

Only fluid changes. With synthetic oils, not as much of that even. The traditional "tuneup" is gone. Iridium spark plugs and direct iginition (no wires) on the newest engines make the igniton system essentially lifetime. Other than sometimes changing a fuel filter, the FI system needs nothing routine.

If you think your Caravan is bad, the "good old days" werent always that good. We had both 1966 and 1969 V-8 Dodge A-series vans, the ones with the engine between the front seats. How do you suppose spark plugs and wires were replaced on those crude and simple machines? The seats had to be removed and the engine "box" disassembled! The 1966 did not even have hydraulic lifters, so the same thing had to be done to adjust the valves, and hot at that.

Jim

 

Heck I think modern cars need very little maintenance. That may be part of the problem. Since the engineers think it doesn't need to be touched for 100,000+ miles, essentially a normal life span, then it doesn't need to be easy to fix. I kind of miss messing with engines as much as I used to.

Most older models, 70s 80s were easier to get at but I haven't had as much trouble fixing them as I did my 79 TA. I still have "tatoos" where the fender wells cut my wrists and tattooed me with oil. Had to work thru the wells on half the plugs. Come to think of it had to work thru the wells on my 96 Impala SS too. Plug wires on that beast were truly a beast, they ran thru little sheetmetal looms in the tightest places. Many guys just left them out of the looms, but I did it right, took me all day.

I loved working on my 74 Datsun truck and 86 Turbo Coupe four bangers. everything was right there without a lot of hoses and appearnce covers. I even replaced all the crank bearings on the Datsun with just a wrench set, lying on my back.

Least we don't have to change plugs, points, condensers every 12K miles anymore. And strangely my Datsun needed a complete new SET of hoses every 25K miles because one would surely blow when you least wouild like.

Jim Henderson