Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

[samo_ott]

I know. I know. Call me cheap & lazy! But when it's just a small nick, I really don't want to pull the whole top end off so I was just curious if anyone had done it successfully before? thx.

 

[guy74]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Yeah, I've spliced metal core spark plug wires many times. Just bare enough on the ends to solder, then split a peice of the plugwire insulation long enough to cover the bare area and cover the splice with the piece of insulation. Then cover the whole area with 3-4 layers of electrical tape to hold it all together. I've never had a problem with doing it this way.

 

[dimock44]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

I bought a $3 leaf blower at a garage sale one time. It started on the first pull and ran great. It had duct tape on the plug wire. Got it home and found the plug wire twisted together rather loosely. Of course I did the right thing and replaced the duct tape with electrical tape and used it for 4 or 5 years. You never know until you try!

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Steve, you know i have to say fix it right, but lots of my stuff has duct tape on it. #1 tool in the boat.

 

[dimock44]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Steve, you know i have to say fix it right, but lots of my stuff has duct tape on it. #1 tool in the boat.

Had a canoe with a crack in the fiberglass. Loaned it a guy who said he would fix it so he could go fishing. He did. With duct tape. Game warden was still chuckling when he handed him the ticket.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

I bought a $3 leaf blower at a garage sale one time. It started on the first pull and ran great. It had duct tape on the plug wire. Got it home and found the plug wire twisted together rather loosely. Of course I did the right thing and replaced the duct tape with electrical tape and used it for 4 or 5 years. You never know until you try!

Solid core or carbon core?

 

[dimock44]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Solid core

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Steve, you know i have to say fix it right, but lots of my stuff has duct tape on it. #1 tool in the boat.

Yep, sure knew you were gonna say that. At least you were nice about it

 

[jameskb2]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

I've fixed solid core wires using a piece of #12 solid core copper wire 1" in length. A piece of ground wire salvaged from romex (house wire) Sharpening the solid piece of wire with a utility knife on each end, I stuck it 1/2" into the plug wire both sides of the splice. I put a 1 1/2" piece of heat shrink tubing on the wire prior to this, heated it after the splice was complete.

Still working today.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Nice, that sounds like a good fix!

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

LOL ... OK .... I'll be the grinch .... go spend a couple of bucks on a spark plug wire and spend 30 minutes fixing your motor properly!

BTW - if its just a small knick, put some liquid electrical tape on it, let that dry and then wrap the wire with regular electrical tape for about an inch either side of the nick.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

30 minutes? To pull everything and re and re it all? You work a lot faster than I do. And when I have a pile of engines sitting around that need work, I want to save time where ever I can!

Grinch!

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

Jeeze-o-man! You remove the three screws that hold the recoil starter down, use the pnuematic impact driver to zip the flywheel nut off, hook up the puller and pop the flywheel off, loosen one or two clips that hold the spark plug wires down, remove the spark plug wire in question, replace it, and then do all of the other stuff in reverse.

OK,OK .... maybe an hour if you are watching TV too!

But, I still say, if its just a nick, wrap that bad boy up with some tape and go fishin!

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

ok, ok... sheez... I took it part tonight... popped it all off... but it wasn't the spark wire (I thought it was arcing out somewhere) it turns out the previous guy (who nicely had installed new German coils for me) had pinched the green wire coming out of the coil and it was down to bare wire and it was shorting out to the flywheel... So it seems to have a good spark now... and no TV... but I was watching the 4 year old color on the step beside me... and I re and re'd the points and cleaned em up also... so it still took awhile...

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Anyone ever splice a spark plug wire?

I told you so, I told you so! Always do the job right 'cause there might be something going on that you don't know about!

<wonders how undignified it would be for a 54 year old man to go, "nah, nah, na, nah, nah?!!!>