PITA Spark Plug Wire Boot Removal

[Dom426h]

Gen2 Viper.

Several years ago I replaced my stock plug wires with a set of AB Quality. The old OEM ones were a bit(h to remove but I just twisted and yanked the hell out of em because knew i'd be trashing them so didn't care about damaging the boot-to-wire interface.

Just yesterday I went to remove them to replace the sparkplugs and so far my results on one side of the motor were:
1. Twist back/and/forth a couple times to break seal, then pull while twisting and she popped right off.
2. Same
3. Hard to twist to break seal and very hard to pull off. Eventually after trying to be easy for 5 min I gave One quick hard pull she poped off and gave me a bloody knuckle.
4. Would not twist at all. Figured i'd give it a quick yank like the last one and the damn thing came out BUT left behind the metal connection on the sparkplug.
5. Gave up. She's still in there. As well as all 5 on the other side.

One issue is those stupid(but necessary) steel sleeve heatshields. They don't allow you to grab low enough on the boot.
I like the heat protection, but think it might be better this time around to remove them and replace with the "socks" so that future boot removal will be easier. Good idea?

Are these steel sleeve things easy to pull out with pliers? I think I tried once a while ago without success... Any tips?

On plug #4. I have two important questions that I need answered to get my car on the road for the weekend.
A. How I am I going to get the connection off of the sparkplug? I don't see needle-nose pliers having enough grip to get er done...
- If I am able to get the steel sleeve thing off that would allow me to get some stronger pliers around her but I don't want to pinch/damage.
B. If I just push the boot back on her will the connection be fully restored, or is it possible that the split has her shot ?
Guess im wandering how the inside metal connection of the boot is actually connected to the outer rubber... I Have a call into AB and am waiting a response on that.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Dom426h]

Talked with AB and he set me straight. Ditching the steel sleaves in favor of socks.

The sleaves hold debris & water which is annoying and can have crap falling into your combustion chamber when changing plugs. Also block you from being able to grab lower on the wire boot to pull out.
Socks dont hold water and you can easily pull them up to grab the wire boots.

Also, to reconnect my #4 boot im going to have to push the wire through then reclamp the metal connecter to it to make sure the connection is secure. Just pushing it back on could have left me with intermittent issues.

 

[Doug Supercharged Vipers]

Talked with AB and he set me straight. Ditching the steel sleaves in favor of socks.

The sleaves hold debris & water which is annoying and can have crap falling into your combustion chamber when changing plugs. Also block you from being able to grab lower on the wire boot to pull out.
Socks dont hold water and you can easily pull them up to grab the wire boots.

Also, to reconnect my #4 boot im going to have to push the wire through then reclamp the metal connecter to it to make sure the connection is secure. Just pushing it back on could have left me with intermittent issues.

Even though it was hard to remove the #4 spark plug wire, the metal clip should pull off fine with a pair of needle nose pliers. Make sure to use Dielectric Grease on the plug wire boots and clip ends and you should have no problems removing them in the near future. AB wires are excellent wires.

Best of Luck,

Doug

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

On my 99 GTS I just used a pair of pliers and lightly twisted the metal heat sleeves. They came out fine but replaced with the socks. Tossed out the metal ones. If you do put the metal ones back in a simple light plug grease on the outside surface will allow them to come out easy next time. Mechanics gloves will really save your hands. I found out the hard way too!

 

[kenphjr]

I also ditched the metal with AB's wires and use the boots -no problems and much easier access to the spark plug wires-also use dielectric grease

 

[Grisoman]

Might smear the inside of the boot with dielectric grease to help next time. But someone already mentioned that