Plugs and wires in a 97 SOHC

Aug 15, 2003 4 Replies
D

Its time to do plugs and wires in my 97 Limited with 4.0 SOHC motor. I have a few questions before I start this task. Is this a difficult job? I've looked around under the hood and the passenger side looks very cluttered with stuff and it looks almost impossible to get to the back plug. Is this plug accessible from underneath the truck? Any tips/tricks I should know about? Does anyone have any recommendations on what plugs and wires to use? I just called Summit Racing and they only had 2 sets of wires that would fit this motor.



Any suggestions would be appreciated,


-- Dave Earle


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M

Plug access is not bad. The PITA is routing the driver's side plug wires under and through the upper intake to the plugs. I fought this one, but managed to get it done with limited trouble. You may have to get creative :-) It's definatly a DIY job though. Good luck!

Mike

1997 Explorer Lowered with KYB Shocks Soon: 2003 Cobra Wheels
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H

Well, I changed mine about 6 months ago. It took over 2 hours. Mostly because I'd go cross-eyed cussing out the ford engineers for not giving me more room to swing the ratchet and have to stop for a beer and calm down.

Don't start this if you have to go somewhere in an hour.

I had to go up from the wheel well for the passenger side plugs (back two) and even getting the rubber splash shield off down there was a PITA.

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B

Well I changed plugs and wires last night, (104K miles 95 Explorer Sport) had a skip in acceleration , my suggestions are prepare for banged knuckles, took about 1.5 hours. The most difficult part was to get the wires off, even had to cut one to get it out, plugs were easy to get out, tools used were

3/8" drive ratchet, 1",4", 6" extensions and universal, combinations of these got them all out. Wires were another story at least 75% of my time was just to get them out, new went on easily but had to be creative on one of them for routing. Also wait for the engine to be cold before attempting this. Good Luck Bob T
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