Wow. You must live in Perfectland, where there's never a traffic jam, never an undercooked or overcooked meal, never a billing error, never a cracked egg in the carton...and every spark plug comes from the factory gapped perfectly for your particular engine.
Here in the real world, that ain't how it works.
(Or you're not checking carefully or properly)
Not the best, but certainly adequate.
Grip the ground electrode (you call "prong") down at its base, near the threaded part of the spark plug, not up at the tip near the centre electrode. And use a LIGHT TOUCH on it, don't reef on it or yeah, it'll bend too far.
That'll take forever. Grip the spark plug loosely between thumb and two fingers, tip down, and tap it gently on a hard surface from a height of about 3 inches. It should take you no more than two spark plugs' worth of gapping to figure out how hard to tap.
Jesus, Mary, and a couple of lambs! This is a 5-minute job working slowly!
NEGATIVE electrode. The positive electrode is the one in the centre, the negative/ground electrode is the one that curves over from the side.
Right, my mistake.
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On a conventional single coil distributor type ignition system, the center electrode is indeed V negative. Distributorless ignition has one V positive and one V negative per coil pack.
One last point...
Many of the techniques I've read in this thread risk dislodging the center electrode by using it as a fulcrum to bend the outside electrode. Bad ju-ju AFAIC. Many documented cases of intermittent miss fires due to the center electrode slipping down closing the spark gap, prying against it as many apparently do, is asking for trouble.
I'm always stuck in traffic, my food is either charred or raw, my last phone bill was for $247,000, and the egg cartons always drip goo. But my spark plug gaps are always right.
My gaps have always measured within 0.002", with NGKs having the biggest overages
The bent wire gapper measures the gap much more precisely and quickly than a disc in my experience. With the disc you have to line it up then sight down to see which increment it is on. With the bent wire, it either fits or it doesn't and you will have more than enough pre-figured gaps to handle any car on the road.
Adjusting the gap is pretty easy once you have done it a few times, so just keep trying and it will become second nature...trust me!!. It's usually a wide gap being closed so I've used the side of a socket or screwdriver handle to gently tap on the grounding electrode to bend it down.
I like the disk gapper. If the gap is too large I tap the plug on something clean, then I 'walk' it up the tapered disk until I get where I want.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Aug./05
Thank you. This seems like an excellent strategy to try (as well as the one someone mentioned about working the plug up the disc gapper until you get the correct size).
Ok, thank you. I need to focus on not being so scared to try things like this. I am always worried about things like breaking an electrical connector by pulling the clip too hard, or hammering too hard an hitting my fingers. I do know though that one time the ceramic part of one of my Autolite spark plugs cracked after having been installed for only about a year.
:)
Whenever I do a job, I always take the average time and at least double it. It used to take me 8-10 hours to do a coolant change (due to not having a hot water spigot), but last week it took me only 2-1/2 hours. I tend to me more of a perfectionist when working on my own car.
And also there are too many replies on this thread to respond to individually, but I appreciate everyone's help!
Julie
Hey, challenge yourself! Break stuff! :-) There's really no such thing as a "mistake", except in hindsight - At the time that you did it, it was the best known course of action. So now you're older and wiser. :-)
Oh, and, yes, hit your fingers a couple of times, or - for a really dramatic effect, slip an open-end wrench off a particular stubborn bolt-head and open your knuckles to the bone. >:->
Or, learn from somebody else's experience, and never ever ever _push_ a wrench. :-) :-) :-)
Have Fun! Rich
You didn't like Bosch Platinums? Is there any specific reason? I ran some Bosch Platinums in my '88 Mustang LX, and I was quite pleased with the performance, albeit that effect could have been due to a variation on audiophool syndrome, where if you pay more, it must be better. ;-)
Thanks! Rich
This whole discussion of spark plug gaps brings to mind a time I was helping a guy's team get a "stock car" ready for some kind of race. That's a souped-up jalopy that guys work on with their bare hands and race on the weekends. Anyway, one of my tasks was to take the plugs from the engine the guy was using, and _cut off_ part of the ground electrode, such that it only protruded out to even with the centerline of the center electrode.
I've been wondering since then if that makes a hotter spark, but then the electronic tech part of me wonders, if those electrodes were, like, polished and filleted, would it make an even hotter spark because it would take so much more voltage to break down the gap, or would leaving them all jaggy and stuff make a hotter spark because the field emission would break down sooner, extending the time that the arc is alive?
Thanks, Rich
On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 13:11:35 +0000, Julie P. wrote: ...
Hold the plug in your fist, with the part where the wire connects facing up between your thumb and forefinger, and the electrode part sticking out the bottom where your little finger is.
Tap it against the hard surface as if the spark plug is the head of a hammer and your forearm is its handle, but do this _gently_!
With practice, you can do this with just thumb and forefinger - or maybe right away, if you get the picture. The spark plug is descending toward the anvil, electrode down. "Bink!" The electrode impacts the anvil, and bends a little.
Nothing to it!
Cheers! Rich
Agreed.
With the ND platinums I have never found one to be misadjusted (I use Toyota boxed NDs exclusively, so the gap is truly set at the factory for the exact application. They are set correctly and the plastic collar is very protective means of keeping them intact. Toyota recommends not gapping them due to possibly damaging the small deposit of precious metal on both conductors. Of course if I ever *do* get one with an incorrect gap, I will adjust it, but carefully.
And the ND twin ground platinums... just leave em' alone. It's not rocket science!
Toyota MDT in MO
The smoother the gap surfaces, the higher the voltage required to ionize and then conduct (discharge). Smooth translates into just a touch of delay, in ignition systems, and just a tad more stored energy (some ignition systems).
Known as a side gap spark plug. May provide an advantage -if- the ignition coil has enough power to jump the increased gap. Clipping the side electrode also serves to un-shroud the spark in less than ideal combustion chamber designs.
Does electricity come in different temperatures?
There is no such thing as a hotter spark. Spark either occurs or it doesn't. As edges wear round, the spark is harder to initiate, this taxes the ignition coil.
On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:06:05 GMT, aarcuda69062 wroth:
It sure as hell does! Those "Fire Storm" glass globes with the corona all over the inside run on 20 KV or so and you can put your finger on the outside to pull all the corona over to a point just where your finger is. When I do that, all I feel is just a little heat, not uncomfortable. Try that trick with a neon sign transformer and you'll burn a hole in your finger real quick!
Back when my pride and joy was a '66 Ford Fairlane GT with a 390 cubic inch V8 and a four-barrel Holly carb, I used to us the half cut-back ground electrode trick and it really made a difference.
Then I added a capacitive discharge (CD) ignition system. I found that ordinary plugs, not cut back, but with a gap 50% greater than factory spec, worked much better.
A Kettering ignition system is just another example of a flyback converter and as such, obeys all the same laws of physics.
Jim
Yup. These young bucks don't know what a real car is ;-)
...Jim Thompson
Forgot to add, I had a '67 Cougar and a '68 'bird ;-)
...Jim Thompson
I'll remember that if and when [either] Fire Storm glass globes or neon signs make their way underhood.
Could be the less than ideal combustion chamber I mentioned earlier.
Totally expected results with a higher voltage but shorter duration ignition system.
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