im doing a bunch of little things on my 71 skylark 350 while its sealed away for the winter. But with spring fast approaching i gotta get it ready to cruise. I did a tune up on the car recently, and replaced all the spark plugs, most of them looked pretty good, a couple were fouled up so i adjusted the mixture a bit. However, i have an A/C setup (sort of). Im missing the compressor, but i have that big box looking thing on the passenger side firewall. My question is, how do i get the two rear spark plugs out on the passenger side? Its very tight because of the box thing, and nothing i have (in terms of tools) will fit on there. I need to know what those spark plugs look like, hopefully i can help my engine run a lil smoother after that.
You can either get the front end off the ground and go through the wheel wells, or use a swivel socket, a couple extensions, and a lot of patience. I've never had to go through the wheelwells... Good luck :beer
if you have the patience then you should listen to marco. But if are like me and need to get the job done with as little stress as possible, i broke loose the heater core (aka the box looking thing) and moved it a little bit to get the wrench in there. I had no problems with tightening it back up. Good luck!
Better than a swivel socket is a flex head ratchet. The head and handle are seperated by a joint. Makes doing sparkplugs in tight places easier. Believe it or not, the rear plugs on a 350 are harder to do than the 455. With the flex head ratchet, I can do all of my plugs with just the ratchet and plug socket, no extensions needed. Takes me 20-30 minutes, and I have A/C. Another tip, DON"T OVERTIGHTEN THE PLUGS. 1/16th of a turn past hand tight, that's it.
wow... A standard spark plug socket, a short wobble extension and a smaller body 3/8 ratchet works fine for me. If you really just want to change them then don't sweat breaking the insulater on removal just be careful on re-install. As an option how about putting a wrench on the hex at the rear of the spark plug socket??? they put those back there for a reason! ou: good luck
Sounds good guys, my dad just started sort of a business about 2 hours away from home at a dealership, so he brings me extra tools lying around that never get used. In other words, i never have to buy tools again he brought me one of those jointed ratchets the other day, i never even thought to try it, will give it a shot and let you know how its turns out. One more question, where can i get PB Blaster? Is that what the brand is actually called? Trying to tackle my exhaust leak at the same time, done lots of research on the board and im letting it soak in liquid wrench and WD40 as well as alot of prayer, before trying to loosen.
PB Blaster is the actual name. Try good hardware stores. It has a white yellow and red very busy looking label. It is better than the other stuff. Exhaust bolts are very prone to snapping off the heads of the bolts be careful.
i think goin through the wheel well will be a hassle for me, i have this rubber or plastic thing between the wheel well and the control arm, i guess its a dust shield, but its in the way.
spark plugs Use the flex head rachet and then when you go to put the new plugs in first gap them to specs,then put anti seize compound on the threads. Then slip a 1 foot section of 3/8 fuel hose over the insulator end of the plug and use this to thread the new plug into the hole. when it comes up tight just twist it off the plug. Then tighten the plugs to 18 to 20 ft lb torque, no more.
