Vent: Switched from cheap plug wires to a quality set on my '87 F-150 and it ran like a different truck

My old truck always had this random miss at highway speed around 55 mph that drove me nuts for almost a year. I tried new plugs, new distributor cap, even cleaned the carburetor twice and nothing fixed it. Finally my buddy at the parts counter suggested swapping the plug wires from the $25 set I bought to a proper set that was closer to $60. He said the cheap ones can have internal resistance that varies way too much and cause intermittent issues. After I put the new wires on that miss vanished completely on the first drive down route 21. It ran smoother at idle too and even felt like it had more pull going up hills. Has anyone else chased a random misfire for way too long only to find it was something as simple as wiring?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_susan3d ago

Right, because obviously the solution to a year long headache was just replacing the twenty five dollar spark plug wires that I thought were fine. Nope, the cheap stuff just does that, it's a feature! I spent a whole Saturday chasing a phantom misfire on my old Bronco and swapped everything but the wiring. My dad just shook his head and handed me a proper set and the truck fixed itself before I even got the hood shut. Guess it saves money on buying a whole diagnostic tool when you can just replace everything twice.

stellas563d ago

Man, @the_susan knows exactly what you went through, that's such a frustrating thing to finally figure out.