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Hello! Happy snow day from Asheville NC. Got around 12 inches so staying indoors and working on the car. Was in process of replacing my plugs and plug wires and have run into an issue with the Magnecor 10mm wires I ordered. They are the 49287 wires and the box states they are for 1993 - 1995 Mazda RX7s. My issue is with the spark plug side of the ends. Here are two pics of the wires:
The wires have exposed plug connectors with two different boots. Anyone use these before and if so, what was your solution? Maybe spark plug sleeves? Advice?
The red boot is the spark plug end, black are the coil ends. Straight are leading, 90's are trailing. I am going to guess that you have aftermarket coils, these are for the stock coils.
Thanks Chris. I should have also stated I have AEM smart coils on the car, so the coil ends do not work, as you point out. Suggestions? Order new ends and connectors from Magnecor?
The AEM coils use HEI wires. I used the MSD 31223 8.5mm Super Conductor Spark Plug Wire Set to make mine. They are available in red or black and come with the crimping tool, you just need a vise.
Well, I was trying to not use MSD as that was on my car and 3 out of the six just tested bad for continuity. I temporarily made and installed a set of 8mm MSD Street Fire wires that I am using until I swap these out.
I am thinking about ordering the correct HEI style connectors and boots and redoing the wires but I need to measure their current lengths.
May be worth calling up Magnecor, they may have a kit for some other car that would work for you as-is. Or just get them to make a set of wires, it's probably not too pricey.
I agree, I'm not a a fan of My Spark Disappeared either
^ Hey Dale. That is what it seems this is coming down to, ordering a custom set of wires. Magnecor no longer accepts phone calls, so I have a call into Pettit Racing that sells a 20B kit, but I think it has the stock coil ends. I'll probably end up sending in an email to Magnecor to nail this down.
I will have to keep an eye on these MSD wires then, I did not know people had issues with them, same wires that are supplied with a popular smart coil upgrade. I just installed the AEM coils and had to make the wires a couple weeks ago. I had been running 6 OEM trailing coils and Magnecor 10mm wires for the last decade or so, no issues
^ I too was unaware until I started experiencing issues. The wires that tested bad on my car had breaks in the wires themselves, not out at the ends where you might expect. Not sure how this happened but it's not like I pulled constantly on the wires. These were on my car for about 5 years so maybe the heat or the AEL coil output got them?
Make your own Magnecor wires...all it takes is the right crimping tool. Just buy the ends you need from Magnecor or any other manufacturer.
My custom length Magnecor wires: Triple-R: Engine Rebuild - Ignition Coil Relocation
Regards,
Crispy
~MY FIRST REAL POST IN OVER A YEAR!!!
David, I think he's got a good idea. Since your setup is pretty custom I think you're going to have to make your own. Big trick is having the right crimpers to do the job.
Thanks guys and good to hear from you Crispy! I have a message into Magnecor about a custom set for my car. I made the current temp set of MSD wires on my car so making my own is an option. Dale, you are correct, it's all in the crimpers, which I don't own. Used Addicted Performance's last time as it was over DGGR, so I'd need to get a set of crimpers or maybe do this while I am back at Addicted. I've got an interesting project going on there so maybe I'll get the wiring and do it while I am there.
Ended up having Magnecor make a custom set of wires for the FD. Was under $100 for the six wires, so seemed to be the best route to go. Here are pics of the Magnacor wires compared to the 8mm MSD temp wires I had on the car as well as one shot of them installed. Sexy time!
Nice and clean! I'm jealous of you're driving options around Asheville. There are some great roads out that way. Would love to get my FD out there one day.
Nice! That's reasonable for a custom made set of wires.
Dale
That is what I thought. Made it the better option versus me making these.
Originally Posted by alexdimen
Nice and clean! I'm jealous of you're driving options around Asheville. There are some great roads out that way. Would love to get my FD out there one day.
Had the car out yesterday and yes, the roads are great for driving. Come on over and we will go on a drive.
I’m thinking of ordering some of these custom magnacore wires also, do you remember what connectors and boots they used? I have AEM smart coils.
Good morning! Here is the info off of my quote:
"6 custom wires using R-100 RACING 10mm cable (red), 90° boots both ends. To fit AEM Smart Coils at the coil end. $98.93 plus USPS Priority Paid shipping $8.80."
So, it appears you need the 90° boots at both ends. Hope this helps.
I have the msd wires from SakeBomb at the moment and they are arching off everything, including my hand a few days ago. Not sure if you have ever been popped by an arching spark plug wire, it’s a definite eye opener. They have visible burn through holes on the wires also. The wires have only seen about 100 miles of use, kinda crazy that they fail so easily. Especially for the price. I guess the length plays a part, the coils are mounted in the cruise control location. I think I will also try to move the coils closer to the plugs.
^ Sure thing. Having seen the SBG/MSD wires you speak of, the Magnecors are light and day above them. I am not surprised you are having the issues you describe and you will find the Magnecors to be your answer. They are solidly built and a definite upgrade.
Go the "custom" route and order exactly what you need in terms of the ends and the lengths. Allow a little slack (extra inch or so) in your length dimensions to be on the safe side.
I have the msd wires from SakeBomb at the moment and they are arching off everything, including my hand a few days ago. Not sure if you have ever been popped by an arching spark plug wire, it’s a definite eye opener. They have visible burn through holes on the wires also. The wires have only seen about 100 miles of use, kinda crazy that they fail so easily. Especially for the price. I guess the length plays a part, the coils are mounted in the cruise control location. I think I will also try to move the coils closer to the plugs.
I'll add my $0.02 to this discussion as another data point. My FD came with the Sakebomb/MSD wires, and the 4x AEM IGN-1A coils mounted in the same cruise control location with the SB bracket when I got it. PO had put the wires in new about a year before I purchased the FD, and he only put about 800 miles on the car. After completing my ECU rewire project, and doing my initial testing & tuning, I found that one of the wires (T2) would sometimes cause a miss - determined this with an inductive timing light with engine idling; light should flash consistently on all wires without skipping a beat. Brand new spark plugs, so that's not a factor. Testing the resistance of each wire they all read < 100~120 ohms, so good there. But apparently the terminal crimps are weak and poorly connecting on the 1 wire that misses - if I apply some pressure to the terminal (with a rubber gloved hand) with the engine idling, the miss goes away, and my inductive timing light flashes as it should.
Contrast this with my FC, which has the exact same coils, MSD wires, terminals and boots that Sakebomb uses - only difference being I cut & crimped the wires to fit myself. The FC wires have been 100% trouble free in almost 4 years and 10K miles since I built them. The MSD wires, terminals & boots can be a finicky PITA to assemble and crimp properly, but it can be done. So my guess is that whoever Sakebomb uses to assemble their wire kits needs to improve their quality control game.
So back to my FD, I'm going to need to get some good wires to fix that bad wire issue permanently. I'll either build a set with MSD parts like I did for my FC or get the Magnacores as David did.
I have the msd wires from SakeBomb at the moment and they are arching off everything, including my hand a few days ago. Not sure if you have ever been popped by an arching spark plug wire, it’s a definite eye opener. They have visible burn through holes on the wires also. The wires have only seen about 100 miles of use, kinda crazy that they fail so easily. Especially for the price. I guess the length plays a part, the coils are mounted in the cruise control location. I think I will also try to move the coils closer to the plugs.
i would imagine sakebomb would be more than happy to correct that issue for you... have you tried contacting them?
They would first have to acknowledge there is a problem, which I doubt they are willing to do if they didn’t do the install. There are obviously more than a few people having this problem with the kit. It would most likely take all of us having the same issues contacting them to get a resolution. Even in that case it would probably just be an offer to get a small discount on some new wires that may or may not have the same problem in a couple months.