Making spark plug wires with the MSD kit
 

Hey guys,

I recently relocated my coils to the driver side of the engine bay where the cruise control normally sits. I had to make my own plug wires for the new location, so I figured I'd post some pics of making the wires in case someone else wants to do it. The pictures are attached to the bottom of the thread. For reference, I got the kit at Autozone. Just walk in and ask for the MSD kit that lets you make custom length wires.

1. The first three pics show what comes in the box. I got the V8 kit, so there are 8 bare wires (not all wires are shown), enough connectors and boots for WAY more than 8 wires, and a crimper.

2. First order of business is to cut the wires to length. As they come, the wires are really long. Per the instructions, you're supposed to cut the wires about an inch longer than you need them to be. The extra inch ends up crimped into the connector. I don't have any pictures of cutting the wires to length, it's pretty self-explanatory. Just use a wire cutter and chop them off.

3. After the wires are cut to length, we need to strip off some of the insulation to get to the actual conductor. The fourth pic below shows me stripping the insulation. Per the instructions, you use the side of the crimper to determine the length, then use an exacto knife or a razor to cut the insulation. The fifth picture below shows the stripped wire. One thing to note is that the instructions actually say to put the boot on at the very end of the whole process. You'll note in the the fourth and fifth pictures that I have the boot on already, way at the beginning. I found this easiest.

Continued in next post...

4. When we put the wire into the connector, we'll need to bend the conductor back under in the rest of the wire. See the first two pictures below for an example.

5. Once the wire is stripped and in the connector we need to crimp the connector onto the wire. To do this you place the wire+connector into the crimper, and then stick the whole thing into a bench vise. The third picture shows the whole get-up in my vise. To crimp it, you just crank the vise closed.

6. Once the connector is crimped onto the wire, we need to bend the connector to fit into the boot. I just did this by hand with a pair of pliers, it was pretty easy. See the fourth pic below.

7. Once the connector is on and bent, just slide the boot back up over the connector and you're done. See the last pic below for the finished wire.

Here's the finished product in my engine bay. Overall this was pretty easy.

- Andy

Great, nice writeup. I relocated mine with Charles7's kit also, and have been using stock TurboII wires....they suck though. Does MSD make a kit like this but black? Would the 4 cyl kit work if they make one?

I don't know about the colors, I didn't ask. I was just planning on covering wires with the blue/purple wire sheath I've got everywhere else in the engine bay.

As for the 4-cylinder kit, yeah, that will work. That just means the kit will only come with 4 wires. I went ahead and got the 8-cylinder kit so I could make a set of replacement wires at some point down the road.

- andy

i spent lots of time considering my sparkplg wire options and also settled on MSD's Superconductor wires. i run stock FD trailing coils and the MSD 8253 leading coils. my setup has fired 9.0 AFRs with not a miss. i run about 24% methanol and pump gas. i am sure you will be happy w your wires.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/4804/p1000830ob7.jpg

howard coleman

Engine bay looks great Andy :icon_tup:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...5&d=1196308782

It looks even better now that I stole some wiring ideas from Atilla :). After I get my hard fuel lines back in this weekend I'll take some more pics.

- Andy