Spark plug wires coming off distributor while driving

zuburg

zuburg

Senior Member
I have a 292 Y-block in a 1956 Tbird. On multiple occasions, I found that 2 plug wires had come off the distributor after returning from a 30 min drive. Has anyone experienced this? The last time, I used needle nose pliers to try to stretch the connector in order to get a tighter fit in the distributor. It didn’t seem to work as 2 more have popped off.
 
Must be Gremlins! :) Not sure how those are dealt with properly. The Shop Manual is notably silent here.

I would mention the typical plug wire terminals are springy just as you describe they can be opened up and widened a bit, and should just snap fit into the receptacle tightly with good solid electrical contact as they are inserted into place, see that each terminal are installed all the way home to the bottom of the cap receptacle. Then slide the boot over the whole shootin' match. It won't hurt anything if the plug terminals are shiny copper or brass either, a small piece of sandpaper makes quick work of this. It is important they fit tightly, not just to keep them from de-installing themselves, a lot of current flows through them and arcing and burning can result. Never had them pop out before!
 
Take the loose plug wires out of the dizzy cap tower sockets. Dip your finger in oil and spread some oil over the plug wire near the rubber boot, then pull the boot back over the oily cable.
There are various types of electrodes at the end of the cable, but whether you have the wire-type or clip-type, re3move them and spread them out a little bit and re-install on the end of the cable. Prior to pushing the boot back down, insert the cable into the dizzy car tower socket and push down till you feel a "click". That "click" le3ts you know that the electrode has properly seated in the tower socket.
Now push the rubber boot back down on the cable over the tower socket.
The cable should remain trouble-free.
 
One other thing, a little dab of dielectric grease around the inside of the boots can make them pretty much watertight, which is the idea of course but, that also makes the boots airtight and slickery, they will want to balloon up a bit at installation and tend to pop off until the trapped air is pushed out.

Take a look down inside the distributor sockets too, make sure they aren't burnt or pitted. A drill and some scotchbrite will shine these up if they are just tarnished.

Remember Bruce Lancaster here always said "Clean & Tight Connections = Happy Electrons" and I've found that to be very very true!
 
I absolutely agree with Crankster's post about the high dielectric grease around the inside of the rubber boots. Not only does it allow them to slip on the tower sockets more easily, but it also allows air to escape from inside the tower socket. The best scenario would be if you could achieve a vacuum in there.
Also, around here (since we have high humidity and drastic temperature changes in the early morning and evening, I discovered decades ago that the condensation created by these temperature differentials was causing my tower sockets in the dizzy cap to corrode (the copper turns green) and causing the engine to misfire. So I took the dizzy cap off, filled the tower sockets with a tarnish remover, and once they had become clean, I dumped it out, washed and dried the tower sockets carefully, then I got a Q-tip and dipped it in high-dielectric silicone grease and smeared the Q-tip all around inside the tower sockets.
Never had a misfire again from corroded tower sockets.
 
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