Changed my spark plugs and wires all on my own

[JeepJen]

Might not seem like a big deal but for me it is.

Really I just wanted to check them, but when I went to pull the wire on one I literally puled the wire apart. So I decided to change the plugs and wires.
In this pic you can see 2 of the wires came apart, but there was a 3r, I just pushed it back together. You can also see on the very left that 3 of them, the little metal connector came out when I pulled them off.

While...

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[Kunker]

Any chance you accidently switched the order of the plug wires? And you might want to get your mechanic to look at the plugs you took out...the difference in colouring between the first two and the last four is odd.

 

[JeepJen]

Any chance you accidentally switched the order of the plug wires?

Not a chance, I changed each wire and plug one by one so I wouldn't mix them up. Couldn't see any other way without drawing a map of the wires and the distributor

Turned out I didn't push one of the wires all the way in. Simple mistake. Fixed the lurching I noticed on the ay to my mechanic, and once it was pushed in my Jeep stooped sounding like a go cart.

After sitting in that water for 10 minutes there was an immediate change in how she ran. Replacing the plugs and wires fixed that. Thankfully!

Right now I blame the wires. But I shall be checking my plugs again after I go camping this weekend.


As far as doing my own oil changes, once I have a house and garage, sure. But not in an apartment.

 

[Mitko]

While installing the new ones on the second from last one I tightened it just a little too much and broke it.

NO, it was not becausse of overtightening, it was becausse of no proper wrench used, belive me. the last two ar bit tricky. In my more than 15 years career as a mechanic I broke countles amount of spark plugs :smokin:

 

[Dirk]

Mistakes will happen...you'll learn...we all did.
Changing one at a time is the best way to avoid mixups, good thinking on that.
Did you use a proper sparkplug socket? If you did, maybe it was on crooked and touched the ceramic, or if you slip this could also happen.
As mitko said, over tightening can't break the ceramic. All that would do is strip the threads on the plug or inside the head....quite bad if that happens, but the ceramic would still be intact.

The colouring of the 2 plugs on the left VS the other 4 is odd, as mentioned before. Are those out of the rear 2 cylinders?
The 4 are a little dark, but not horrible, the 2 are way too clean though. Maybe running a little lean on those holes?

And the dirty/greasy hands thing...may as well get used to it. But you could try latex or nitrile gloves. They sell them at the autoparts store, box of 100.

But, isn't wrenching on your own stuff fun and so satisfying to know you did it yourself and understand a little more about your rig?

 

[JeepJen]

And the dirty/greasy hands thing...may as well get used to it. But you could try latex or nitrile gloves. They sell them at the autoparts store, box of 100.

But, isn't wrenching on your own stuff fun and so satisfying to know you did it yourself and understand a little more about your rig?

Feels great!

When I bought the Jeep I bought a bag of 10 of those gloves but always seem to forget about them.

As far as the two clean ones they were near the middle. If front is 1 then they were 2 and 3 I believe. It is odd that the 2 are so clean and the 4 aren't. I will have a look again next week.

You may be right about having the socket on a little crooked. I was using a proper spark plug socket, but it was awkward reaching because I'm kind of short. Next time I will use a step stool

 

[JeepJen]

Tyler - my hubby - thinks the cylinders that were misfiring were dumping too much fuel into the exhaust causing the O2 sensor to think the engine was running too rich. Causing the 2 properly firing cylinders to run lean. Just a theory he says.

 

[JeepJen]

Yay for me
Changed my distrubtor cap and roter last night. Didn't screw it up.
Also working on diagnosing a stero issue. Front drivers side speaker pops when turning on, changing song, station. Anything basically. Also, after about 5 minutes of play time speaker loses most sound and sounds like it's blown. Turn Jeep off for 15 and start over, speaker pops but sound is normal. I THOUGHT it was the crossover in the door. Ruled that out last night. Thinking now that one of the wires out of the deck might be exposed. Not looking forward to taking that out again

Oh and last weekend my Father in Law made me some front tow hooks!