Lectric Limited Plug Wire Set-New Question

[Riviera63]

Hi,

 

I just purchased a set of date-coded plug wires for my 1963 Riviera. I did not realize until I saw it on this forum that the OEM style plug wires were a different style than the plug wires one normally sees for other cars. I am very satisfied with these wires and how they look. I am also happy to be able to add one more item to my car that will give it an even more original look. I do have a question about these wires though. With the wires they send along dielectric grease to apply to the ceramic portion of the spark plug and the inner rubber surface of the boot. They indicate that this will keep the ignition coil's spark from arching through, or around, the spark plug wire boot, help maintain a dry environment at the terminal connection, and keep the boots from bonding to the spark plug insulator thereby making installation and reinstallation of the plug wires easier. Is there anyone out there that does do this? It seems to make sense. Is this a legitimate concern and therefore worth doing or something one really need not worry about. Any thoughts or tips appreciated. Thanks.

 

Bill

Edited July 21, 2016 by Riviera63
New answers needed (see edit history)

[Pat Curran]

i have been using dielectric grease for years with good results.  You can also use this in taillight and other bulb sockets.  Some bulb manufacturers include a tube of the grease when you buy their product.  It provides excellent conductivity and prevents rust and corrosion in sockets.

[bob71GS]

I'll second that!!!   Anything that has an electrical connection in the engine compartment, A/C, water temperature, oil sending unit, I use the dielectric grease. I also put it on my tractor battery terminals, no rust ever.

 

Bob Bonto

[EmTee]

In my experience, the main benefit is preventing the spark plug boot from sticking to the ceramic insulator.  It will make future removal of the wire much easier and avoid damaging the boot/terminal.

[telriv]

Test the ohm resistance of ALL the wires before installation. 500 ohms per foot. Many have come through bad. Not daming them just check BEFORE installation to avoid future problems or headaches.

[Riviera63]

8 hours ago, telriv said:

Test the ohm resistance of ALL the wires before installation. 500 ohms per foot. Many have come through bad. Not daming them just check BEFORE installation to avoid future problems or headaches.

 

Thanks for the tip. I will definitely check those before installing.

 

Bill 

[telriv]

Correction to my above statement. Meant to say 5000 ohms per foot. Although QUALITY wires will normally have less than 500.

[Lapham3]

Guys-a couple things-First dielectric is an INSULATING term-not meaning to enhance CONDUCTION. So, only use it as per the directions in Bill's post. The other thing is this reminds of a local fella who used this Lectric Limited set many years ago in his '65 Wildcat.  As I recall these were added along with other 'tune up' items and after the car would barely run. Some of us were helping him sort this out and the end result was that a certain production of the nailhead 'boots' were more conductive than not and most of the coil output was going to ground thru them!     Dan    Mpls. Mn.

[telriv]

This is NOT the only situation this has happened on that I know of. It has happened on MANY other occasions besides "Nails". I DON'T & WON'T use them on ANYTHING I work on.

Just my opinion as I know others who have used them with little or no problems.

[Riviera63]

This is not filling me with confidence about my purchase. Anyone else have experiences with these wires good or bad? Is there anyone else that makes an OEM style of wires? Thanks.

 

Bill

[Riviera63]

Hi,

 

Buying this set of wires has taught me many new things. I never knew about the ohm/resistance concept but, when presented with it makes perfect sense. These are new things fr me so if I sound a little dense forgive me. I tested all of the new wires that I received. They all passed the ohm/resistance test at the very outer edges of the guidelines Tom set except one. This was a 30" wire that tested 20,000 ohms. I tested 5 of my old wires which I had picked up at a NAPA in Denver, CO when attending the 2014 ROA convention in Colorado Springs. If I remember correctly I asked for the best they had. The resistance shown by these wires was at least half (or more) less than the new wires. I did install the new wires just to see how they performed. The car seemed to run OK in the garage except when I would rev the engine up I would sometimes get a backfire. I figured this was the bad wire and put the old wire back and that went away. I guess what I can take away from this is that with spark plug wires the less resistance the better. I should put my old wires back on and be happy because they are good ones. I'd like to hear some more comments/advice before I call Lectric Limited back and say I would like a refund with high resistance/lack of performance being the reason. Why put on inferior wires? For the amount of money they charge you would think you could get a superior product. Thanks.

 

Bill

[bob71GS]

Now that the dielectric debate is over. I bought a set of date coded wires from Lectric Limited for my 71 many years ago and have not had any problems. Last year I also bought and installed their

electronic ignition with absolute no problems.

 

No one else is making the date coded wires as Lectric Limited is the only one licensed from GM to make them. if you feel that one wire tested 20,000 ohms, then I would quit anguishing over it and I would pick up the phone and give them a call. They are nice people to deal with.

 

Bob Bonto

 

 

[Riviera63]

Bob,

 

Thanks, for the input. I had planned on calling them. I know there must be many satisfied customers out there or they would not be in business. I had a couple of 63 Pontiacs that I put date coded wires on with no problem. I did not know at the time who made those but, from what you say it must have been Lectric Limited. I just wanted to get input from other people as to their experiences good or bad before I do call. Thanks.

 

Bill

[telriv]

I ALMOST always use the Taylor Spiro Pro universal wires I make up myself. I use 90* boots on both ends for a cleaner.neater appearance by running them behind the head & up to the dist.  Gets rid of the wires over the valve covers & gets rid of the bracketry.

[Riviera63]

11 minutes ago, telriv said:

I ALMOST always use the Taylor Spiro Pro universal wires I make up myself. I use 90* boots on both ends for a cleaner.neater appearance by running them behind the head & up to the dist.  Gets rid of the wires over the valve covers & gets rid of the bracketry.

 

Tom,

 

Thanks for the tip. I don't know if I am ready to make that leap yet. I'm sure they must be a quality set and will write that product down for future reference. 

 

I did return the wires to Lectric Limited. As Bob mentioned they were nice to deal with and the return was no problem. Hopefully, I will not get charged the restocking fee.

 

My wires as I previously mentioned are good ones. However, they are dark blue. They are not the electric blue like you see on some sets but, blue nonetheless. Can anyone give me the name of a quality wire set that is black and where to get them? I would at least like to make that transition. Thanks.

 

Bill

 

 

[bob71GS]

Bill,

 

Since you are dead set on going with a set of black wires.  You can check these out from NAPA. https://www.napaonline.com/napa/en/p/BEL700127/BEL700127_0210216944

If you do a Google search, I'm sure more will come up.

 

Bob Bonto

[Riviera63]

Hi Bob,

 

Those are the wires I do have now and they are actually blue with the boots and hoods on the other end being black. It is tough to tell from the picture. I realize that I can find any number of sets by doing searches on various websites and purchase a set of wires. It seems to be that buying anything quality nowadays can be a crap shoot. With certain things I like to get a recommendation from people that have actually used the product. I realize that getting black wires is being picky and not a life or death situation. I like to get my car as stock looking as possible when I can. I appreciate you trying to help out. Thanks.

 

Bill

[1965rivgs]

On 7/20/2016 at 8:05 AM, Lapham3 said:

Guys-a couple things-First dielectric is an INSULATING term-not meaning to enhance CONDUCTION. So, only use it as per the directions in Bill's post. The other thing is this reminds of a local fella who used this Lectric Limited set many years ago in his '65 Wildcat.  As I recall these were added along with other 'tune up' items and after the car would barely run. Some of us were helping him sort this out and the end result was that a certain production of the nailhead 'boots' were more conductive than not and most of the coil output was going to ground thru them!     Dan    Mpls. Mn.

Just curious, not doubtful, but how does the rubber boot become more conductive than the wire? If the boot conducts and directs the voltage to ground it seems to me the wire itself would have to be "open" or leaking voltage to the boot and the cause of the issue?

  Tom

[EmTee]

Another option:  The previous owner installed a set of yellow Accel wires on my '64 Grand Prix and like 'Riviera63' I wanted a more original appearance.  So, since I was assuming I would need to replace them anyway I decided to try spraying them black.  I removed them and sprayed them with some Krylon flat back that I had on the shelf in my garage.  After drying I installed them and was quite satisfied with the result.  Looking at them from the front of the car you'd never guess that they were anything but black wires.  The only hint that they are not naturally black are a couple of tiny chips in the paint where they clip into the wire looms.  I could touch those with a brush, but honestly you'd need to look closely to see them.  I'm happy with them as-is for now, until I decide to replace them with an OEM set.

[telriv]

To answer Tom Mooney. Originally they had trouble with the boots supplied as they conducted electricity because they were made of the WRONG material. Another China strike.

[1965rivgs]

6 hours ago, telriv said:

To answer Tom Mooney. Originally they had trouble with the boots supplied as they conducted electricity because they were made of the WRONG material. Another China strike.

Thanks for the reply Tom, still wondering what sort of "rubber like" material would conduct to that degree? Or could it have been moisture embedded or bonded to the original material? Rather strange...

  Tom

[telriv]

    Being in the business Tom you & I are ALL to familiar with the oddities that we see on just about a daily basis. Just as ONE example. Yrs. ago I had a few people who I worked on their Model A's & T's. Still do. One guy who had a REALLY NICE T had been having       problems with a random mis-fire for many yrs. (especially when it was damp out/moisture in the air) that NO ONE could figure out. It was to the point he was willing to sell it at a major loss because of this. Out of frustration & being recommended to myself by others he made an appointment & brought it in. We agreed on a time line $ a $$$$ amount to try & find this random problem. I won't tell you what I went through, pride kinda takes over, or the time it took to solve this problem. After much ado I put ALL of my attention to the spark box. Turns out that when a new box was made a graphite pencil was used to make the cut lines for the layout of the new box. You guessed it. The spark was being shorted out by the graphite pencil lines. When moist out it made it worse.

    Another LOSS as far as time & $$$$ go, but the satisfaction of finally finding out what was causing it & the fix, an eraser on a pencil. 

 

 

Tom T.

[NC1968Riviera]

Today I installed the spark plug wire set I bought from Lectric Limited's for my 68. I bought the 1-Q-68 marked wire set.  (Buying them directly from LL saves a lot of money as opposed to buying from OPGI). 

I am happy to report my engine is running smoother now with no idle "lope". I must have had a bad wire in the set I replaced. I separated the wires with reproduction separators from CARS. 

I am very happy with the cleaner look of these wires.

                                      

Edited April 9, 2018 by NC68Riviera (see edit history)

[jframe]

11 hours ago, NC68Riviera said:

Today I installed the spark plug wire set I bought from Lectric Limited's for my 68. I bought the 1-Q-68 marked wire set.  (Buying them directly from LL saves a lot of money as opposed to buying from OPGI). 

I am happy to report my engine is running smoother now with no idle "lope". I must have had a bad wire in the set I replaced. I separated the wires with reproduction separators from CARS. 

I am very happy with the cleaner look of these wires.

I am thinking about a set of these for my 65. The Delco ones I put on seem to kinda go everywhere, and I am not really talented enough with making my own to trust that. I am just a little leery of these, I guess because of some of the experiences some people have had. Glad to see yours running well; still looks awesome!

[JZRIV]

I have installed at least 4 sets of the LL date coded wires over the last 15 years with no problems. I know several others who have installed them as well without incident. My personal experience with Lectric Limited over the years is they are a 1st class company. Any manufacturer can have defects. The key is if they put a corrective action in place to prevent it from happening again.