Question on replacement Plug Wires

[Hotwatermusic]

Hi All,

Running an '83 SC with stock (original) steel braided plugs wires w/ the ground wire split off of each one. Bought new Clewett wires to replace the stock, and see the Clewetts don't have a ground wire at all. Did I get the wrong ones (Description noted wires are correct for 83 SC) or is the ground wire not necessary? Car is stock in every other way. Thanks for any help!

[mike sampsel]

Depends, the CDI is high voltage. The shielding protects from electrical shocks.
As long as you don’t get shocked or voltage jumps non shielding is okay.

It’s not what Porsche thought though.

[David Inc.]

From what I've read shielding was the factory's early way of trying to figure out and remedy intake plenum backfires. It's not necessary for ignition and the Clewett wires are excellent.

[Hotwatermusic]

Understood, I'll give the Clewetts a run this evening. Guess if nothing backfires and I don't shock the s@#t out of myself, will call it a success! Thanks guys!

[David Inc.]

The Clewetts have thicker insulation so they take some work to put into the old plug wire holders, but on their own they're much better than the current Beru ones.

[Hulley]

I just did this recently on my 79' SC, I went with Clewetts and the car runs fantastic.

[Zuffenwerker]

The Beru connectors have been horrible in recent past! I haven’t seen any fail in the last year or so and I see a lot of these cars so maybe the issue has been fixed. Porsche went full time braided wires in 78 when the cars started using 6 pin cdi boxes with the stator reluctor type distributor. The best option is still the factory style wires in my opinion. They are solid core not resistance per foot like some aftermarket’s. Some cdi box refurbishers warn that not using the shielded solid core wires can result in cdi box and or ign coil failure.

That being said I’ve seen a lot of cars with aftermarket non shielded wires! I have not noticed a trend of failure.

Daniel

[Bill Douglas]

I checked the resistance on my original leads and found one or two slightly different. I snipped 5 or 10mm off the ends and rejoined them, and they work great. all equal resistance.

I remember something about looking at the engine in the dark to look for arcing.

[David Inc.]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

I checked the resistance on my original leads and found one or two slightly different. I snipped 5 or 10mm off the ends and rejoined them, and they work great. all equal resistance.

I remember something about looking at the engine in the dark to look for arcing.

This is the way to do it. I've had two sets of Berus over I think five years fail in a spectacular night-time spark show.

[47silver]

I had a brand new beru set on my newly tebuilt 72 mfi. One wire came apart when i was pulling a plug to check them. When I went to replace the wire it would not catch and Upon inspection saw that the insides had come apart inside the spark plug hole. I had to use my scope and lots of sweat to remove the pieces. I tossed them away as they were garbage.. i was lucky that nothing fell into the spark plug hole. The clewetts are built to last. The boots are better, the snaps are better just all around nicely made.