I don't have AC either. They need to seal on the valve covers to keep the air, rain, and dirt from getting in. If my next set measures the same, I am sending them back and getting the stock Beru's or Magnacores. The Clewett's seem like good wires if they would fit right and make my car run right.

My Clewetts don't seal with the valve covers. The round seal sticks up about 1/4" high. The holes in the valve covers had lots of dirt in them even with the stock Beru wires, which sealed.

They should be sealing. I talked to Richard Clewett and he said that some of the models had adjustable seals to seal to the valve covers, but mine didn't have those. Mine also didn't have the rubber seal on the end of the connector that goes on the spark plug. Also, Richard Clewett told me that sometimes, depending on the spark plug you use, you need to remove the rubber seal that goes around the spark plug to take away the clearance and seal the seal to the valve covers.

On my Clewett wires, the valve cover hole seal can be slid up and down on the plug connector, and fits tightly in the valve cover hole. It doesn't sit flush with the valve cover surface, I'm not sure why it needs to?

As was mentioned in earlier threads re: sealing the valve cover enhances/maintains the air (cooling) circulation......

"As was mentioned in earlier threads re: sealing the valve cover enhances/maintains the air (cooling) circulation......" by kqw.

Good to know.

Doug

Fire up the engine, then hook up the timing light to plug wire one and see if the light flickers. Then go to cyl2 and do the same. No light where the plug is not firing.

Doug,
Great tip!

Doug

I installed the old wires and the engine fired right up w/o missing. The clewetts were tough to remove and seemingly seated properly. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm going to have to return them. The Beru's are still in sad shape - I'll address those very soon. Some may have a better experience with Clewetts than me. It is plausible that I can be doing something wrong. The firing order was correct w/ both the Clewett's and now with the old wires.

Thanks for all of your help!

Doug

I just got my 85 running today after spending at least 2 hours futzing with the wires. I changed cap, rotor and wires, using Clewitts. Same exact situation as you. Turns out 2 wires were not seating on the plugs, numbers 3 and 4. What a royal pain. I suggest you use the di-electric grease across the plug end of the wire. This way once you think you have seated them correctly, you can check to see if the grease has been disturbed.

Hey some folks on this board have luck with Clewitts some do not.

I wonder if the same wires were manufactured/designed for several other auto's, not just the 911.

If your engine is cold, you can also feed the pipes underneath to see which ones are hot and which ones are not. I find this more effective than the timing lamp...

I will be talking with Rick about these wires next week. I have plenty of customers who are happy with them, but I have also had a number of returns on them...

-Wayne

I wish I had known that before I bought them. This tread is the first I heard of problems with them. I never did get the number 4 to fit, I am using one of the old ones. Wayne, any chance of just replacing that one? In the process of attempting installation (over two hours), the spark plug boot became so chewed up that it is unusable.

Gary

Magnecor 10 mm !

That's funny because brand new Beru cables come out of the bag just as hard and petrified as your 20yr old wires.

Joe

Has anyone had any luck using Wayne's technique for identifying which cyl is missing? You start a cold 911 engine and by feeling which cylinder's exhaust pipe doesn't heat up as quickly you determine the missing cylinder. For the life of me, I didn't have any luck. Perhaps you could do a test where a friend pulls off a plug wire and then you try to identify which one it was.

I had the same exact trouble with my Clewett wires. After initial installation the car was missing. After pulling one wire at a time to find out which one it was I determined it was #6.
The rubber sealing boots for the valve covers can be adjusted up or down as needed.
I emailed Richard Clewett and he was very fast to respond.
Rich told me that he was having trouble with the boot/connectors snapping onto the plugs........Bosch Platinum plugs to be exact.
I have these plugs installed and on one of them I removed the plug and screwed on a different tip from an old plug. This helped.
I also used the old rubber boots and applied some adhesive silicone sealant and installed them on the new Clewett wires. The bottom boots help the wire center and guide onto the plugs.
It has taken a few times of screwing around with the but they are working fine now. All seated and sealed. #6 wire is about 6" too long, but I can live with that.

Hope this helps.
PS I almost sent them back but I am a tenaciuos type of individual

Doug, I am having a problem w/ my car now, and did just use the temperature technique. I was too chicken to crawl under the car while it was running, though. Instead, I let the car get nice and hot, then crawled under (engine off) and measured temp at the exhaust port-to-heat exchanger connection, using an infrared thermometer ($50 or so). I suspect you could use a quick-reading cooking thermometer too (like you'd stick into a roast). My suspect bad cylinder was appx 200F, the other ones were appx 300F, it was a pretty clear difference.

As long as we're all installing and removing plug wires, what is a good way to clean out the "valleys" where the plugs go? Despite the plug wire-to-valve cover seals, I still have gunk there - enough that if I let a plug scrape against the valley side, I have to clean dirt off the plug threads.

John,

If it were my engine I would pull the plug connector, leave the spark plug in place, squirt the hole with Simple Green, let it set a few mins., then get out the garden hose with the pistol nozzel and blast away.

Cheers,

Joe