Ignition Wires

[Bones]

Originally posted by 450knotOffice
This is what I get when click on your link.

Sorry about that , so much for sharing information, I'll try and post here with pics.

[Bones]

Here's an article I wrote about my own plug lead refurbishment.

How to refurbish a set of plug leads for a 911SC (relevant for any flat six up to the 3.2)

I’m not at all sure if this is a job every DIYer will want to take on but for me it’s proved ultimately rewarding because I have a smoother running engine and I also feel satisfied with the quality of my refurbished HT lead set. The week before the Brands Hatch festival I had intended to make and install the newly re-made HT lead set but the parts didn’t arrive on time and so I enjoyed the trips to and from Brands and the Parade laps with an engine that had a slight low rpm misfire. I put this down to the measuring of the plug leads ready for installation and my inspection of the HT lead connectors at the distributor cap; in hindsight I should have trimmed back a few millimetres of the leads to allow for corrosion and wear and tear, so I think the misfire was caused by a poor connection between the woodscrew type distributor end connectors and the old and thin, stranded copper centre core of the plug leads.
The reason for replacing my plug lead set was purely on the grounds of preventative maintenance, there didn’t appear to be anything obviously amiss, however after completing this job my engine definitely runs much more smoothly at tickover and seems to pick up better from low revs, it’s easy to miss things like this when you can’t make A/B comparisons of new and old items. I keep a maintenance record which I work through, carefully noting when jobs should be done according to the factory schedule and then usually keeping well ahead of that to prevent problems occurring. The plug lead set on my car is 27 years young so it doesn’t owe me anything, it was time to test the Beru connectors and replace the wires or buy a new HT lead set. A new set of Beru plug leads for my 1978 911SC is I’m told - £187.00. The Beru plug lead sets are real quality items, beautifully made and obviously long lasting, being a tight fisted Notherner and born of the post war generation I was brought up to fix things that were broken where possible and make things that are no longer available and so remaking my HT lead set was really second nature. However the job is tricky and requires attention to detail and some patience, a few tools are needed too. There is a special crimping tool only available from Beru (in this case supplied and wielded by the friendly hand of Steve McHale at the deservedly, ever popular JZ Machtech) and you will also need heat shrink and heat gun.
The parts you will need are plug wire and terminals (Pic1.), connectors (Pic2.), OEM metal sheathing and heat shrink tubing. The first job is to remove , clean and test the connectors you have, you can do this whilst leaving the original HT lead set in situ. After testing and then finding that you have a few poorly performing connectors you may decide it is just more economical to buy a new HT lead set. The spark plug end connectors have a curiously devised male/female screw connection which just unscrews anti-clockwise, these connectors should show a resistance of 3K ohms (approx) on your meter; the ‘wood screw’ distributor end connectors should read 1K ohms (approx). If all is to specification here then all you have to do is strip and remake the lead set according to the pattern you have before you.
There are many choices of wire, indeed you can also buy complete alternative plug lead sets such as Magnecor, however the sets I have seen are not of the same quality as the Beru originals. I chose Taylor race wire -BG 21570 - for my installation it’s the same thickness as the original Beru and uses current race developed technology in the manufacture of the multi-stranded copper core and the silicone outer sheaths, Nology wire would be another option, only after buying the wire did I discover that the excellent Beru wire is also still available, although you may have to buy a complete roll so that wouldn’t be economical unless you were planning on making HT lead sets for the entire club! The Taylor wire retailed at about £10.00 with a meter left over, other parts necessary to complete the installation are six small brass male connectors for the spark plug end of the leads, buy these from your Porsche OPC parts department for £5.00 and six new rubber ‘air seals’, these are the small ‘Pontefract cake’ shaped disks fitted to the Beru spark plug connectors ensuring the air passing over the heads and around the plugs remains as much as possible within the rocker covers. Six of these retailed at £6.00 from www.vwheritage.com. You will also need heat shrink tubing of the correct diameter and a heat gun.
If you are not familiar with the firing order of your engine write down where the leads go on the distributor and also at the plugs. After removing and cleaning the plug end connectors (sparingly use Mr Muscle or similar and kitchen towels to get rid of the grime), I replaced the air seal disks on the plug end connectors, apply some lubricant as you stretch the disks over the plug connectors as they are prone to rip, the modern day replacements are not as robust as the original items so perhaps buy a few spares in case of a breakage whilst fitting. Next clean inside the distributor end connectors with electrical connection cleaning spray and finish off with alcohol applied with a cotton bud, you could apply a little electrical connection grease but I don’t know how well it will stand up to the intense heat in the engine bay and if you haven’t changed the distributor cap and the rotor for some time then now is a good time to do so, these components really do make a difference to smooth engine running. Moving on - now the six brass connectors are attached to the individual plug leads (Pic3.), this is achieved by using a special Beru crimping tool (a common HT lead crimping tool won’t provide the right connection needed for these type of connectors), they are very expensive to buy and not worth purchasing for a repair to one set of leads, most good independents will have them so ask nicely, curiously my local OPC service department hadn’t the faintest clue what I was talking about when I enquired there – funny that!? In my case Steve McHale at JZ Machtech came to my rescue, crimped the connectors on and made sure they fitted into the female Beru ends, a five minute job but invaluable - thanks Steve.
It would be impossibly tedious to describe just how you go about cutting and refitting the leads to pattern, my advice is take photographs as you strip, copy the original in every detail, remaking the HT lead set (actually two sets) exactly as you took it apart. The trickiest part is fitting the outer metal sheathing, it’s like a chain-mail which expands and contracts to fit, if on initial inspection your outer sheathing is seriously compromised then this would be another good reason to buy a new set of leads, fortunately mine was serviceable barring a few minor tears. Carefully screw on the Beru spark plug connectors first ensuring that when the male ends were crimped onto the leads the threaded ends were straightened and screw home easily, just ‘nip’ them up hand tight they aren’t going any where, at the distributor again carefully screw the connectors onto the wire feeling first that the wire has located onto the screw tip then wind down until you can tighten no more. I purposely left my leads a little long at the distributor end and trimmed to size as I refitted to the car (Pic4.). Don’t use the heat shrink tool until you are satisfied everything including the very tricky to fit rubber fixing blocks are in place, apply heat and some washing up liquid to ease their passage over the leads which are now made thicker by the addition of the outer sheathing. The entire strip and remake took me about five hours not including the trip to JZ, (Pic5.) and (Pic6.) are self -explanatory. This job isn’t really about time saving though, I really enjoyed just being able to do this and for that alone it was worthwhile, the money saved is considerable and will go towards the cost of the next tank of fuel!

[SCWDP911]

sub'd

[tomkirkcis]

I recently completed rebuilding my ht plug wiring reusing the existing wood screw 1k ends and Beru wood screw plug connectors.

The thread suggests the reading should be less than 1k ohms. If not they should be replaced. Each and every one of mine had a reading of 1.2k ohms. The readings were so close to each other I have a hard time imagining they are all defective. The plug connectors had a reading of 1.5k ohms which is well within spec

I had some Accell spiral core wire on hand and used it. I would not buy the spiral core again. It was very tricky making certain the male screw would penetrate in contact with the spiral. Several times a continuity test on the completed units found them to be open. and I had to remake the connections.

The completed leads had end to end readings between 4k and 5.5k ohms. Is this excessive? My coil lead has a 1k connector on each end and has an end to end reading of 4k. Is this detremental? The engine is running very well with this wire set but I was curious if anyone has an opinion as to the resistance readings I am getting, and a coil lead with 2 1k connectors. thanks tom