Thanks Warren & Superman

"Here is another one that rebutts what Wayne said about the braided wires curing problems caused by early non-shielded sets. "

Warren, I didn't say that. What I did say is that the factory supposedly went to shielded cables to prevent cross-fire and other electrical interference. I have had customers in the past who have used non-braided wires, and then replaced them with the stock ones - and the problem went away.

What I did say is that in the absence of information, I would trust that the factory knew what it was doing with the braided wires...

Making your own plug wires is not something that I would terribly recommend. It seems like it would cause many, many intermittant problems if not done 'just right'.

-Wayne

Wayne's right, which is why I recommend the ends be crimped on at the dealership. It's actually two crimps per end. They have The Tool (the one for crimping those screw ends, that is). I have mis-crimped these at home, so I have experimented lately with soldering the conductor into the screw end, and then do the outer crimp. That method seems to be the hot ticket, but it's a multi step process since you have to go find someone with the crimp tool after the soldering is done.

Wayne,

I was not trying to place blame, antagonize you, or play semantics games ... but, what I posted seems to be a fairly close paraphrased summary of what you posted above ...

If you would like to edit "what Wayne said" in my post to read "what was said" ... feel free, or I will do it later. I don't happen to believe 'who said what' is as important as accurate information on this board!

On the matter of backfires on startup, most experts, or at least people with plenty of CIS experience, seem convinced that it was a lean mixture problem all along, not cross-firing sparks plugs, and that 1981 changes to the CIS airbox eliminated the majority of the backfires. To me, the fact that backfires still occured with cars equipped from the factory with shielded spark plug wires ... is evidence enough that the ignition crossfire issue is/was completely bogus!

As to the EMI/RFI issue, the fiberglass tails may have created a detectible increase in RF enegy outside the vehicles, but that was easily fixed with adhesive-backed aluminum foil, as GM has done for decades on FRP hoods! I don't believe for one minute that there ever was a problem with a steel or aluminum deck lid equipped with a normal metallic grille ... on cars with the unshielded '69-'73 wires!

As for your "customers in the past who have used non-braided wires, and then replaced them with the stock ones - and the problem went away. " ... there are plenty of possible customer-induced faults that could have been at work there ... just as in the case of the thread I cited and posted the link to ...

You are entitled to your opinion about rebuilding spark plug wires, and I see the motivation from the perspective of lost sales ... but I don't see the potential reliability problem. Maybe 0.1%, but that seems acceptable.

I have reecommended in the past that if a new set of ignition wires is to be purchased, the OEM '69-'73 set is the way to go, and I still believe that is the best choice. I also see 0% chance for error or intermittent problems in replacing the old Hypalon wire in the OEM '69-'73 wire sets! Bosch, Beru, and Bremi connectors that screw directly into the wire end ... work equally well with copper, stainless steel, tinned copper, resistive, or spiral-core wires, and have for more than five decades on various VW and Porsche models! It was a technology that didn't need to be changed, and Porsche made a blunder when their engineers changed the wiring style for the spark plug and distributor connectors! Just as with the headlamp circuits ... some design mistakes are allowed to continue in production for decades.

Just FYI for those contemplating building their own, I did this two years ago, am not real mechanically inclined, did my own crimps and tested the wires a few weeks ago during a valve adjustment. They were all in spec, around 4k ohms end to end resistance.

Buy the bulk wire, ends and crimp away!

Not trying to cause any trouble / disagreements but this is really easy.