Manager Forum

2000 Ford Excur V10..........Ok , Im out of ideas. All nine plugs with new spring and boot kits went perfect. I'm at the last one on the passenger side under the dash and the socket wont go down over the plug. It feels like the socket is going up against a rubber piece. All the COP rubbers came out in one piece and accounted for, so is the insulateor in the socket, but it feels like thats whats down there. Weve tried sharp things, pry bars, any ideas or tools we could try?

Using a small flashlight, hold a small circular mirror above the plug hole at an angle and shine into the hole. You'll be able to see what is in there. Slick. I do it all the time. Have 3 different size mirrors just for such times. A boroscope also works if you have one.

I would bet that it is a piece of an old boot from a previous "tune up" that probably olny got 9 plugs replaced......

I do the same as Tim. The only thing I can think of is if a piece of an old boot was let behind the last time the boots were changed. Maybe someone just forced the new boot down and bolted it tight leaving the broken piece pushed down to the hex of the plug.

I think youre right. Its all brittle and cant get anything to break it up. Modifying a socket has not worked yet. Gonna get more drastic. Thanks. It can never be the easy one huh

With a mirror you could see a chunk of something on both sides of the plug. Here's what worked.
I took a 17 mm deep socket and ground out the inside so it would not catch on the hex of the spark plug. Then with a sawsall and a file I cut some sharp teeth in it. Kind of made it look like a hole saw bit. Then had to make the outside of the socket a couple thousandths smaller with a sanding disc so it would not get stuck in the tube. Jammed it down there and attached the air wrench to it and cut that crap out of there for bit. Then blew it out with air and removed it with the regular 5/8 socket and it worked. 2 hrs tonight. I think it was a chunk of the boot too but not from these coils though. Thanks guys

another tip here. i take pictures of these issues. way to many times i get "the other shop didn't have a problem". as far as the customer is concerned since it was running fine there wasn't a problem. a picture is worth a thousand words. i've had issues that went just like that before i started taking pictures. now i get "i can't believe the shoddy work i got before". it also makes the extra labor go smoother.

I had one in were all the boots were trimed like 1/4 inch off. seems the last place didnt like the fact u had to push hard to make them seal.