quick fix for spark plug extenders

I had the infamous misfire issue associated with the spark traveling through the extender. I did a quick fix of wrapping the extender with electrical tape. I intended to replace all the extenders shortly after. However, its several years later and Im just now replacing them. Here is a pic of how well the "fix" held up. The tape apears to be in great shape.

Aaron
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The most effective and cheaper way to fix the extender when you have a pin hole or burnt mark anywhere on the extender is to use a heat shrink tubing use on electrical wires or on electronic components. It fixes the problem instantly and last for years. No need to replace extenders unless they're severely damage.

 

That's brilliant & so obvious - which'll be why I never thought of it!. I had one of these burn through on me last year when I was on holiday in Italy. Fortunately I had a spare with me (because the whole country was shut for 2 weeks as it does!)

I was going to replace the rest of them this spring but I may well just cover them in heat-shrink (unless anyone can think of a reason not to)

 

Another way is to smear the thing with silicone grease. This is an old TV engineers trick when the flyback transformers or CRT anode cap started to leak out charge, which could be seen with the lights turned off.

 

On second thought, new might be a better solution...
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Don't have any that look like that inside

 

I can't say that I've seen many like this one before...

 

Looks like something thats been salvaged from the bottom of the sea!

 

Come down to the Gulf Coast.....

OTOH that one might make "one more run" as we said on the railroad.....

 

I pulled it out of a seemingly nice running 328 in for a major service...although I did not drive the car.

 

Rubber boot over the plug hole split, not sealing or not installed properly could have allowed moisture down I suppose.

 

I had one that looked like this. I ended up putting a bit of electrical grease in each before installation, but it was definately water that had gotten in that one hole. The spark plug was ugly too. I had some cracked extenders but never had them arc. I wrapped with electrical tape until my new ones showed up.

 

These crappy extenders seem to be a weak link. I chased down a misfire for a couple months that turned out to be a bad extender. (After replacing all the wires!) The extender in question had absolutely no outwardly visible signs of failure.

 

You pulled one out of mine just before it headed west on the truck. Do these things fail often? I mean really it's just an insulated tube of metal to connect the spark plug to the wiring, so there should only be a couple modes of failure right?

Just curious...

 

Not all Ferrari extenders are the same. Although I posted a bit on this subject a few years back, here's the short story. The are basically two types; resistor and non-resistor. You can't tell with 100% certainty what you have based on the color of the extender. The Euro and USA spec extenders can be different. Some extenders have big internal clips, other have small internal clips. The "resistor type" extenders can fail internally. This is likely what your car had, as the non-resistor one are "solid" on the inside. A ohm check is always a good idea when servicing these cars. However, some are "non-resistor" and made in black plastic. These can fail due to dielectric breakdown. With the black outer shell, this impending failurecan be very difficult to see, prematurely..

Often? No. There are a lot of cars running around with the original extenders. 25-30 years is a long time under adverse conditions. Personally, when I'm doing a major on a 3x8, if any of the extenders look suspect, I replace them all. For most of these cars, a new, OEM extender is less than $30 each. The reproduction crap from "across the pond" is much less. FWIW, most of the OEM replacement extenders have a smaller plug clip. This is a design improvement over the ones you currently have in your car. (Performance is the same, reliability is merely extended. The extenders in your car are of the zero-resistance variety.)

 

How would I know if I require resistor or non-resister extenders for my car? '79 GTS

 

If you use resitor plugs, then no resistance for extenders. Vice versa.

 

How to know if the plugs have resistors? I've Iridium NGK plugs; these ones have resistors? A question only to help other Fchatters. Thanks for the info.

 

What are the consequences of unmatched wiring/resisters/plugs ? Is this a serious performance issue ? Is this going to resolve firing and spark problems some may have been experiencing ?

 

The plugs has to have the letter "R" on it as in, BP(R)7IX

 

Fyi...I have two brand new sets of extenders, 100mm - 1 red and 1 black...email me if anyone is interested.

Also have new wires, OEM and Taylor...bought them a while back and not happy, trying something different and would like to get rid of them.

 

This is so great! My 328 has been running like crap lately, I passed by my old mechanic yesterday and that is exactly the problem with my car, he showed me spark coming from the sides of the extender and since I'm a poor musician, I trying the tape fix tomorrow!
I luv Ferrari chat!
If I only would have joined sooner I would have realized that my old car was the first GT4 ever made, sob

 

I purchased 4 extenders when I found one bad one. I keep the extras in the car in the event it happens again during our travels.

 

I also used shrink tubing on my extenders. I had two that were emitting the discharge from the periphery rather than at the end when I pulled the extender off the plug but left it in the plug recess. The problem went away immediately. Two layers of 3M tubing were used.

 

I got rid of those useless extenders and my 308 runs beautiful in Calif. See attached info
View attachment Kongsborne.pdf.PDF
View attachment Wires1.pdf.PDF
View attachment Wires2.pdf.PDF
View attachment Wires3.pdf.PDF