Doing some of my maintenance items on the 86 and found a couple of things, one good and one not so good.

I had planned to change out the bushings in the rear. When I got into it, looks like they changed them on the dogbones etc the same time they changed out them on the swaybars, just used black instead of red like used on the swaybar so it wasn't as obvious till it was in the air. They look good and seemed tight based on my checks so if it's not broken, don't fix it.

Now for the possible not-so-good. Last year I had Chevy do a tuneup because I wasn't sure if the old plugs had ever been changed and this has the aluminum heads on it and I'm not set up to deal with stripped heads. Anyway they didn't do the best of routing on the plugwires, so picked up some wire looms to help keep the wires a little neater. While putting them on, found leftover plugwire insulation on one spot on the exhaust manifold and 2 on the air pipe adapters off the manifolds. It wasn't off the new set so it had to be off the old ones. Got some exhaust wrap to help insulate those areas and got the wires so they're clear of hot things.

If you haven't looked at yours lately, might be worth a peek to insure your plugwires aren't touching something they shouldn't.

I've dealt with burnt plug wires myself. Good idea to get some type of loom and use some zip ties like you are doing. Since I have headers, I'm also using heat resistant plug boot covers.

Double post.

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I ordered some plug wire socks/sleeves the other day also as I could not find any locally, cheap if they prevent any future issues with burnt wires. I also ordered some stainless steel straps for the wrap. I used some hose clamps for now for holding the insulation for now but don't care for the sharp edges even when I trimmed them back. Might as well make it less blood letting if I stick a hand too close some time in the future and it doesn't hurt if it looks pretty. ;-)

Post some pics when you're done!

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Will do. The sleeves won't be here for a week or two so it may take a little time before I can get them and put them on.

Making a little progress, won't finish it till next week when I have more time and hopefully the straps will come in.
The sleeves I ordered have a metal ring in one end that won't fit over the boot, assume it's to hold it close to the wire. I'm leery of trying to get the boots off without potentially damaging the core, so I took a wire cutter and snipped those rings to open up that end. They slide over the boots easily with that little mod.

I've put 2 on and I'll need to do a little more fitting to straighten them up but so far it's looking good. Took a picture of some of the materials I'm using along with the loom clips I got on the engine. I also have a new cover for the egr tube but again that will wait till I get those stain steel straps.

The pipe wrap lists not for headers but being it's on the air tube I think it will be fine and the sleeves are treated fiberglass and say they can be in contact with headers etc without a problem.

That's where I'm at for the moment. Being the car is red, using red parts where I can seems to make sense, should look pretty when done.

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Those jpg's don't want to open, so here goes again:
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1st shot is with 2 of the sleeves on, the air tube wrapped and the looms installed.

The 2d is what the material looked like. I have yet to get the wire bands.

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I did the same exact thing. I cut the rings and removed them completely, no ill effects.

Good progress!

PS - use the "html" code from photobucket for your photos.

Took a little time today and got the last of the boots on along with a EGR cover. I still want to do a little more fitting on the #1 & #2 cylinders, they're caught on something but I sliced my hand up getting on what I did so it can wait a while, there was another hoseclamp down there I caught my hand on.

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Hopefully it will help protect the plug wires some. I did find a thing or two while in there. I found the 6 & 8 wires were wrapped around each other as well as the 5 & 7 both below the Air injector tubes above the exhaust manifold. I've never seen that before on any engine I've worked on so I straightened them out right away. Probably all in my head but I swear it idles better since doing this work than before.

Now the only thing left for this project is getting those stainless steel ties in and in place plus a little straightening and that's one more off the list.

I did take it one step further. I grabbed a fire extinguisher out of the shop and put it in the car just-in-case. Never rely on anything till it's proven over time. Better safe than sorry.

Paul

Nice work!

It is a good idea to reroute the plug wires like you did, they can interfere with each other if they are touching so you are not imagining things. How old are they? Did you inspect them for cracks/wear. If you run the car in the dark and mist a little water around the wires you can check for arcing/cracks.

The plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor (a full tuneup) was done last summer, maybe 500-1000 miles ago.
I had the Chevy garage do it only because I was fearful that the plugs in there might be original to the engine, or at least 'real old'. I was worried that the plugs could be seized in the aluminum heads, and I'm not set up to deal with that. Better to have it done somewhere by someone that is set up to do it was my logic behind having Chevy do it. Obviously that may not have been the best decision, but it got done and that was the main reason to get it taken care of.

I got the stainless steel straps in the mail but working through how to install and cut to length without leaving sharp edges was my concern. I was looking around and found what may be my solution. I found what looks like a 1/4" socket wrench extension but instead of fitting a socket, it has a slot in the end. You cut the straps back then slip this over the end of the tab and using a socket wrench, you 'roll' the end of the tab into a nice loop which is also supposed to tighten the strap at the same time.
I ordered one, for under $5 including shipping, seems like a nobrainer to give it a try and I have enough extra straps in case I screw up a couple. It's going to be another week or two before it's here, I'll let you know how it works out.

I just went out tonight and got a new battery. The one in the car when I bought it was pretty much junk. I had a leftover I bought for my one daughter but the car got junked about a year later and I kept the battery. It sat on the shelf for maybe a year between the junking of her car and me purchasing the Vette. A little small but it worked for the time being. It's over 4 years old now and getting bad holding a charge over time, so time for a new one. I got one with the highest CCA value (700) for a decent price with a reasonable warranty. I plan to put that in this weekend.

That's where I'm at for now.

Post a picture of that socket when you get it, I'd like to see it.

As far as the battery, it helps to have a thin "tappet style" wrench to get the bolts loose on the side panel for removal.

Took care of the battery and a bubba left over. I know what you mean on the wrench. When I bought the car and had to change the battery early on, whoever changed it previous time slipped the tab on that bottom panel between the bolt head and the washer before tightening it up. They effectively dug the head into the glass. That was a bear to get loose with the minimum clearance. My Craftsman wrenches wouldn't fit through the slot but I had a set of HF combo wrenches I'd picked up that fit the slot just fine.
Figured while in there, I'm undo the Bubba leftover there.
PO had the original 4+3 changed out for a Tremec 5 speed.
Transmission replacement looked good until you got to some of the wiring, that's where Bubba stuck his nose into the job again. There's a Dakota Digital converter box that changes the signal and makes it compatable with existing speedometer. They put it in a little box under the cruise unit between it and the battery. Unfortunately you need to have access to it while driving or use a chassis dyno to adjust the conversion factor, it was off by several mph. I added some wire to get the box so it will go inside while driving last year. That was part one. Part two was it needs power, Bubba knocked out the lug on the positive battery cable and replaced it with one that has a stud on it and wired the power there plus had a large ringlet on the ground wire and put it between the negative battery cable and the battery. I changed the wire ends and moved the negative to the firewall and positive to that positive terminal junction between the battery and the firewall. Two more Bubba finger prints gone.

After I do the straps, figuring out where I want to mount a battery cutoff switch in the negative cable. This will be after doing the straps so I'm just figuring it out for now. I picked up a nice heavy duty battery cutoff switch from Summit Racing last year. My initial looks indicate it likely will have to go in the well ahead of the driverside front wheel. I'll need to find where the end of the negative cable and that smaller wire go to. Once i find those points then it will be getting new cables to run to where the switch will mount and a new cable to run to the same point. I think those I can buy or get made and I'll also need to make up a mount to hang the switch off the frame. Because of the increased length, I'm guessing I'll have to go with something like 4 gauge to insure it can handle everything due to the increased length vs the original negative cable.

sounds like you need a good soldering iron!! I recommend the Weller SP80.

Good crimpers are important, too.

Got a good Weller along with a soldering tip on the torch. That's good but found another issue, I'm going to start a separate thread on that issue.

In post #14 you wrote "moved negative to firewall". Do you plan on a ground strap from firewall to engine/frame?

Joel

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Joel

The Dakota Digital converter that's used to change the transmission signal from the Tremec so it works with the OEM speedometer has 2 leads for power, one fused hot and one ground.
The way it was wired up to power initially was they put a crimp-on eyelet on the ground wire and had that between the negative battery cable and the battery. The positive was slightly different, it had a crimp on eyelet on the positive wire but they replaced the bolt on the positive battery cable with one that has a stud bolt on it and hooked it up there. I moved the ground wire to a bolt on the firewall and moved the positive wire to that power stud that's between the battery and the firewall. I'm thinking of eventually putting a switched relay on the positive wire but that's down the road.

I'm trying to attach a picture of the positive battery connector (after removal of that wire) if it works to show what I'm talking about.

I assume there is a ground strap from the firewall to the frame already as there are those grounds to the inside of the kick panel areas inside the cab already, but looking at the ground straps are another one of those things on the list to do down the road.

hope that makes sense.

Paul

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Yep, that's clear now. I was just concerned that the main ground source was at the firewall, which is not a proper location. IMHO the more grounds the better!

Joel

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That tool came in today, so I had to try one quick just to see if it a $5 piece of junk or not. It worked.
It's basically a 1/4 drive extension with a slot in the end you put the strap through
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The worm clamp was still on the pipe only because I wanted to insure the strap tool worked first before removing the worm clamp.
I put the strap on by hand, trimmed the excess strap to about 1 1/2" (there's no directions so it was a guess on my part) and about 1/4" from the end I put a 90 degree bend in the strap, going up (it'll make sense in a minute). I then slipped the tool over the strap before the bend and started turning it so the tool was under the strap connection while tightening.
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My logic was that it would tighten the strap and not slip over the top and at the same time wind the extra strap into a little ball.
Once you're done, you have a little loop of the excess strap nicely wound against whatever the strap is holding
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Long as you start the winding straight and insure it doesn't slip sideways while winding, IMO it does a pretty good job. If you do it right, there's not sharp edges to cut yourself on, a bonus.

That's it for now, more to do but that will wait till after I find and fix my electrical problem.

Neat little tool, glad it worked out.