SgtAbn
New member
Hi Guys,
I have a serious problem and I am perplexed; any/all advice would be appreciated. My T4R will not run until this is resolved.
Situation:
1998 SR5 T4R with 265,000+ miles. I bought the T4R with 197K miles on it. The plugs & wires were allegedly changed by the previous owner.
I am changing the plugs and wires with NGK wires & NGK Platinum plugs ($10./each - ouch!). When I took out one of the spark plug wires that has the long ~6" tube on the end of it, some of the tube material (rubber? Silicone? Neoprene?) had dry rotted off and stuck around the base of the plug. Now I cant get a socket on it to unscrew it or remove it and I can't put the new or the old wire back on it and get it to fit tightly - even with the old wire there is a 3/8th's of an inch gap from it seating correctly. Obviously driving it like this would not be advisable.
Solutions I have tried:
1) I tried another socket to eliminate it was the socket's fault.
2) I tried vacuuming out the rubber/silicone/neoprene from the wire's shaft that was dry rotted onto the plug with a 5 or 6 HP (huge) shop vac - I bought a step down kit for the 2.5" hose to take the hose down to .5 inch or even 1/8". This gave it huge suction and fit down the shaft the plug was in = but with no measurable results.
3) My neighbor tried spraying ether or brake cleaning fluid down the spark plug shaft as he lit it with a lighter - a makeshift blowtorch in an attempt to melting and burning away the spark plug wire material. Which didn't work either.
4) I bought a blow torch and tried burning out the spark plug wire material that somehow dry-rotted to the plug / plug shaft and the problem here was that even though the blow torch will stay lit upside down, when I went to burn away the rubber the blow torch ignited a small flash fire 8" in diameter before I could even get it in the shaft and the flash fire sucked enough air out of the immediate area to extinguish the blow torch. I think this must be residue maybe fumes from item 3 above. In any case, I kept re-lighting the blow torch for thirty minutes and never got the flash fire burned out enough so I could get the darn torch down the spark plug wire shaft.
5) I tried putting so much WD-40 in the shaft that the rubber was submerged in an attempt to break down the rubber material.
6) At various times during this process I used a VERY long-necked pair of "L" shaped needle nose pliers (14"? made to take a hook out of a fishes mouth) to try to grab the rubber in the shaft - some came out but it was largely a exercise in futility. Approximately 40+ minutes were used on this cumulatively between all of the above attempts.
Solutions I have NOT tried:
1) Since the plug is still in tight, maybe there is another petroleum chemical such as gasoline to break down the rubber type material? ANY SUGGESTION'S ON WHICH CHEMICAL / PETROLEUM PRODUCT WOULD BREAK DOWN THE RUBBER/SILICONE/NEOPRENE
1a) AFTER #1 ABOVE = I FIGURED I CAN SHOP VAC OUT ANY LIQUID / DEBRIS SO IT DOES NOT GO IN THE CYLINDER AFTER REMOVAL.
MAJOR CONCERNS:
1) that any rubber type debris gets inadvertently knocked down into the cylinder upon re-installation of new spark plugs.
T4R friends-
I wrote a article on this website about the 3rd Gen not going into gear an I put my cell phone # out there as well. I have had a person approx. every 4 months call me on my cell asking for help resolving this transmission issue from all over the country- most of which were NOT members of this website and I have ALWAYS dropped everything I was doing and helped each and every one of them.
I am NOT a newbie- but I am also not as experienced as many of you. PLEASE HELP ME IN MY TIME OF NEED NOW THAT MY T4R IS NOT RUNNING AND THE LIBERAL ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE MAY COME ANY DAY NOW.
I am in Longmont, Colorado but my cell is 248-739-0482.
:ak472:
I have a serious problem and I am perplexed; any/all advice would be appreciated. My T4R will not run until this is resolved.
Situation:
1998 SR5 T4R with 265,000+ miles. I bought the T4R with 197K miles on it. The plugs & wires were allegedly changed by the previous owner.
I am changing the plugs and wires with NGK wires & NGK Platinum plugs ($10./each - ouch!). When I took out one of the spark plug wires that has the long ~6" tube on the end of it, some of the tube material (rubber? Silicone? Neoprene?) had dry rotted off and stuck around the base of the plug. Now I cant get a socket on it to unscrew it or remove it and I can't put the new or the old wire back on it and get it to fit tightly - even with the old wire there is a 3/8th's of an inch gap from it seating correctly. Obviously driving it like this would not be advisable.
Solutions I have tried:
1) I tried another socket to eliminate it was the socket's fault.
2) I tried vacuuming out the rubber/silicone/neoprene from the wire's shaft that was dry rotted onto the plug with a 5 or 6 HP (huge) shop vac - I bought a step down kit for the 2.5" hose to take the hose down to .5 inch or even 1/8". This gave it huge suction and fit down the shaft the plug was in = but with no measurable results.
3) My neighbor tried spraying ether or brake cleaning fluid down the spark plug shaft as he lit it with a lighter - a makeshift blowtorch in an attempt to melting and burning away the spark plug wire material. Which didn't work either.
4) I bought a blow torch and tried burning out the spark plug wire material that somehow dry-rotted to the plug / plug shaft and the problem here was that even though the blow torch will stay lit upside down, when I went to burn away the rubber the blow torch ignited a small flash fire 8" in diameter before I could even get it in the shaft and the flash fire sucked enough air out of the immediate area to extinguish the blow torch. I think this must be residue maybe fumes from item 3 above. In any case, I kept re-lighting the blow torch for thirty minutes and never got the flash fire burned out enough so I could get the darn torch down the spark plug wire shaft.
5) I tried putting so much WD-40 in the shaft that the rubber was submerged in an attempt to break down the rubber material.
6) At various times during this process I used a VERY long-necked pair of "L" shaped needle nose pliers (14"? made to take a hook out of a fishes mouth) to try to grab the rubber in the shaft - some came out but it was largely a exercise in futility. Approximately 40+ minutes were used on this cumulatively between all of the above attempts.
Solutions I have NOT tried:
1) Since the plug is still in tight, maybe there is another petroleum chemical such as gasoline to break down the rubber type material? ANY SUGGESTION'S ON WHICH CHEMICAL / PETROLEUM PRODUCT WOULD BREAK DOWN THE RUBBER/SILICONE/NEOPRENE
1a) AFTER #1 ABOVE = I FIGURED I CAN SHOP VAC OUT ANY LIQUID / DEBRIS SO IT DOES NOT GO IN THE CYLINDER AFTER REMOVAL.
MAJOR CONCERNS:
1) that any rubber type debris gets inadvertently knocked down into the cylinder upon re-installation of new spark plugs.
T4R friends-
I wrote a article on this website about the 3rd Gen not going into gear an I put my cell phone # out there as well. I have had a person approx. every 4 months call me on my cell asking for help resolving this transmission issue from all over the country- most of which were NOT members of this website and I have ALWAYS dropped everything I was doing and helped each and every one of them.
I am NOT a newbie- but I am also not as experienced as many of you. PLEASE HELP ME IN MY TIME OF NEED NOW THAT MY T4R IS NOT RUNNING AND THE LIBERAL ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE MAY COME ANY DAY NOW.
I am in Longmont, Colorado but my cell is 248-739-0482.
:ak472:
