TR spark plug connectors

I am beginning my tune-up on my 88 TR (US version).

My approach is to make sure the wires, plugs, etc are good before proceeding to any adjustment phase.......agree?

I took off the distributor cap, wires, and connectors to plugs 1-6. I proceeded to check the resistance of the connectors (all black): Four of them read 0.2 Ohms; one read 1.4 ohms; and one was jumping from 1.5-7 Ohms. It seems that I should replace 2 of the connectors on this side.

Am I correct?

BTW: None appear to have any cracks in them.

The spring in the carbon rod, in the center ofthe distributor was broke......I can still feel a pring motion......is this OK? Can the carbon and spring be bought separately?

Henry,

The carbon & spring cannot be procured seperately, but VW and many other super cheap caps have a carbon and spring that can be scavenged and easily adapted, or you can just make/find a little spring out of something like a clicker pen.

I'm surprised you are getting any resistance at all thru the connectors...are you on the 40K Ohm Scale? Reason is, resistor connectors are not used with resistor wire, it's normally one or the other.

Now on the wires, it is very important they have the correct resistance and that when jiggling them while testing you don't loose resistance that would indicate a broken fine wire filament somewhere along the lenght of the wire. If the fine wire breaks in the insulation it causes the spark to jump a gap internally that leads to a miss.

HTH's

JRV: I am using a brand new Simpson Ohm meter. The scale is set on 1K ohms, so the readings ARE VERY small.

I took out the rest of the connectors, and find Ohm readings about 1 Ohm on connectors 7-12.

I feel that 0.2 Ohms would be negligeable.

What do you think?

I will measure the resistance in the wires and post the readings, for all to benefit.

I really like this forum for it's purely, and REAL, technical section.......MUCH beter than the other!!!!!

Change the setting to at least 10K ohms on the meter. I'm pretty sure the book says to use 40K, could be having memory problems at my age though?

At 10K Ohms, ALL the connectors read zero......at this setting one can't read down to 0.2 Ohms.

Since my meter goes down to less than 1 Ohm, this is the setting I initially chose, since at any other setting, the results would be zero, as expected. Maybe I shouldn't use it at such a low setting. I just measured a solid piece of wire, on the low setting and got 0.1-0.2 Ohms.......EVERY wire has SOME resistance to it.

BTW: I feel that I will have the same problem in measuring the resistance in the wires. Do you suggest I use the 10K setting?

Henry,

I can't imagine any reason to try and read below whole numbers. The connectors at zero on the 10K scale are correct. I think the sensitivity of 1K will throw you off.

Regards, JRV

JRV: When I am ready to re-install the connectors and wires, do I place the connectors on the spark plugs first, then install the wire.......or do I place the connector in the wire, and then put the combination onto the spark plug?