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Proper Placement of Plug Wire Retainers


Rob Peters

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My car is stored away from my house so I can't look at it. Attached is a picture that shows three different types of spark plug wire retainers. The four on the bottom I know are attached with the bolts for the valve covers (two on passenger side and two on the drivers side). The other four I am not positive of the proper placement. The top two have a slot in the bottom designed mount onto a metal bracket but I am not sure exactly what they attach to and the other two are free floating and I know my car doesn't have them so I need to know proper placement of these two also.

 

Thanks in advance for assistance. Pictures from an assembly manual or on a factory correct car would be appreciated. Mine is a 350-2brl.

Thanks

Rob

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On the drivers side for the rear wires on yours, for the wire keeper mounted on the rear of the valve cover it looks like it is bent upward in the front of that bracket rather than running horizontal, is that the case?

 

In my picture the middle pair.  Are they not used at all? 

Rob

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The photo sam Posted is my 70. I can get some better photos if you wish.

 

The first two in Rob's photo go on the brackets fastened with the intake bolts near the rear corner of the intake. My car did not have the middle pair. My car only uses one of the bottom four you posted on the passenger side.

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Here's some photos I just took. This is how it was set up when I got the car with 47,000 miles. It did not appear that the valve covers had ever been removed before I got it but cannot know for sure.

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What you did Sam might be correct. I never realized that the extra section on the front driver side was for the temperature sender wire but that makes sense. I learned something today!

 

Here's a photo of a 70 Monte I took a while back. You can see it also has the bracket on the driver rear for all 4 wires.

 

Not related to wire looming but I also posted a photo I took of the TCS for reference since mine was gone.

 

This is the car that was purchased by the guy who factory ordered mine. He was too impatient to wait for mine so he purchased from the showroom. Only had 100,000 miles.

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The 3 wireloom is correct I believe also. Both mine and the other low mile 70 have it. I noticed the other 70 I posted has it on both sides. Not sure what is correct.

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Aaron and Sam... I stopped at my storage garage today and here is what I found.

 

My car has on both sides the triangle three wire separator so I suspect this is correct on from the factory.

 

My car also has both of the original drivers side wire separators brackets, the L shaped bracket on the rear valve cover bolt and the ramp one on the front valve cover bolt but on mine the rubberized wire protector is missing so I have ordered new ones from The Parts Place.

 

The kit I ordered from The Parts Place is not completely correct.  Out of that 8 piece kit it looks like I can only use 4 of the pieces.  I can use the two 4 wire separators that attach to the manifold brackets and I can use the two separators for the passenger side.  The two 4 wire separators in the kit that are free floating are not correct and the two separators they sent for the drivers side are not correct...

 

When I went to the garage I took a picture of something I don't see in your pictures you have posted.  Please check out the attached picture.  On my car, below the passenger side rear valve cover wire separator you may be able to see a sensor into the block.  Please excuse the oil in the picture, I need to replace my valve cover gasket.  If you look closely you will see a small wire running downward near the spark plug wires.  This wire passes through a wire guide but, due to the oil buildup I can't tell if this wire guide is part of the passenger side rear spark plug wire separator or if it is mounted along with the spark plug separator or if it is attached to the head or block. 

 

For some reason I can't get this picture to post here.  Sam and Aaron, I have emailed this picture to you both, maybe one of you would be able to get it to post.

Rob

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Aaron, I am not sure what the sensor is for.  I don't have gauges, only idiot lights.  I would suspect either Oil pressure or Temp.

 

Aaron, something else I noticed in your pictures is on the passenger side valve cover near the front you have the Engine Plant decal/sticker.  Mine had the same sticker so when I did some detailing of my engine compartment a few years ago I installed a new one.  I had someone tell me that the  (forgive the spelling) sticker for the Tonawanda plant was incorrect for a 350 because that plant only made Big Blocks.  Since my very original car had one and yours hade it I suspect it is correct for our 350 engines.

 

Rob

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Small blocks were also built in the Tonawanda plant. The original sticker was still on mine when I got the car.

 

the oil pressure sender is at the back of the intake and the temp sender is on the driver's side. My 71 SS also has another sender on the passenger side head but that might be because it has guages. Not sure. If you clean off the wire you can check the colour and see if you can find it in a wiring diagram.

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Rob, where did you get them from?

 

Rick, I got everything from The Parts Place.    They had everything.  The only thing I would have done differently is I would not have ordered the wire separator KIT, I would have ordered each of those separately since the KIT contains things you don't need and still have to order. 

 

I can say the air cleaner standoff pipe "Saddle" which mounts to the manifold is different than mine.  The one the Parts Place sells only has one mounting hole and according to the Factory Assembly Manual there were three mounting holes in this part, with the top secured with one rivet and the bottom two holes being secured with the same two rivets  that secure the front portion of the heat shield.

Rob

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The comment on temp sensors, there should be one on each head for my factory gauge package 350 4 BBL automatic NO A/C, BUT, the 71 Monte Carlo I bought, just for the gauge package had them on each head, one for temp (left or driver side) and TCS (right or passenger side) I couldn't get the plug out of my 350 right head so I just left it since my engine's TCS was unhooked in May of 71.

Bruce

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I have a couple questions

 

1. Rob are you installing new plug wires and if so what set are you going to use ?

 

2. Aaron, do you know what set is on your car in the picture?  I see that they have black boots and say "AC Delco Premium 7MM" on them.

 

My car had the original wires on it when I got it all boots were black, (Except one that the previous owner replaced when he pulled the end off by accedent when checking the plugs.)

I just picked up a set of AC Delco 9508N wires and the have orange boots and say "AC Delco Silicone 7MM" on them.

 

3. Would someone get knocked for a non stock item if they used an upgraded replacement part ? (in this case a professional series plug wire)

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Tonawana sticker, when I got my car Bob (previous owner) gave me some stickers that he had purchased after getting a little over zealous with his new power washer 400 sticker for the air cleaner and the Tona sticker for the valve cover. the residue for both was still in place so i used it as a guide.

 

Also my car does not have the sensor on the passenger side of the engine or the same bracket as in Rob's pic. It's a no gage car with a 350 trans that has the TSC sensor on the side of the trans.

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Vince,

As of now I am not going to replace the plug wires unless I damage something in the process of my cleaning.  Mine are not really very old but I don't remember where I purchased them.  I may have bought them from the Chevrolet dealer....At that time the old dealer I dealt with still kept the old parts books along with the computer and he found the numbers for several ignition parts I was buying.  That dealer has since gone out of business.

 

To the best of my knowledge there was no orange or red wires from the factory, including the boots.  For professional judging they will mark points off for something that obvious.  One Super Chevy Show I attended they wanted to move a guy from Stock to Street because he had red wires.  The guy headed to the used parts vendors to find black wires to throw on the car for the judging (He tried to spray paint his red ones but due to there being a little oil on them the paint would not stick.

Rob

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Tomorrow I am going to call Summit they have 508N wires in stock for $26.99 and ask them to check boot color before I order them. I picked up the 9508N wires at O'Rielly's they could not get the 508N wires unless it was a prepay non refundable order.

 

All of the pics that I see of either set looks the same as though it is a generic photo both show orange boots.

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