Hunter

Ok, I'm not sure which genius at Ford was responsible for the placement of the distributor on a 6 cyl EL Falcon but does anyone know an _easy_ way of changing the bloody ignition leads... I'm afraid I don't have a midget or small child on hand to help me either.

Cheers,

Hunter

LindsayGT

Take the Air Filter airbox out for a start! Then you will have to work out the rest for yourself. I agree, it's pretty dumb design.

JASONXR6

It's always a hassle to do these leads... it's the nature of the beast :)

(Try and do the lead swap when the engine is cold to save burning your arms.)

1. Mark the cylinder number on the Ignition Leads and remove from spark plugs.

2. Remove 2x phillips head screws and remove the air snorkel.

3. Remove top of airbox and 3x 10mm head bolts securing the intake pipe, and remove complete assy.

4. Remove the 3x 10mm head bolts retaining the bottom of the airbox assy and remove the from vehicle.

5. Reach under the intake manifold and unplug the coil lead from the coil.

6. Unclip the 2 distributor retaining clips and slide the cap toward the rear of the engine approx 10-15cm.

7. You should now be able to remove the cap (with leads connected) from under the intake manifold.

8. If you are using aftermarket (non-genuine) leads and they have no markings then measure the leads against the ones on the cap and mark them with the cylinder number (if using genuine leads they come numbered and grouped) and fit one at a time to the cap.

9. Slide distributor cap (with new leads numbered and attached) under the intake manifold and feed the ends of the leads up the gap in the intake manifold between cylinders 4 & 5.

10. Reconnect the coil lead to the coil. *VERY IMPORTANT TO DO THIS*

11. Now fit the distributor cap to the distributor being sure the retaining clips are not stuck under the cap.

12. Now place the (hopefully numbered) ignition leads onto the corresponding sparkplug.

13. Refit Airbox bottom and 3 bolts, Refit Airbox Top and intake tubing assy and 3 bolts (don't forget to tighten the hoseclamp), Refit Air snorkel and 2 screws.

14. Start vehicle and marvel at your mad skillz. :p

Note: When placing ignition leads onto sparkplugs and distributor cap you will hear/feel a click when they are properly located. Failure to properly connect the leads will cause problems so be sure that they are secured properly.

Have fun and try to not loose much skin :)

Disturbed_Dave

hehe i had an ass of a time changing my leads over a couple of weeks back when i found that flat footing the car causes it to shake slightly and loss of power (was a faulty lead) and it really did take some cursing, yelling, and fist shaking to get it done! i did everything JASONXR6 did expect for removing the dizzy cap, i just crammed my hand into that little gap and went for it :p

__________________
'92 EBII
Soon to come: Full engine rebuild, Race pistons, Performance cam, Full Defillipo Performance Exhaust

Hunter

Appreciate the replies fellas but I didn't see them until AFTER I did it the hard way... god damn took me nearly 2 hours to change a set of plug leads! Anyway I ended up disconnecting the leads from the plugs, jacking the car up and putting onto wheel ramps then reaching up through the engine bay and pulling the leads down. Then I unclipped it (with great difficulty) and removed the entire lot from the car. Then I went and bought a new cap and rotor. Attached the leads, transferred the conduit from the old leads to new and then the fun began. Let's just say the neighbourhood now knows how good I am at swearing.

Changing the rotor was hard enough but then when I went to place the cap on the stupid dust cover kept slipping out of its locking slot and moving around. Worse still, the carbon rod fell out of the new cap and the spring was bent beyond usefulness. So I removed the spring from the old cap (which wasn't too badly worn) and used it to resurrect the new cap. Eventually I got it onto the distributor and locked down. Yessssss! Then I fed the leads up through the intake as they were prior and connected them to the sparkplugs. Luckily they were numbered :). So its all good and working fine now but didn't help my idle :(.

On my old Gemini it would've taken me all of 10 minutes to do a set of leads AND plugs.

Anyway thx for replies guys!