Ngtflyr
Reged: 01/31/05
Posts: 695
Loc: Valley of the Sun
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After I get back from Alabama and Texas I will take a look and try to find the article. Won't be back for a little over a week though. I know where two Sun Analysers are sitting in Oklahoma, south of OK City if anyone is interested I can hook you up with the owner.
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Dave
69 Z28
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Chevy454
Reged: 03/20/00
Posts: 11331
Loc: Alton, MO, USA
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I still need the small, Sun roll around cabinet for my distributor machine...keep your eyes peeled!
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Rob Clary - '69 Yenko Camaro
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njsteve
Reged: 11/21/03
Posts: 3189
Loc: NJUSA
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I located a replacement red cable and inductive pickup (about $85 total) and all of the electrical diagnostic stuff seems to work now. I haven't played with the exhaust analyzer portion yet. I think that will take a bit more tinkering to get it working.
I spent a few hours trying to locate an auto parts store that had the NGK plugs for a hemi in stock. (Since everyone on the site recommends them) I finally found 8 plugs this afternoon about 25 miles from the house. I picked them up (plus a set for the T/A too) and installed them.
I replaced all the plugs and she runs a lot smoother:
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njsteve
Reged: 11/21/03
Posts: 3189
Loc: NJUSA
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Everyone thinks changing plugs is easy on a hemi. Well, seven of the eight plugs are easy to replace. Trying to access plug #7 under the power brake booster is always a challenge. Chrysler actually made the #7 plug boot different than the other 7 boots. All but #7 use a bakelite insulator to locate the terminal on the end of the plug. The #7 boot, on the other hand, has a flexible rubber boot designed to bend so you can get it out without having to unbolt your entire power brake booster from the firewall. But if your car has any miles on it, that rubber boot is nowhere near flexible anymore.
Over the years I have figured out the exact combination of adapters and extensions to loosen the plug and then extract it from the tube in the valve cover. This can be quite entertaining if you are ever in the neighborhood of someone who has never done it before. It's kind of like watching a group of officers attack one of those "Leadership Assessment Obstacle Courses" in the military - you know the ones where you are tasked with getting over a 30 foot trench filled with radioactive hot lava and they give you 3 tooothpicks, a 55 gallon drum, a paper cup and a Playboy magazine, and 28 minutes to do it in. 
 Officer Candidates, here is your challenge: #7 spark plug has one inch of clearance between the brake booster and the valve cover. You have to successfully remove a 4-inch spark plug, a 7-inch spark plug terminal and a 3-inch spark plug socket from the hole and reinstall a new spark plug without breaking it. You have 28 minutes.....
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njsteve
Reged: 11/21/03
Posts: 3189
Loc: NJUSA
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Here's the different plug wire terminals. The white one is the bakelight terminal for all the cylinders but #7. The black one is the flexible rubber #7 terminal:
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njsteve
Reged: 11/21/03
Posts: 3189
Loc: NJUSA
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Here's the tools needed to replace plugs 1-6 and 8:
And here's my patented combination of accessories needed to change #7 in less than 2 minutes: You have to know the exact combination, and order in which to attach, remove, and swap out with the next piece, in order for it to sucessfully work. 
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njsteve
Reged: 11/21/03
Posts: 3189
Loc: NJUSA
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Once I had the analyzer working properly, it was interesting to play with the cylinder cancelling function. You can short out individuals spark plugs and then measure the drop in RPM. All the cylinders should drop the same RPM when shut down. I had two cylinders, #3 and #2 that barely dropped 100 RPMs when shut down. The rest would give a 350-400 RPM drop. Once I replaced the Autolites with the NGKs, they all dropped the exact same amount of RPMs: 400.
One thing to note on these machines: you have to think about what your firing order is when doing the cancelling test because the numbers on the cancelling buttons dont neccesarily correspond with that same number cylinder in your engine. You read the spikes from left to right in this order: 8-4-3-6-5-7-2-1 on most GM and Chrysler V8s.
By the way, here are the Autolite 65's I removed. They are about 3-1/2 years old. The trouble with diagnosing plugs on a hemi is that when you loosen then plug, a tablespoon or so of oil seeps down from the aluminum sealing tube onto the plug. It is hard to get the plugs out without them dripping oil onto the electrodes. The two wet looking plugs got oiled during removal.
They all look pretty similar in burn pattern. Any plug diagnosticians out there? How do they look?
The one thing I did notice is the lack of consistency of manufacture in these Autolites. At least 2 of them have different height insulators and slightly different width center electrodes. That doesnt make for a smooth running engine. At least the NGKs all looked the same.
Plugs 2, 4, 6 and 8 are on top from left to right and plugs 1,3, 5 and 7 are on the bottom from left to right.
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budnate
Reged: 02/23/03
Posts: 3662
Loc: Bothell, Wa.
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dunno Steve the plug looks easy to do ....after working on some German and Italian stuff you learn to be patient and cuss like a NY long shoreman when needed for stress relief. 
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John Brown
Reged: 03/13/02
Posts: 1216
Loc: South Bend, Indiana
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Quote:
Any plug diagnosticians out there? How do they look?
The one thing I did notice is the lack of consistency of manufacture in these Autolites. At least 2 of them have different height insulators and slightly different width center electrodes. That doesnt make for a smooth running engine. At least the NGKs all looked the same.
Plugs 2, 4, 6 and 8 are on top from left to right and plugs 1,3, 5 and 7 are on the bottom from left to right.
Looks like #4 has an extra gasket too.
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John Brown
We say grace and we say Ma'am
And if you ain't into that we don't give a damn
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njsteve
Reged: 11/21/03
Posts: 3189
Loc: NJUSA
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Holy crap.  I didnt even see that! Nice of Autolite to give me an extra gasket. So much for quality control. It's not like it was an extra one that came off of an earlier plug and got left in the tube. If you have ever tried to remove one of those metal gaskets you know what a pain it is to get them off.
The NGK gaskets were crimped on and non-removable without cutting them off.
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