My first truck, I got this beautiful 1997 dodge ram 1500 5.2L 4x4 2 weeks ago. I joined this great community, I fixed a couple sensors, gave her all new fluids and filters, a great cleaning, and she drove perfect with no noises, everything worked!

Only spent 1700(budget was 2500) so far including the truck cost (thanks to fun auction houses).

Well, yesterday I got a CEL for misfire, Autozone said I had to replace the distributor cap, rotor, wires, and spark plugs. Besides the annoying distributor at the back, the issue is that when I got to the last spark plug this morning, which was driver side next to brake booster, the **** broke! I didnt force it, but all the plugs were black so I figured it may have rusted out.

The nut and the spark tip is still down there. It feels really tight and I dont have strength to do it by hand mostly due to lack of space. Any suggestions?

I currently have the wire out and ziptied to not touch anything, as well as the fuel line connector unplugged. The truck runs for now,besides having so little power to accelerate, not being able to go over 65 or so, and causing quite a bit of vibrations.

 

I had this same exact problem happen on my 5.2 95 truck back in Oct, it was absolute HELL getting it out back there, I called my dad over to help me and he turned the ratchet while I held the extension straight, the spark plug had broken enough where a "claw" type socket he said he bought from oreilly's really helped dig into it and slowly get it out.

I feel your pain for sure, such an awkward cramped spot which bruised and scratched my arms up bad. The old owners must have never changed it, mine's an old much more crude obd1 so I never even knew I had a misfire, I'd drive it around fine but discovered the worn out parts during a tuneup.

Good luck on getting it out, it can be done, but due to the awkward angle I would HIGHLY suggest getting somebody to either do the ratchet or hold it at the right angle while you turn the ratchet because it's very easy at the weird angle back there to have it slip off the spark plug. I spent an entire night trying it myself before I had to call my dad the next day. Be very generous with the liquid wrench soaking too. After you get it to turn a little and it's stuck, spray more liquid wrench down in it.

taken with cheap budget android moto g4, thing actually had a decent back cam all things considered....and why yes that's a rainbow umbrella below...was unusually hot that day in Oct down here in Tx lol

 

Thanks! Can you send a picture or link of this claw tool?

 

this tool set certainly couldn't hurt, https://www.lowes.com/pd/IRWIN-BOLT-...r-Set/50146292 it's the one I originally bought to try and get it out the next day until he showed up with his. I'll post again if I can find it in the oreilly catalog, I don't remember the name of the socket he used, it looked like a normal socket but with some lines inside as teeth, actually less aggressive teeth than mine.

if you haven't already, don't feel bad about having to remove that long cylinder heat shield thing covering up the spark plug, other guys have removed all of theirs, mine happened to get all bent up and useless my first go around that long night I tried solo, makes accessing the spark plug much easier, and many over time said those heatshields don't do much and actually trap dirt/water and end up rusting out down there anyway. I got mine out by gripping it with some pliers and gradually turning it till it eventually came out.

It can possibly just be done with two people with a normal socket if one can keep the extension still and steady at the right angle, judging from my experience of being able to get it out with a less aggressive toothed socket.

edit: if you happen to want to keep the heatshield on, I found this deep well extractor set, could be worth trying too.

 

it worked i got it. Thank you so much!!!! You saved me about 500$ for a head replacement! Shes running beautifully!

 

yeah it really irked me when I called the autoparts store and they were acting like they didn't know what a bolt extractor was and also said I'd need to rebuild the whole engine lol, glad you were able to get it out, my truck has been running decent since the tuneup, think I have some old sensors that need replacing to bump my mpg up a bit, gremlin I'm currently chasing down, odd since I have no check engine light on at all but have pretty meh mpg

 

How old is your O2 sensor?

 

not sure honestly, I don't have a CEL code that it's outright dead per se but I think it may have gotten slow. If it is super old I hope it's not hell getting off down there...time to bust out the liquid wrench I suppose :P

 

If you don't know how old it is, it is likely time for a new one. Go with NGK (NTK?) or Denso. Both were used as OEM. Don't use Bosch, our trucks just don't like them.

Getting it out can indeed be a pain. Having the exhaust nice and hot makes it easier, but, has hazards all its own. I used a 24" pipe wrench, and a big **** hammer. Get a grip with the wrench, smack it with the hammer a few times, (after being generous with the PB Blaster) and it eventually broke loose. I have had zero success with the O2 sensor sockets. The gap they have for the wires just allows the socket to expand enough to slip, and rip the corners off the hex on the sensor. As you aren't going to put it back in, the damage the pipe wrench does to it simply doesn't matter.