How would I go about testing the wires on my truck to see if they need replacing or not? I've got a multitester so I think I've got step 1 done, but I just don't know how exactly to go about doing it and what they should be at voltage wise and stuff. Thanks.

 

first go to autozone and buy the dodge chilton book then disconnect the negative terminal off the battery then attch one end to one side of the wire and one on the other end and turn it on ohms make sure the current is off or it will burn up your meter

 

its unlikely that a wire needs replacing unless you have some kind of obvious damage.

but anyway, heres the basics.
a multi-meter can test either of two general ways 1) voltage 2) continuity/resistence. you will have several settings on the meter, including AC voltage with a picture of a sine wave, sort of like this (~), DC voltage with a picture of a straight line, and ohms/resistence with a picture of a horseshoe (the omega thing). the last option then is whether its an analog meter, or a digital display.

so practice like this, set it on AC 250 volts, and stick the probes in a household outlet making SURE that you don't touch the probes together while you do this, or else you will be testing your breakers and possibly kill yourself and burn your house down. it doesn't matter which probe you put in which side. the meter/display should read about 120 volts.

ok now go out to your truck and set it on DC volts, scale of about 50 or 100. touch the black probe to neg battery and red to pos, it should read about 13 volts. you follow this same principle to test alternator output, lamp sockets, fuse sockets, voltage to radio, etc. for the fun of it, reverse your probes. a meter will try to swing backwards, a digitial display will show -13.

ok, now your going to test continuity. set the meter to ohms/resistence and touch the probes together. the meter/display should go to 0 as you have 0 resistence and full continuity. for testing a wire only, you are testing continuity from one end to another. if your resistence is less than 0, then you have something in between, such as a light bulb, or something. when testing resistance, BE SURE THERE IS NO VOLTAGE ON THE LINE OR IT WILL DAMAGE MOST METERS. i know i've burnt up 2 or 3.

now i'm curious, why do you think your wires need replacing ? and which wires are we talking about ?

 

Good info there, I'm curious because I've got some pinging going on as that is what I think it is, and these spark plug wires do say mopar on them so they could be originals at 95k miles.

 

You can use a multimeter on the ohms scale to check to make sure that the center conductor of your high voltage ignition wires is still continuous, but to really check the high voltage insulation on the wires you need a "megaohmeter"

Biddle makes the most common one,
like this eBay auction:

http://tinyurl.com/2wxgwu



the typical test technique is to fill a metal container with water, immerse all but the ends of the wire in the water, then test with the highest voltage the meter will do (500, 1000 or 3,000 volts) to see if there is leakage to "ground" which is the metal sides of the container

Even here, you are not really testing the 'real thing' like when the engine is running at high rpm. To do that, you need a instrument like the cheaper KAL Spark analyser like this:

http://tinyurl.com/3ad62e

Or the much more expensive SnapOn Vantage meter with the ignition analyser module

http://buy1.snapon.com/products/diag...mp;dir=catalog

 

just my limited opinion, but i wouldn't think spark plug wires would have anything to do with pinging. here's some pretty good info on it from an unlikely place...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinging
in general its a premature combustion occuring before the proper place in the piston cycle, usually related to the time being too far advanced, and/or low octane gas, and/or lean conditions associated with intake leaks, and/or excessive heat inside the cylinder, and/or higher compression engines.

one easy thing to try is premium gas with 93 octane or higher.
if that doesn't fix it you might try a little octane booster.
and, just my opinion, but depending on where you live you might have gasoline available with an ethanol blend.
also, do you still have the jet-chip and/or hypertech. i would recommend taking both of those back to stock temporarily to see if that has anything to do with it. the jetchip might be too much timing advancement, and you would certainly not want to stack the two.
also, if your truck has the crankshaft pos sensor mod, it would be providing additional, timing advancement.
i've found that i have to run 89 or better since i installed my hypertech. i'll get around to a 180 therm one of these days when it warms up.

octane plays a key role in the pinging problem ....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating
[blockquote]clip....It might seem odd that fuels with higher octane ratings burn less easily, yet are popularly thought of as more powerful. The misunderstanding is caused by confusing the ability of the fuel to resist compression detonation (pre-ignition = engine knock) as opposed to the ability of the fuel to burn (combustion). However, premium grades of petrol often contain more energy per litre due to the composition of the fuel as well as increased octane.
[/blockquote]

 

related post from dishdude

https://dodgeforum.com/m_687366/tm.htm
YAY!! i got the upper and lower intake gaskets replaced. NO MORE PING!! finally..

 

Once it gets a bit warmer out I will take a closer look at the Jet thing on my PCM and see about taking it out. No crankshaft position sensor mod for me as far as I know (I didn't do it). I will also try the higher octane gas eventually as well, see what that does. Its best to full it up with higher octane once your low on fuel right? Would seem that makes more sense, less dilution. Thanks for the info guys.

 

if its already pinging every time you go up a hill, go ahead and fill up/top off with premium now to try and stop/reduce the ping. if you can get it under control, then run it down near empty and work with 1/4 -1/2 tanks as you evaluate what effect different gas grades have, if any.