I had never changed spark plugs before on the truck so my friend and his dad (a mechanic) helped me do it. I probably could have done it myself but I learned a few tips from my friends dad (and saw some neat tools). The thing is we only changed my plugs, which were actually in pretty good shape. I don't know when they were last changed if ever but they did say autolite on them. I think I want to do the wires, cap, and rotor. Is there really anything difficult about it? I don't know too much about the cap and rotor so any info about that would help, but I mean the wires seem easy, take old one out, put new one in, one at a time. My friend has told me its annoying to get the dist cap and rotor on his 2wd ram 1500 but it doesn't seem all that bad on mine once the TB is out. How much should I be looking to spend on wires, cap, and rotor? There are different sizes wires, what are the differences between them? Thanks.

 

the dist. cap and rotor are easy to replace. just two bolts and cap comes off, then you can just pull the rotor right off. slap a new cap and rotor on, hook all your wires back up and there ya go, easy as pie.
as for the size of plug wires the bigger the better.

 

fairly straight forward except the cap it is in most awkward place and it's hard to see, it's held down with 2 screws not tab so you'll have to get a screwdriver up in there or a socket, mine were rusted on, wire yeah i wouldn't get much bigger than 8.5mm without a hotter coil stock is 7mm the driver side wires are harder to do than the passengers because of the master cylinder but if they haven't been done in a while it's probably worth it

 

Are there certain brands of wires, cap, and rotor I should get? Could I just go to Napa and get them there or would it be best to get them online?

 

Napa get the brass cap ...hell just get the wires , rotor from there while you are at it...

 

If you really want to do it right, the first thing you need is the Haynes or Chilton's Repair Manual.
You need to find, in this manual, both the engine and the cap's firing order.
Then, open it to that page and keep this around while you work on it.

You don't need to (nor do you want to) remove the Throttle Body.
What you do need to remove is the air filter assembly.
Once that is out of the way, the screws are not impossible to reach but before you remove the old cap, make sure you have a good idea of how the new one should go on (it only goes on one way, and it's hard to see back there).
Remove the old cap, and now before you pull the rotor, again get an idea of its location and direction (which way it is pointed).
Then, install the new rotor first (and make sure it 'seats,' it should do so with relative ease so don't try to force it), and the cap (same deal, it should snug on with relative ease).
Then the wires (and you'll need the firing order diagrams now).

Other than that, I would spring for either Accel 8mm wires, or Taylor 8mm wires.
Both the Accel and the Taylor wire are about equal, thou Taylor's run around $60 while I think Accel's run closer to $80.
And, definitely an Accel cap and rotor.
For the money spent, you should notice a difference.

 

Are there any signs that will show the dist cap and rotor are in bad condition when I remove them? I already have a little diagram that shows the firing order of them too

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Signs of a bad cap can be seen by lookinginside and outsidethe cap.

Outside:
Look into the positions where the plug and coil wire connects. If there is rust or corossion you are not getting all of thespark to the plugs. Cracked exterior of the cap also is not good.

Inside:
Look at the 8 internalpositions where the spark is passed to thespark plug wires and the center position where the coil passes the spark into the cap. If you see corrosion or wear on these points you have lost some of the spark being passed. If you can see what look like black lines in the cap material running from any of the positions to any other that means that you are getting cross firing between cylinders which is also not good.

Rotor:
The rotor has 3 things to look at.
1) Does the plastic body have any obvious damage or black lines similar to those I mentioned for the cap. If so some of your spark is going straight to the engine and not thewires.
2) does the contact point at the center of the rotor look worn, corroded, or otherwise not clean like a goodelectrical connection should. If any of these conditions are met again you are not passing the spark you should.
3) At the end of the rotor there is a solid brass fitting. If this shows signs of wear, unusual corrosion, or is otherwise not clean like a good electrical connection, againyou are not passing the spark as you should.

Which cap, rotor and wires to buy depends on your vehicle and mods you have. A basic stock setup would allow use of the NAPA parts and you would have a better running vehicle. If you have done some performance mods, then the Taylor or Accel systems are definitly worth the money.

When you replace the cap, rotor, and wires be sure to put some di-electric grease on all of the contact points: All 9 internal contact points inside the cap and both ends of each plug and coil wire. This will prevent water from entering the connections and causing corrosion.

The only issue I can see if be sure to double check your spark plug wire routing. Make sure you have connected them to the right cylinders AND that you have the #5 and #7 cylinder wires positioned to not cross-fire. Have all spark plug wires cross at right angles if at all possible, but #5 and #7 are really prone to this problem in the Dodge 5.2 and 5.9.

Good Luck.

 

Whats so different between Accel, Taylor, MSD, and Mopar?

 

I haven't changed mine yet, but someone suggested doing it something like this:

Number existingwires at spark plug with tape, or whatever.
Remove cap with all wires still attached.
Assemble new wires to new cap, using oldcap/wires as "diagram".
Mark new wires with numbers matching old ones. (at spark plug end)
Install new rotor.
Install new cap. (with wires attached)
Attach wires to spark plugs.


Sounds logical to me. Hard to mess up if you work carefully. Should save fumbling around trying to install new wires on cap behind intake.
Comments from those who have done this are welcomed.



I wish Chrysler put the distributor up front where it "belongs"!
Yeah, I'm an old Ford guy!