Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

man I aint too impressed with this there CrossFire distributor cap, seems like all they done did was soldered some wire inside the cap to re route the contact points (except #1 and #4) and covered it up with black goop, ha ha

now don't get me wrong we paid moneyz for this contraption so yes we will give it a go

see fer rerself fellers and truck ladies

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by Gregski

man I aint too impressed with this there CrossFire distributor cap, seems like all they done did was soldered some wire inside the cap to re route the contact points (except #1 and #4) and covered it up with black goop, ha ha

Stay away from gimmicks (spelled k-l-u-d-g-e in this case). Some future owner or mechanic will be pulling their hair out working with what they think is a stock cap.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MikeB

Stay away from gimmicks (spelled k-l-u-d-g-e in this case). Some future owner or mechanic will be pulling their hair out working with what they think is a stock cap.

Ha ha so true Mike, I volunteered at a buddies motorcycle shop for a number of years and we would git crazy stuff in every once in a while, this was during the Chopper craze and we once got a "custom" bike built by the owner, and he used a red colored wire for every single circuit on his bike, brought it to us cause the brake lights didn't work or something like that, my buddy yanked all that stuff out and we done it right

one day I asked our main mechanic what was his favorite bike to work on, and he looked me straight in the face and said "STOCK, anything stock, cause if I don't know it I can look it up in the book"

so right you is Mike, right you is

[Gregski]

so lets compare the standard OEM GM HEI distributor cap (on the left) to the DUY CrossFire one (on the right)

[Gregski]

and a peak underneath

[Gregski]

ok so first we need to transfer the coil from the OEM dizzy to the DUI CrossFire

[Gregski]

worth mentioning that I noticed the stock OEM distributor cap had the center hole bevled out a bit, seemed like an after the fact modification, where as the DUI CrossFire cap did not - I decided to leave the new one be, and try it the way it is

[Gregski]

and just to be thorough and since the new cap came with a new rotor, we decided to swap those as well

white - old

blue - new

[Titomars]

Originally Posted by Gregski

and just to be thorough and since the new cap came with a new rotor, we decided to swap those as well

white - old

blue - new

Wait, hold up a sec. transferring coils and rotors is not normal of Davis dizzies. I have purchased 5 of them and they all came drop in. DUI's have their own coils which are not standard HEI coils. Their caps and rotors are brass contacts and matching colors too. Maybe I missed something.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Titomars

Wait, hold up a sec. transferring coils and rotors is not normal of Davis dizzies. I have purchased 5 of them and they all came drop in. DUI's have their own coils which are not standard HEI coils. Their caps and rotors are brass contacts and matching colors too. Maybe I missed something.

Whacha talkin' about Willis?

[Titomars]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Whacha talkin' about Willis?

my mistake I thought you were installing a DUI dizzy not just a cap and rotor. I'll shut up and just lurk

[RDrancher]

At least it's shiny black goop!

[Gregski]

got some new MSD(ish) spark plug wires

SF Street Fire (so gotta be good, ha ha) An MSD Brand (what in the world does that mean)

USA MADE (not made in the USA mind you, but USA Made, I'm sure there's a difference)

spiral wound, silicone sleeve, all the right words

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by Gregski

got some new MSD(ish) spark plug wires

SF Street Fire (so gotta be good, ha ha) An MSD Brand (what in the world does that mean)

Used those last year on my truck motor. Just as nice as the higher priced spread, IMO. I bought them because it was supposed to be a "budget build". But just bought some upgraded valve train parts, and am looking at replacing my $150 worth of cast iron manifolds with headers. With my luck the plug wires won't work with headers. But, hey, this thread is your rant.

Originally Posted by Gregski

we used Vaseline to slip the boot on about 5" back before crimping the end on

That's pretty high tech. I use dielectric grease.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MikeB

Used those last year on my truck motor. Just as nice as the higher priced spread, IMO.

Great to hear, thanks for the feedback, and the pic

Originally Posted by MikeB

I bought them because it was supposed to be a "budget build". But just bought some upgraded valve train parts, and am looking at replacing my $150 worth of cast iron manifolds with headers. With my luck the plug wires won't work with headers. But, hey, this thread is your rant.

Um yeah, I saw those manifolds in your pic and was like damn, smart man, and those be nice, than I read on and I was like oh oh, so here's a tip for you setup a Cuss Jar before you go bolting on those headers and you should be in the green in no time, ha ha (I constantly talk to my Hookers)

[Gregski]

So what was in the box Homes?

a bunch of wires and a bunch of rubber booties and a crimper tool that you use in your vice (now that's awesome, and the big reason I chose these)

[Gregski]

ok lets get this stuff sorted and try to make some sense out of it all

it appears there is two kinds of rubber booties, I recon the slim ones be for an HEI style dizzy and the fatter ones seem to fit my old points distributor

not sure if the silver tips go with the skinny boots and the gold with the fat ones I just laid them out that way, though one fat bootie wire did have a gold tip already installed in it

the bottom boot is a bit different then the rest and is for the Coil

[Gregski]

I did not see the wire sizes on the box so I laid them out in matching pairs and measured them for us

2 x 55"

2 x 48"

2 x 41"

2 x 31"

1 x coil wire

[Gregski]

alright so we put our Big Boy Pants on and gonna build us our first set of custom spark plug wires, here we go...

[Gregski]

after we measure the right length (ie 26 1/2 inches for #1 and #2 wires) we cut the wire to length and strip about 1/2 inch off (hence the extra 1/2 in the total length) using their super duper crimping tool which has a side for stripping wire, I just used my box cutter knife

[Gregski]

we used Vaseline to slip the boot on about 5" back before crimping the end on

[Gregski]

It helps if you use needle nose pliers to bend the metal clip ends in a little bit to help the crimper before you shove it in the vice

[Gregski]

there, not bad for the first one

[Gregski]

and one down and seven to go...

[RDrancher]

Looks good! I remember the first set I did...more than a couple decades ago. No cool tools included back then, and I butchered a couple wires up pretty good. Those wires got a little short before I was done. lol