Well, this is for sure one handi-man project. I have never tried
changing plugs on a vehicle, but thanks to the designer of the Jeep
Grand CHerokee with the 4.7L V8, it is possible to reach all 8 plugs.
Well ok, I've changed 6 of the 8, but had to stop as I couldn't get
all the way in to the final two on either side. They are partially
under the point where the passenger cabin begins and there's a lot of
crap in the way. I couldn't even get a universal socket attachment
including my extension in there so a friend of mine is going to look
and see if I can use his spark plug socket that has a universal
attachment on it. In any event, I feel pretty good about doing
something like this as I really had little idea what the hell I was
doing. The Jeep uses coil packs and these are about 6-8 inches in
length and it takes the place of the spark plug. The tricky part is
not just unbolting them from the mounting, but you have to pull them
out and either set them aside or unplug them and completely pull them
out. Then you have to get down into the point where the spark plug
lives and that's in a hole that is about 2 or 3 inches deep. So, you
have to do all this without loosing the damned socket in the process
as it sometimes wanted to stay behind. Of course taping it to the
extension helped some, but it was still interesting. It sure would
have been easier if I could have pulled the engine perhaps, but that
would be overkill of course. grin
So, hey, just had to tell the group how much fun I had and trying to
get this all done between storms. I guess if I could have taken more
time, I probably could have found some way to get at the last two, but
it just means I get to go buy a new extension and socket if this
universal type works. The extension I had was kind of cheap and the
socket didn't want to hold on quite as well as it should have. It had
some odd flared end so it starts a little wide, then narrows a bit to
the shaft. I think the idea is that the socket would be less likely to
come loose, but in fact if it does, the socket now wobbles about and
I'd rather just have it pull loose than be wobbling about and possibly
cause more problems.
