What were popular spark plug wire colors for late fifties/early sixties hot rods. MSD wires are awesome but I'm not sure the red cables with grey terminals would look "right" on my 327 with finned valve covers, white ram horns, black pulleys, crab cap, and dual quad Weiand (say why-and). Any suggestions or pics would be appreciated...
show cars seemd to have clear plug wires, the traditional hot rod wires were black and said packard 440 on them here are clear wires on my cad motor with eelco white rajah ends and early cal custom wire looms with white insulators
The first high performance wires that I recall were Packard 440 wires with Rahja clips. It was important enough to me that I bought an NOS roll to do my FE. I made sure to line up the printing so any old timer might be able to see it and bring back an old memory. Many years ago now I bought a roll of the red see through stuff. This was before it became available again. I hate to see those 8MM bright colored plug wires with the molded plug ends on a traditional engine.
straight angle style. Packard 440 wire is metal stranded wire and not the radio noise suppression carbon impregnated string wire. It would mess up the reception in an AM radio You could hear the engine revs in the radio. We'd piss off some older people by reving the engine while stopped at a light. You could look over and see them staring at the radio wondering what was happening. These were popular too back in the day. They are bakelite with rubber boots that connect like the Rajah clips. I don't think that these are repoped today. The Rajah clips are readily available today.
Like Tommy said they were just the popular wire back in the day. Most racers swore by them they were good wire. They don't work well with electronic ignition. A lot of control mods can't handle solid core wires. they are real hard on anything that has a computer unless either the wires or the electronics are shielded, real noisey. They even made or make static on your stereo or radio.
The static or RFI can be reduced considerably by making a grounded shield for the area of the wires that are near the body, very much the same way they cured that for early Vettes. A little closer to the plugs you can make a stainless wrap that has a nice ground cable that would also attach to the ch***is or engine.
That is not my personal experience (so far over 10 years). The red wires on the flathead Mallory in my picks are firing a Chrysler electronic ign system. I've seen this often repeated but they have been no problem for me. The 440 wires in my pics will work on the same Chrysler system but it is not on the road yet. I'm not worried. Your results may vary.
I think it may depend on the control mod and how sensative it is. I'm surprised that we don't see more Chrysler electronic conversions here. They are tough as nails. Many manufacturers recommend a spiral core ignition wire with their perspective ignition system. When you change your ignition over you may do us the favor of a tech thread/how to on it.
The kind of clear colored and clear didn't last long,after some heated time they would get hot and then ark a lot to anything other then the plugs,was cool to see at nite but not good for the motor,so great for showcars good looks,but ****ed for fast street rods. I still like the look of clear and samiclear colors,maybe they make that stuff better now? but back in the 50's/60's it leaked sparky
In case anyone is looking for Rajah ends or cool plug wires go check out The Hotrod Company. Thats where i bought mine, good selection.
Okay, bringing this one back to top with a dumb question. I'm thinking of going with clear wires and rajahs, as I like the show car look. Has anyone used the stuff from the hot Rod Company on a regularly Street driven car, and if so have you any problems? Follow-up dumb question, I don't listen to the radio but I do have my iPod on all the time. Would a setup using this stuff interfere with it. (I kind of like the idea of my engine interfering with the boom box radio playing puff diddy snoop doggy 50cent ice tea far too loud on the local rap **** station in the ricers next to mebut not my own tunes. Infantile I know, but what can I say?) Oh, and I should point out this is on a Kustom were higher performance is not an issue, but obviously smooth running is. Thanks to Moriarty I have to wipe drool off of my keyboard now. Paul
Only problem with rajah clips is they did have exposed ends and would easily jump to ground if they were close proximity to headers or bolts. We had the creamy off white silicone wires back in the late 60's that in short time got dirty white. But they stayed soft and in great condition for many years!
KF the big problem with the clear plug wires no matter what color the plastic was is that they tend to break down rather quickly and as Dana Barlow said in post 15 they make for a great under hood *****le light show at night with the spark jumping around. Great for Moriarity's show car motors but not very good for continual street use. Back in the 60's guys would buy that stuff and stick it on their engines and three weeks later be pulling it back off because the engine was running like ****.
speaking of exposed ends, I got zapped the other day while tuning my engine. My wedding ring arced out on a plug , woke me up good
A big reason my watch ends up threaded through my wedding ring and hanging on my garage wall anytime I pop the hood - too much bad stuff can happen with **** on my hands and wrists. Great thread. Is there a good spiral-core plug wire for those of us running Pertronix? I'd love to run the Packard stuff, but I'm about to reinstall the AM radio in my Falcon, and my other car has a Pertronix conversion. -Dave
In my neck of the woods only show cars used the clear or colored stuff. The hotrodders used Packard wire and a few, including me, used the Rajah ends. Also used the same setup on my Harley. We also stayed away from the clear braided fuel line because it got hard and brittle fairly quickly.
yes..Hot Rod Company carries it.. http://www.thehotrodcompany.com/shopnow/show_dept.asp?dept_id=66&filter=&filterkey=bsp&first=0
We (PerTronix) make a 7mm Black wire that looks like old wire and is spiral wound - works perfect with out Ignitors.
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