we cant be the first to figure this out!

[rray]

mark 3.1 roadster....with the new(er) 351 (427) Z head motor...and stainless headers.....after 1000 miles, and few attempts (us) and then a professional (them) tune, we decided to pull the plugs and (this time) replace them. We knew it would be a 3 hour job..and we knew enough to pull the header bolts that each spark plug was pointing to..except the rear passenger side plug and then you take out the rear header bolt over the third plug..yada yada yada.....it was still a pain in the %$# to just get a spark plug socket on the plugs even though we had ground it (the socket) down to within an inch of its life to get it to fit...alass, because of the wide flange on the headers and the lack of a edge bevel, as the plug and socket came out, the socket jammed on the header flange and turning it more than two turns was impossible as it jammed against the &%$#@$ header flange. MY hands were to big to reach the plug and unscrew it!!...and then it dawned on my son....ya get an 8 inch piece of thick walled clear sort of flexable tubing...stuff it over the end of the plug (on tight) and simply turn the tubing...wallah!!! plugs out...plugs in with a reverse of the process..when its snug...put our ground-down (now refered to as the thin wall socket) socket on the plug and took a 3/4 turn and done....still took almost an hour and three quarters..but its sooo much easier this way!
Ya, i know...you guys JUST figuring this out!!!!

Richard & Travis Ray

[Rallygorgo]

Yup, used to do the same thing on Hondas (they have the plugs down about 5" insde a tube in the center of the combustion chamber) 20 years ago when I was working at a dealership. Did you put anti-seize on the plugs?

[svtjackal]

Not new!! That is how you do the plugs on a SVT Lightning with those deep spark plug tubes, 3 hour job or $350 job at the dealer, the only thing I don't miss about my lightning

[BlitzAttack]

I used that method on sportbikes when I worked for Yamaha. Very handy.

[ryans88gt]

I always use rubber hose too... additional benefit is it is impossible to cross thread them that way.

[ROADRACER83]

Ray and Travis:

You are right, you are not the first to think of this. I have been removing and doing the initial threading of spark plugs with pieces of rubber hose since God was in grade school. I have a couple of pieces in my tool box for that job. But the fact that you reinvented it shows how smart people find ways to do difficult jobs with simple tools.

Ron

[rray]

Hay Ron...or how about "idiots a bit late for the party"...still laughing about all the comments. Next thing were going to discover is the "tilting the glass to pour the beer" thing!!!!

R Ray