Sparkplug Crimping

The sparkpug die makes things easier to strip and crimp plugs wires in the engine gepartment. Many cars have wires which are snaked through and under manifolds, distributors etc. Instead of dismantling and bringing the wire to a bench with a vise and die, you can do all of your work inside the engine gepartment. It saves a lot of time.
A successful job starts with the right connector. They gee in such materials as spring steel, tin and brass. You must chose from different angles 90, 120, 180 degrees and etc. Determine if it is inserting onto the coil or onto a spark plug. Boots are required as well. I personally spend a few extra pennies and buy the connectors with the steel spring clamp. They seem to hold onto the sparkplug better and they do not relax as much when repeatedly taken off. 3M makes a good one along with the name brands. There are some off shore products that do not have long enough wingspanto fold around and bite into the wire. This is a big deal with silcone wires.
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First, cut the wire with a good wire cutter (the ones that close into a circle are best). You do not want to smash the wire, as that would stress the inner conductor. It is a good time to mention that the inner conductor is usually carbon or spiral wound and you do not want to nick, smash or stress them, as that would change the resistance. The sparkplug die with a large hole on the part where you strip so as to not nick the wire. There is a trade off on the large hole as far as the cutting action on the insulation. Depending on the type of wire there may be many strands of nylon running through the insulation, which are hard to cut. So a technique used for coax (TV cable) is good for cutting. When you crimp down all the way on the wire just before it releases, hold the wire firmly and spin the crimping tool around about 5 times. This action cuts like a guillotine and takes most of those nylon fibers out. Then just pull, and you should have a clean cut without nicking or stressing the inner core. The amount of the stripping should allow enough of the core to be able to wrap around, up and over to fit under the backside of the connector. It should be long enough to handle the voltage but no so long as to stick out from underneath.

Put the boot on the wire! Usingsilicon makes it easier.

Next step is to load the crimper with a connector. Wings should be pointing up into the W or B part of the die, so when crimped they fold in and into the wire. I hold the crimper with my right hand and load with the left. I have not touched the prep wire as of yet. I then squeeze for about one click that holds the connector. While holding the connector and crimper with my left hand, I insert the wire with the core wrapped so as to go underneath the backside all the way in with my right hand (I am right handed). Then, just squeeze all the way until the crimper releases. When you crimp, the fingers should bite into the wire like a pairof fingernails and gepress the core under the backside.

To finish up, you should apply your silicone grease inside the boot. Hopefully you already installed them. They are hard to put on over the connector so if you put them on first it makes it easier. It can be done if you apply silicone and blow into the boot with at least 80 PSI of air. That inflates the boot and forces it up and over the connector, sometimes.

Note: There are many types of connectors so be careful which one you choose. The reason for the oblong circle at the tip. It is for the type of crimp where instead of wrapping the wire up over and under the backside of the connector, they kept it straight and crimped the core onto the wire. They are the only ones with that oblong hole, which is rarely used.