Thanks, those pliers sound similar to the ones I had before, will have to get a pair. I did finally get that boot seated (after removing the coolant tank, loosening the pwr steering resivoir and hoses, and removing the alternator to replace a lost bolt :P ), but the car was still misfiring so I checked the other plugs one by one, starting at #4.
That wire was loose, and the car was misfiring at idle, so I seated it and drove a few miles, and it loosened up again. So I put an older wire on it, and that one misfired at higher rpms. By then I was getting frustrated as I've replaced wires twice in 20k miles, so I took the older #3 plug wire and put it on #4 instead. Everything is fine so far at idle and higher rpm, but I didn't have time to drive it far. Will do so later this week.
I'm guessing I need to buy a higher quality set of wires - these came from O'Reilly's. They just shouldn't be wearing out or coming loose like this with so few miles - this is the second set in just over 20k.
TJ Teal '94 Escort LX hatch, '65 Mustang 2+2 in fam. since new, currently in a barn