Need Help - 2002 LeSabre

[Hapynzap]

OK to make a long story short

I am changing my spark plugs wires and plugs

I cant get the spark plug wire off #2 (firewall by power steering pump)

I cant even get a bar on it to break the insulator off to get the plug out.

Is there a tool to remove the wire that is super glued onto the insulator? heh

or any other ideas

[HotZ28]

If you are replacing the wires anyway, cut the existing wire at the boot, pull the heat sheild off so you can turn & twist the boot on the plug. The more you bend, twist & turn it, the easier it is to remove. If that don't work, cut it with a knife (top to bottom) to release the tension around the plug. Good Luck!

[Hapynzap]

The plug heat shield is tapered at the plug end so it wont come off without the rubber boot. I may just leave it for now and let my local mechanic get it out.
The other 5 plugs looked good for being original with 131k on them.

I just bought this car last month and it seems like not much has been done to it other than oil changes.

I did pull off the upper intake manifold and everything looks good. It does seem to have the smaller stove pipe (that's good). I have another new UIM that I am going to put on as an insurance policy, heh. I did notice that the bolts holding the UIM were barely hand tight in the middle when removing them with a 1/4" dive ratchet. I am thinking I should check the torgues on the LIM while I have it open.

[polarzak]

They are tough to get off, but follow HotZ28's advise and you should be able to get them off. Be sure to put di-electric grease in the new plug boots so they will be easier to get off the next time.

[Hapynzap]

I would love to be able to cut the boot off but the heat shield is tapered at the bottom and it wont come off the boot.

I was able to get the boots off 1,3,5 in front and remove those plugs
I had to bust off the plug insulators to get 4,6 off the back plugs and remove them (i just hate doing that)

Yes I have dielectric grease for the new plugs
thanks

[Hapynzap]

UPDATE

This afternoon I was able to twist the spark plug boot about 3/4 turn and it popped and I got it off - whew
I have all the new plugs changed in and torqued

I have started working on putting my new Upper Intake Manifold together.
The MAP sensor seperated into two pieces when I pulled it off the old UIM
The PCV is the original ac delco so both of these are getting replaced.

Does anybody know where the petcock drain for the radiator is on this 2002?
I cant find it and it doesn't seem to be where my 1999 is on the driver side bottom of the radiator. I would like to do a flush on it and put in a new thermostat while I am at it.

Like I said it looks like there has been minimal maintenance on this car. It has had 2 former owners.

Thanks again for all the help on this forum. You guys are great.

[Rasp]

I still remember my bruised and cut knuckles after changing my sparkplugs this summer. They were the worst to get off. I literally spent the day trying to get the darn things off.

In the end I put on a pair of gloves and yanked and yanked and yanked until the SOB came off. I was literally on top of the engine like a warrior attacking his prey.

Lots of language was used that day but I got it. I bloody got it I did.

[Hapynzap]

Gloves - why didn't I think of that? hehe
I have bruises and scabs on my knuckles too.
Do I dare tackle the upstream O2 sensor too? ;-)

The new upper intake manifold is on. I cleaned up the throttle body with some gumout. I still need new o-rings for the fuel injectors and then the fuel rails goes back on. The o-rings I have are for a 1999 and the 2002 are a little different size. Nobody in town had them not even Buick so they are coming in tomorrow to O'Reilly's.

I am getting excited to get this back on the road.

[Hapynzap]

I got the car put back together Sunday and took it for a 25 mile ride. Seems to be running better than ever with the new parts. No trouble codes.

Next weekend I change the oil/filter

[imidazol97]

Originally Posted by Hapynzap

UPDAT

Does anybody know where the petcock drain for the radiator is on this 2002?
I cant find it and it doesn't seem to be where my 1999 is on the driver side bottom of the radiator. I would like to do a flush on it and put in a new thermostat while I am at it.

In the air dam under the front of the car there's a round hole about the size of 3/4 inch socket. It's supposed to be right under the drain on the left side of the radiator. People have said a certain size socket fits, but I can't remember the size.

Looked like a pain to get to. Removing the whole air dam is a lot of little bolts. So I just took off the water pump end of the radiator hose, then flushed mine lots. Then I filled, ran and siphoned out all the water from the radiator 3 times.

Refilled with "Mixes with all kinds."

[Hapynzap]

Thanks for the heads up on the radiator drain.
The coolant that was in there didn't look too bad. I refilled the system with about 3/4 gallon of 100% dexcool. Up here we get down to -40*F sometimes.
Next summer I may do a flush on it.

The thing is before you remove the upper intake manifold the first thing you have to do is drain the coolant. I did so by removing the upper radiator hose at the thermostat then removing the thermostat and housing and sucking the coolant I could see out with a turkey baster. That way any coolant that was in the UIM can't drain into the engine on removal.

When I replaced my spark plug wire set I got some Autolite Professional series wires and they were a perfect match size for size with the original set of Delphi wires. I was pretty impressed and much better than the Borg - Warner wire set that I put on my 1999 LeSabre as they didn't match up perfectly in length and cost $10 more.

[imidazol97]

Originally Posted by Hapynzap

Thanks for the heads up on the radiator drain.
The coolant that was in there didn't look too bad. I refilled the system with about 3/4 gallon of 100% dexcool. Up here we get down to -40*F sometimes.
Next summer I may do a flush on it.
.

Did you use the drain plug on the bottom?

I keep some vinyl tubing to use to siphon water out of the radiator. Bucket on the ground and siphon out about 6 inches or so and the water comes out of the hose for the thermostat. Makes for nice job changing it without trying to catch the spill.

[Hapynzap]

No I am going to wait till next year to do any flushing. We already have snow on the ground here.

One other thing I checked when I had the upper intake off is I checked the torque on the lower intake manifold bolts and they were all pretty good. Only 3 needed about an 1/8 turn to get back up to torque.