Lightspeed Wire Lengths?

I tried to route my plug wires today and must be missing something. My LSE ignition came with 4 wires: 2 short and 2 long. The shorties are exactly the same length and so are the longies. The shorties are just long enough to reach from cyls 3 and 4 to the left and right coils, respectively. Problem is that 3 and 4 are supposed to be wired to the same coil. What gives?? Can anybody tell me how long the wires are supposed to be cuz I think I simply have the wrong parts.

Steve,

The wires shipped with my LSE Plasma II system didn't fit to my satisfaction. Too long, too short, etc. I ordered custom-length wires. Klaus' price on custom wires was pretty good...easy to rationalize at the time.

But I have since taken to making my own wires. I bought bulk MSD 8.5mm wire, terminals, boots, and the little MSD cut/crimp tool. Well worth it. Now I make my own, and obviously the lengths & clockings are dead on. Highly recommended.

I also had to send back about half of the wires - they really don't work with the lower plugs. I don't think the original ones I got would reach without the baffles. At that time (a year and a half ago) Klaus would exchange them for different lengths. I often wondered how many different customers go the same plug wires...

I will make my own if I need replacements (when).

Alex

I appreciate the advice and making custom length wires would be cool, but I already paid for the LSE which was supposed to include the plug wires. I don't want to contact them until I know it's not my own confusion causing the problem. When I say they don't fit, I don't mean they don't fit well, I mean they don't fit at all. Is this common with this setup or did they give me the wrong parts?

Where to buy

Dan, Where did you buy your wire and boots? A Google search turned up wire in 25ft and 50ft lengths or and completed wires of different sizes.

638RS said:

Dan, Where did you buy your wire and boots? A Google search turned up wire in 25ft and 50ft lengths or and completed wires of different sizes.

Click to expand...

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure I got it from Summit Racing.

I went to my local speed shop 1/2 mile from my airport and found all kinds of MSD stuff and kits. I ended up purchasing very inexpensively a boot kit that came with the tool to install them and a few feet off a master roll of 8.5mm wire.

I also found 37deg AN fittings there!

Mike R.

What type of wire & boots?

What type of wire?

I see the hot rod catalog has three different wire cores:

Spiral
Carbon/Graphite
Stainless (racing only?)

I also see you can get 8, 8.5 and up to 11 mm

Boot wise there are two: HEI and than "point or cap type" boots (which come in straight, 90 and 135).

Does the coil take a HEI type boot or different?

Edit: Thanks Radomir!

The wire is MSD Superconductor 8.5mm

Plug Wire Resistance

Sorry for the very late addition to this post - but I had an issue turn up tonight.

I too have LSE plug wires that are too short. But I've been using them during my "First Start" and "Subsequent Start" troubleshooting. Tonight I made new wires from wire and terminals I bought at Summit Racing. The new stuff is MSD 8.5mm SuperConductor wire, just like the ones that came with my LSE.

I made them to look just like the originals from Klaus... same length center conductor sticking into the terminal and all. My new wires are slightly longer than the originals - maybe 30% longer on the #2 wire.

When I compared the impendence with the original wires I got a surprise. The original #1 wire was ~67 Ohms. The new #1 was ~6K Ohms! This seems really bad... but I do know that in most automobiles, higher impedance is better because it cuts down on radio noise.

My questions are:

- what is the correct range of impedance for an LSE Plasma III?
- is there some secret 'gotcha' to crimping terminals on to plug wires?

To answer Steve's original question...one long and one short wire go on each coil (assuming you are mounting the coils on the LS factory bracket which is located at the case seam between #3 and #4 cyls). the short lead goes to the plug on the same side as the coil is on and the long goes across to the cyl on the other side...at least that is how mine was mounted by Mattituck.

I couldn't fit the coils under the James plenum and thus relocated each to a adel clamped horizontal position just to the rear of the upper motormounts. I then needed to modify one of the leads (shorten a long original lead) and buy two new leads. I used two generic MSD 48" lead kits (red 8.5mm) from a local speed shop ($14 each).

The leads came with a crimper (plastic) and after fabrication, I think I got about 3-4 ohms per inch which was about what the original leads measured. I was able to use all the original boots and thus all look alike.

YMMV,