Force 1985 CDI Prestolite Spark Plug Wires

[paul88]

I've got a force 125 1985 with CDI/Prestolite ignition. I have 4 coils that have plug wires integrated, not threaded replaceable ones. The previous owner had cut and replaced the plug wires about half way down with automotive suppressive plug wires by simply ramming the copper wire into the suppressive plug core and taping.

I am almost certain that these CDI ignitions are made for solid core (low resistance) wires, and will not work properly with suppressive wires. Does anyone know for sure? There are Sierra 18-5230 Spiral Wound plug wires I could use, but I'm also not sure if spiral wound is correct. It would seem the current wires coming out of the coils are just stranded copper wire with rubber insulation. I would rather do some dirty soldering than buy 4 coils @ 50ea~ before you suggest that

Thanks

Edit:
I've found this http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/truth.htm which says that "In effect, (when new) a coated "low-resistance" spiral conductor's true performance is identical to that of a high-resistance carbon conductor." Looks like I need soild or heli-core plug wires to replace these.

 

[CharlieB]

Re: Force 1985 CDI Prestolite Spark Plug Wires

Nobody is going to tell you that running suppressor wires is OK.

Reasoning, suppressor wires eventually fail.

Solid core wires will eventually fail, usually due too old age deterioration of the insulation, which on many installations isn't much of a problem as the plug wire is not near anything close enough to short out.

You are looking at a reliability issue.

Are you willing to put the wife and kids in that boat with those wires and take them 15 miles out in the ocean, out of sight of land, and trust those suppressor wires to bring them home?

Granted, some suppressor wires DO have a very fine wire wound around a suppressor core, however, one break in that core and arcing does occur, melting/burning off the wire (and the suppressor core) each successive arc continues the 'burn' pregressively widening the gap, until eventually the gap becomes so large that the ignition voltage fails to bridge the gap and the plug does NOT fire.

Will NOT happen with REAL wire. And you can live with that.

 

[paul88]

Re: Force 1985 CDI Prestolite Spark Plug Wires

Alright, well I've replaced the suppressor wires that were on there with accel solid copper core wires with no suppression at all. The yellow part of the wire in the picture is what was suppressive before, and rusted . I had someone watch the spark tester and he said that the spark was much more powerful compared to testing with the suppressive wire. The only problem now is the wires with the 90deg boot were $56, and these were $23, so I went cheap. It makes it a little harder to put the cover on is all. I simply stripped both plug wires, cleaned them with brake cleaner (the residue doesn't let the solder stick), and then soldered them together. I slid these boots over them, which I found earlier, and then taped (not shown).