VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc Sparking Plug Washers, where'd they all go??

Back in the good old days, bout a half century ago, when I worked in auto part as a counter man we had a big old box of spark plug washers. Back them it was commonplace to pull the plugs every three to five thousand miles, blast them clean and sometimes use new crush washers.
Well, I have an oil burnin' problem that taint showing smoke yet and the compassion rings are still holding at about 130 across the board but I'm pulling the plugs every thousand or so and cleaning them. I went looking for some new plug washers this week and none of the auto parts locally or on line has plug washers any more. Most common answer, "they come in the box of every new plug!" Now I can find washers for plug indexing up the ying yang but they cost more than a new set of plugs.
So does anybody know a source where I could buy a box of 14mm plug washers??
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

try aircraftspruce.com

part # an 4027-2 .78 ea. 20% discount box of 100

Well the search continues, that's not a good number Sonny.
and nothing returns for "Spark Plug Washer" or "Spark Plug Gasket"
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Never mind, I took the space out and it found the AN number. Thanks, Sonny.
Those are the copper washers, and that does give me an idea. For .78c I think I can slab some of them of on the lathe. I can't believe the price of the folded steel washers, over two dollars each??? and the FAA says they are a one shot deal, not to be reused. I think I may still have some of the 18mm washers left over for my Lycoming 0-320.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Well I did pickup a foot of 101 Copper .750” round stock but haven’t had the time to get down to the basement. A simple project but so are the other dozen or so that I’m trying to squeeze into my busy retirement schedule!
In the interim one of the guys over at the Stovebolt steered me to a commercial fleet supplier that stocked metric copper flat washers, 14mm x 19.8mm x 1.4mm, wow, just exactly what I needed, so I opened an account with them and picked up a box of 100pc.
I made up a little fixture that the washer pilots over and with a light tap with a .125” punch I can put three small dimples around the ID. They now thread over the 14mm plug and stay put when installing or removing the plug.
Now when I do my 4-5,000 mile read on the plugs at tune up time, I pretty much have an endless supply of nice new soft copper plug washers.
A happy ending!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have alot of 18mm, 10mm and some 14mm spark plug washers. I get $1 + shipping for 6 spark plug washers. These are all new old stock.

dave

And Dave, where were you a week ago???? I'll put ya on the vendor list for when my box of 100 runs dry.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I was on the Early Six Cylinder Tour in West Virginia and at the Old Dominion Meet that was held in White Post Virginia. The old '40 went a total of 1200 miles with no problems.

Dave

Thats cool

Well that answers that question! I grew up in the 40's and 50's and from what I remember the problems that people had when traveling weren't so much mechanical but mostly with tires. I think next was the overheating problems. Other than that by the 40's most of the cars were pretty reliable, heck look at how many are still running.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL