I'm planning on changing the plugs on my '01 Expedition tomorrow morning (not a 'stang I realize but, a ford engine none the less) so, I go to Autozone and get 8 Motorcraft plugs and some anti-seize. Once I get back home I get curious as to the condition of the old plugs and decide to pull the most accessible one on the front passenger side. Just as I'm pulling the plug out I notice a T-tap of all things sitting on the head cover right next to the spark plug opening. Now I know what I should have done...put the plug back in and then remove the errant t-tap (which was obviously dropped there by the teenager who installed my remote starter. He used a t-tap for the tach wire on that cylinder's coil lead). Given that Murphy's Law rules my household, I decide to continue to remove the plug. I then go over to the work bench and get some needle nose pliers and go after the t-tap...with an open combustion chamber just millimeters away. And what happens next will haunt me for the rest of my years. I go to grab the t-tap with the pliers and, as you probably guessed, dropped it into the combustion chamber. It was one of those "Oh crap, what have I done
" moments. Back to Autozone for one of those grapple tools. After 30 minutes of blindly grabbing in the chamber I managed to get a hold of the t-tap. However, the tap was perpendicular to the grapple tool and was too wide to make it back through the plug opening...so it tore in half. Another 30 minutes to grab the other half. All told, the whole experience took 3 hours. 1 plug down, 7 to go!
" moments. Back to Autozone for one of those grapple tools. After 30 minutes of blindly grabbing in the chamber I managed to get a hold of the t-tap. However, the tap was perpendicular to the grapple tool and was too wide to make it back through the plug opening...so it tore in half. Another 30 minutes to grab the other half. All told, the whole experience took 3 hours. 1 plug down, 7 to go!
