Just as important, did you use AC Delco?

 

I'm not a mechanic. I have a 1996 Blazer 4.3 4x4 LT (W) that just turned 180,000. There are a handful of versions to remove the plugs, especially #3. Believe it or nor the steering shaft method has been the easiest for me and I'm disabled. People shy off just hearing this method mentioned. The shaft IS NOT removed. The operation is simple. Merely follow the shaft down toward the fan to a plastic shroud. Unclip it. You will see one single bolt. I believe it is 11mm. Remove it. With a screwdriver gently pry the column from the column cover, mark both parts and move it away from #3. Try it.

Now if someone can tell me what to do with a spark plug that won't budge half way out, I could use some help.

 

If you have an extension long enough to reach the plug from outside the wheel well where you have room it will make getting a stubborn plug out a lot easier.

 

Success!!! I got about 4 various lengths of extensions, sprayed a tad of PB at the plug base 3 - 4 times letting it sink in for about 4 hours between sprays, put a 8" sink pipe extension on my ratchet handle and applying steady pressure - I got the sob out.

ricwin

 

I have no additional mechanical info to add, but for those of us that are of the "show me" genre, You Tube is an excellent source of technical videos. Just pull up the starter page and enter a query. The clips on "how to repair ..." range from succinctly professional and educational to down right comical failures. This suggestion is for the benefit of those not a part of the ongoing s a g a of How To Replace The #3 Spark Plug In a Blazer 4.3. This is not a plug - no pun intended- just a suggestion.

Happy motoring!

ricwin

 

Presti7 has a phenomenal idea re: removing #3 spark plug in a Blazer 4.3, at least it sounds good. As I interpreted it, the idea is to grind the ends of an extension down about 45 degrees to facilitate the connection of the extension to the plug socket. I imagine that it would take quite a bit of trial and error figuring out the optimal degrees of grinding to make it work; you can't "ungrind" if you go down too far.

If anybody has one of those laying around and not needed anymore, I'll pay for the shipping if I could even just borrow it to see what it winds up looking like.

Totally serious,

ricwin

 

Used a plug socket and ratcheting boxed end 11/16 wrench, turned the wheels to the passenger side and went right thru the fender well. Ten minutes and the old is outout and new plug back in.

 

yeah thats my usual way of doing it too, i have tried all sorts of swivel sockets and short spark plug sockets, its just one bolt and slide the shaft off, you will spend more time looking for a tool to use then sliding that shaft off. only way it sucks is if the truck is a rotted mess and that shaft doesnt want to come off

 

I put the spark plug socket on there and used a short, offset, 3/4" box wrench to turn it like 1/8 turn at a time. A stubby ratcheting wrench would probably work. I couldn't fit a u-joint or a sparkplug socket with a built in u-joint past the steering shaft, but if you took an angle grinder to the socket and hacked like 1/2" off the front, that should work perfectly. Your just breaking it loose and tightening anyways, most of the turning is done by hand. Good thing I have small hands (never thought i'd say that)!

 

This plug is changed just as BBB says,yes it takes 10 minutes to do one plug but one is still done with the whole job in 30 minutes...