Remember when we used to gap spark plugs by feel?

I was doing a tune-up on a '95 F-150 yesterday and caught myself eyeballing the gap on a new plug. Back when I started in the late 90s, my old boss would hand me a feeler gauge and make me check every single one before it went in. Now I just pull them out of the box and trust the machine, but I swear I had fewer comebacks when I double checked. Anyone else still bother with the gauge or am I just stuck in the past?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninabutler27d ago

When I pull one out of the box now it's usually spot on though, you ever actually measure one that was wrong?

xena_kim27d ago

@ninabutler honestly I think the problem is more about people treating a tape measure like it's the whole truth. You can grab one off the shelf that reads perfectly at the hook end but if the rivet is loose or it got dropped in the shop, that first inch could be off by a sixteenth. I've seen brand new ones that were fine at the first inch but started drifting around the 16 foot mark. It's not exactly common but it happens enough that I always double check against a ruler if it really matters.