I don't wanna sound any more stupid than necessary, but I got my Denso IK22 spark plugs pre-gapped to about 0.035" and I wanted to re-gap them to 0.043" as recommended by many.

Now I've gapped plugs before with no issue, but my wire gauge gapper can't fit in the electrode. Are there different gauge gappers for iridium plugs? I can't even grab the electrode with pliers.

Anybody had this issue? Anybody got a suggestion?

 

Did you try using the cheapo round ones? They should work fine.

 

That's what I got. No, it didn't work.

Has anybody set a gap on the iridium plugs using the round wire gapper? What has anybody used?

 

shouldn't be any different than setting the gap on anything else. i like to use a little screwdriver to open my gaps up, and a wire gauge to measure.

 

Its not a stupid question. At least you asked before you broke the electrodes. Almost anything that will fit in there is ok. Just dont use to much pressure while bending up. Just pushing something in there may bend it up .005. Like Kyle said though, a small screwdrive is usually best.

 

Well I figured out what my problem was.

Just to recap - I couldn't gap my IK22 iridium plugs. The gap adjusting wrench on the wire gauge couldn't fit under the electrode. I even ground the wrench a little to fit under the electrode, but the wrench slot was too big to effectively grab the electrode. It just couldn't move the electrode. It worked on the stock plugs, but not the iridium plugs.

My spark plug gap wire gauge is probably more than 25 years old and I started thinking maybe wire gauges have changed to adapt to subtle changes in the newer plugs. Well I bought a new one and taadaa! It worked.

Well I know this sounds simple (and it is), but I thought at least I'll post the resolution if anyone else runs into this.