1970 valve cover wire holder? (not spark plug)
 

I pulled some parts of of a 1970 Lemans on Friday;
other than replacement spark plug wires, and a rotor and cap, this thing looked to be painfully original under hood (it even had vintage green ring Delco R45S plugs there!!)

I was able to (for only the second time in my lifetime) get a full set of spark plug wire holders off this engine.

Now I have several bits soaking to be properly cleaned later, but maybe someone can enlighten me about something I don't recall ever seeing before;

Question:
Did any 1970 engine use a (twelve gauge maybe) wire holder that was held in place at the rear outer drivers side valve cover bolt?

I ask because I don't recall ever reading this, or coming across this, but I am sure this is what I took off of this engine.
If the consensus is that this was never used, I will just assume it was placed there some time in the last fifty years.

This engine also had the TCS switch fully hooked up, and all there;
unlike the ebay listings which show a square foam cover for the vent, this one used a short length of hose with a foam something-or-other in the end of it!?

Here's the switch with full lengths vacuum hoses on each end (the carb side snapped before I got back home, it is held toegther with masking tape at the moment) - and the wire was cut were it attaches to the engine bay loom by the throttle bracket.
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1632700863

I wasn't able to quite focus on the foam inside the short length of hose here, but the brownish out of focus stuff IS foam.
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1632700863

I have only come across a couple of these switches in my lifetime, and they were NEVER hooked up!

Boom!!

Paydirt!!

This engine even had the original coil still in place!!!

So here is a picture of the spark plug wire retainers ,and the single wire holder I pulled off this engine.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1633024354

(it's the one in the foreground that I am asking about)

It IS the part I had suspected (it was a bit mangled, and VERY covered in gunk);
I associate this as holding the wire lead for 1972+ temperature senders, but do not recall this being used for 1970 engines.

I had another one that came off a later 1970's engine - that one still has the plastic clip for holding the sending wire:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1633024354

I will re-ask this;

Question:
Does anyone know why a wire holder would have been on what appeared to be a very original 1970 (L30/M38) engine at the rear/outer drivers side valve cover bolt?

What was it's purpose?

Found it!!

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1633049260

Does anyone have a photo of the plug wire holders in place (on a 1970 RAIV if possible or different from every other Pontiac V8), showing correct position and orientation?

I have some. Don't have the car here right now and the motor is out. The pics I have may be a little hard to see everything, especially on the driver side, but I recall that each side is basically the same configuration (I think). The next time I go my my guys shop I can take some better pictures with the motor out of the car.

https://i.imgur.com/Jtkfy7sh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/J6mPRqUh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/a7416Vah.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ttqa9Wah.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NvSzq1Xh.jpg

perfect. Thank you very much

do all 6 attach to the valve cove hold down bolts?

No. the one's in the back (the first ones after the wires come off the dist.) mount to a bolt hole on the heads as I recall. Those two looms are the ones that are relatively flat. The 4 wire looms that have the 90 deg bends at the mounting holes mount to the valve cover.

no.

Four are VC, the other two are on the back of the heads.

I never posted earlier, because there are so many pictures of this stuff out there.

I looked, but could not find exactly what I needed. These posts cleared it up. Thanks.

Where can I buy wire holders for my ra3 formula

all the vendors sell them.

All Pontiac V8's used the same ones for 1969-1970;
I am not so sure about before that;
And they got mostly eliminated after 1970...

Thank you

I went through my parts bin and found several sets of plug wire holders. Half were sprayed engine color (looked like overspray) the other half were dirty but not painted. Should the base of the holders be gray metal or a more shiny zinc/cadmium type finish?

I also found a bunch of the engine wire holders noted in the original post (see photos).

In photo #3 I found in the bin a single 2 plug wire holder different from all the others. Any guesses as to the origin?

I could be wrong, (I would expect that a more knowledgeable member might be able to chime in) but I believe that the engines were painted with these in place.

As a side note, I am not sure how engines with chrome valve covers were done - maybe assembled and painted with standard valve covers??

That second picture has the parts that remained through to the end of the 1970's - depending on the year the exact ones used varied - but as I mentioned earlier (what prompted the creation of this thread) was that I was at the time unaware of any of those being used in 1970;
What I came to realize was that all non-RA engines used one of those on the rear drivers side outer valve cover bolt, to direct wires down through the battery cable holder to the starter (image on post #4).

That unique two wire holder in your third attachment I have seen before;
It bolts up to one of the bolt bosses just under the valve cover;
It appears as though my last post was slightly in error;
The four wire one which bolts up to the drivers side rear/outer bolt boss was for sure a 1970 part;
I am unclear on what years used that two wire one - but I'd guess it was in the same spot on the merits of it's shape.
I did a quick search and it looks like 1967 wire holders were unique, and there was some overlap between 1968 & 1969, and maybe 1969 & 1970.

As to this question, I've had a few original '69 - '70 GTO & FB 400's that very likely had never been opened up or repainted. The chrome covers had a bit of blue around the gasket side edges that gave a strong impression there was a "masking cover" used that covered most of the chrome while the rest of the engine was being painted.

I'm also believing that the plug wire looms & wire brackets were added at final engine dressing, therefor long after the engines were painted. So there shouldn't be any blue on them. An exception would be for brackets/holders that every possible chassis - engine combo would need that specific part.

Anyone got extra set for sale

I may have an extra set;
Last year when I got the ones shared earlier in this thread I used them to dress my WT engine.

But even if I have a spare set, shipping would be brutal compared to anyone who might have them state-side.

I don't think shipping simple spark plug wires holders would be very expensive.