# 1970s Urban Legends: Cars that required engine removal to replace spark plugs?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/1970s-urban-legends-cars-that-required-engine-removal-to-replace-spark-plugs/72015>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [April 20, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1970s-urban-legends-cars-that-required-engine-removal-to-replace-spark-plugs/72015 "2012-04-20T16:40:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Goldwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@Goldwing](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Goldwing)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1970s-urban-legends-cars-that-required-engine-removal-to-replace-spark-plugs/72015/41 "2012-04-25T22:50:42Z")

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The Fiat X19 wasn’t difficult to change spark plugs, there were only 4 and they were easy to get at, at least in my 1975 model.

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**Author:** ![the\_same\_mountainbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@the\_same\_mountainbike](https://community.cartalk.com/u/the_same_mountainbike)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1970s-urban-legends-cars-that-required-engine-removal-to-replace-spark-plugs/72015/42 "2012-04-26T02:45:28Z")

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I test drove an X1/9 brand new many years ago. It was a blast. I went tearing down the road, winding the engine out, and looked down and discovered I was only doing 50!

But the door handle came off in my hand. So I kept looking.

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**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1970s-urban-legends-cars-that-required-engine-removal-to-replace-spark-plugs/72015/43 "2012-04-26T03:42:52Z")

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“I’ve often wondered why cars couldn’t be designed so that the hood and fenders tilt forward so that one could walk right up and service the engine.”

A few have been. The Austin Healey bugeye Sprite did, too. It’s hard to work on the Sprite engine, though. Some folks just take the hood off.

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