Re: Can this be repaired?
Yeah it can be done but as Mike said, there is a special crimping tool made for doing them the "right" way. I have a Taylor one myself that I got from Summit. You can see what it looks like
here. It's a nice ratcheting tool for repeatable results and replaceable dies for different size wires so you can use the same frame. This tool crushes the terminal into the "kidney" bean" shape to retain the core and the terminal on the end of the wire.
However, you can fix them in a pinch. All you need is a pair of needle nose pliers, a pair of slip joint pliers, a toothpick or *small* jewelers screwdriver, some WD-40 and a rag or paper towel. Usually when the terminal pulls off, it is stuck on the end of the spark plug. I have never had one get stuck in the boot before, you must be "lucky" I guess. Unless you did the big "no no" and pulled the wire off by the wire itself instead of the boot...
The first "fun" thing that you get to do is pull the wire through the boot so that you can recrimp the terminal on. The way that you do that is take the toothpick or jewelers screwdriver and *gently* slip it between the boot and the wire on the BACKSIDE of the wire, opposite the sparkplug. Spraying a little WD-40 will help if you have a hard time seperating the two. After you get about half and inch or so in between the boot and wire, spray some more WD-40 in there and start rolling the toothpick or jewelers screwdriver around the wire. After you get about a quarter of the way around, try twisting the boot on the plug wire. If you can't get it to twist loose, do the same song and dance on the opposite side 180 degrees from where you just did it. Once you get enough lube it there, it will twist since the boot and wire are two seperate pieces. Once it twists loose, hose down the wire on the backside and using the rag or paper towel, push the wire INTO the boot so the the other end comes out to the boot about 2-3 inches. There is
NO WAY that you will be able to do this without lube of some sort. WD-40 has always worked best for me. You just have to work fast because the wire won't be moveable for long.
Ok now you got the wire and core out so that you can crimp the terminal back on. Inspect the core to make sure that it didn't get damaged when the terminal came off. If it looks like it got stressed, just cut the end off clean and strip off about a 1/2" of the jacket. In order to get the terminal back on, you are going to have the flatten out the ears that make the "kidney bean" crimp a little or else you won't be able to the the wire back inside. Do that by pinching them flat with the needle nose pliers. As DaveP mentioned, don't go overboard and flatten them anymore than is necessary to get the wire back inside. Flatten them a little and then try to get the wire inside. Keep doing this until you can do it.
Once you can get the wire back inside, you are almost home free. Start by folding the core back over the wire then slide the terminal over the wire. Be sure that the core is on the OPPOSITE the side of the terminal where the gap is at. In other words, don't have the core under to terminal where you just flattened it out with the needlenose pliers to get the wire back inside. Once you get everything just a little beyond flush with the crimping ring on the terminal, crush it with slip joint pliers with the plier jaws at 3 and 9 o clock with the gap in the terminal being at 12 o clock.
By now, the wire will not be able to be slipped back into the boot so you will have to do the WD-40 dance again to make it slide back inside. Once it moves, *gently* pull the wire back into the boot until the terminal is about the same distance as the other plug wires, usually about 1/2". Much longer to describe how to do it than to actually do it. This technique works on every wire that I have ever had a terminal pull off. HTH's
