For anyone seeing this.....a lot of plug "wires" are what is called a carbon track wire...it has a length of carbon impregnated string. Yup, no metal involved at all. Over time, depending on the build quality, these fail to a weak or no spark condition at the plug. I replaced mine with NGK (8328) LB01EP Spark Plug Cap. These have a screw that gets run up into the cable when attaching to cable and makes positive contact with the carbon track string for about an inch or so instead of relying on a crimped on connector.