James - The normal reason why there would be a braided steel sleeve over a coil wire, or other HT lead, would be for shielding to prevent EMI in the radio. This basically turns the HT lead into a coaxial cable similar to television cable. (BTW : EMI = Electro-Magnetic Interference). If the new wires were manufactured with proper internal shielding, the extra sleeve is not required. I personally use plug and coil wires that have a multi-strand metallic core for the primary conductor (no resistance at all), and then they have a braided stainless steel sleeve surrounding an insulation layer to provide the EMI protection. "Radio Suppression Wire" uses a composite conductor with some natural resistance to provide the EMI protection. I never liked the idea of thousands of ohms of resistance in a spark plug wire. Toby Peterson VIN 2248 Winged1