1/23/14
400GT Tune Up
I started work on the 400GT this week. It's a new customer and it's a
car I found for him in Texas.
Although the valve covers are incorrectly painted red, the engine
compartment looks complete. The car was running a little rough at
startup, so I decided to start with a quick tune up by checking the
ignition system.
These cars are notoriously tight with space in the engine compartment,
and the distributors are stuffed pretty far under the windshield.
Getting them out past the linkages was like getting a square peg
through a round hole!
After the points were changed due to some minor pitting, I moved onto
the spark plugs. A couple of the plugs were fuel fouled, so I'm sure
this added to the rough running. The soft rubber sheathing Ferrari used
to cover the ignition wires on this era of Ferrari gets dirty pretty
quickly. The soft rubber on these white covers is almost porus and
seems to stain easily. A good scrubbing will get the dirt out, but
everyone with these wires struggles to keep them clean!
The brakes were a little spongy and the pads were a little worn, so new
pads and a thorough brake bleeding restored the pedal feel.
These cars had the notorious Koni "Load Leveler" shocks. Ferrari
installed them on all the 2+2s of this era, but these shocks were prone
to leaks and failures. Koni no longer rebuilds these shocks and
I only know John Bishop in Australia that rebuilds them.
Luckily, there are a couple of other options. One is to install Gabriel
Air shocks with a schrader valve to add air to change the ride
height. The second choice is to buy a pair of Koni adjustable coil over
shocks which this car already had installed. It's an expensive update,
but luckily it was done by the previous owner.
With the ignition system finished, I turned my attention to the
carburetors. Like I said, the clearance on these cars is very tight and
Francois has an elbow adapter just for this car.
Although I may have an adapter to check the balance of the carbs, I
don't have an easy way to remove the air cleaner on this engine! The
only way to take one out or install one intact is to remove each
velocity stack first! Luckily, these elements look pretty clean, so I
won't mess with them, but who would have believed changing an air
filter on this Ferrari would take an hour!
Reminder: If you have a Ferrari
related project, car, or idea
you'd like to explore, I'd love to talk to you. I can also help if
you're thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I
love to do, and now it's how I make a living, so if you'd like to do
something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!
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