11/19/07
2+2 Troubleshooting
This week I continued working on the 330 Pete Sweeny has up for sale.
We've been trying to sort out a strange issue with the brakes. When we
took this car out for a test drive during my party several weeks
ago, the brakes locked up. Apon
closer inspection, we found the brakes would lock up when the car
would warm up, but would soon release once things cooled down.
Often these problems lie within an aging brake booster or bad master
cylinder, but after removing and inspecting the suspect components, we
found no "smoking gun" to the culprit. We called the previous mechanic
that worked on this car, and discussed the work they had done to try
and figure out what happened. They too had brake problems, but thought
they solved the issues with a master cylinder rebuild.
We tried several times to figure out the problem, and removed the
master cylinder at least two times looking for debris or an ill fit.
The locking brakes were not always repeatable, and they would lock up
under different circumstances. Finally after consulting another Ferrari
mechanic, Bill was
told to check to see if the cup seal in the
new master cylinder rebuild kit was blocking the holes in the bypass
circuit. It turns out the new seals were slightly thicker than the
original ones, and was causing fluid to get trapped in the master
cylinder, not releasing pressure all the time. Bill actually had a set
of NOS seals, and sure as sh*t, they were thinner! I wasn't sure
whether to be happy we found the culprit, or cry that it took my taking
the brake system apart several times to find out it wasn't our fault!
After what I hoped was a successful repair on a nightmare job, I was
put on another challenging project, the 400iA. After repairing the fuel
issues
last week, I had to address a non working driver's side electric
window lift.
I hoped it was something simple like a loose wire or broken
switch, but everything was pointing to something wrong behind the door
panel. The window was jammed and not even the supplied manual crank was
moving anything.
Getting to the window mechanism on any car is a pain in the butt.
Getting to a Ferrari window mechanism can be a career ending move!
Many Ferrari windows are operated by Rube Goldberg design of cables,
pulleys, and tensioners. Getting to the motor and gear box requires
unraveling the cable that snakes all about the inside the door. As
soon as the tension is released, the cables create a rat's nest of
wire. I
took some pictures, took some notes, and hoped I could put all this
back together again!
Eventually, I got to the root of the problem. The Sperm Whale Oil
based grease the Italians used dried up, hardened, and locked the gears
in
place. ( O.K., I don't know for a fact it was whale grease, but it was
obviously something that should have never been used to grease
anything!) Luckily the grease in this gear box did not cause the
gears to strip, so a thorough cleaning, and modern replacement grease
got
everything in working order again. The new grease I used should last
much longer than the crappie Italian stuff!
The next biggest challenge was to get everything back together.
Normally, the cable and motor assembly was installed first before
the window frame and glass was put in. This allowed the assembler to
check for fit and movement of the cable and motor before the attaching
the glass to the cables. When repairing the gear box like in this 400,
things were done out of order, so getting everything back properly was
not an easy task. I can't tell you the relief I had when I bumped the
window switch and the window moved up and down!
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