1/21/10
Cavallino Lecture and Jet Party
Now
that I was in the Palm Beach area, I parked my car and tried not to
worry about it. I promised to present a slide show at a lecture being
held at the Breakers, so I had more important things to worry about. I
had been preparing for a month, collecting pictures that would describe
the differences between the Series I, II, III, and 330 Americas. I had
assembled all my pictures in a Powerpoint presentation that I could
show to a room of about 75 Ferrari enthusiasts. Always preparing for
the worst, I mailed a thumb drive to Ron Gaeta the week before so if
something catastrophic happened to me or the car, the show would still
go on! Luckily, when I saw Ron with the memory stick in his hand, I
didn't need it.
I
met Rick Race, the MC of the lecture, and he directed me to
the
people who could set up my laptop and get my pictures on the big
screen. Alan Boe, Bill Preston, and I were given the podium to share
what we knew about GTEs and 330 Americas, and I thought the
presentation went quite well. Afterwards, we stepped outside to see
some GTEs up close. I'll be updating the "GTE
Spotter's Guide" with these new pictures when things settle
down a little.
Back
at Bill's house, Todd Helm began detailing Tom Kizer's 365GT 2+2. He
had his work cut out for him considering it had road grime all the way
from Quebec City!
After
lunch, I went back to the house to see what I could do about my car.
Todd and Angie Hudkins delivered a fuel pump rebuild kit from Indiana,
and Tom Willson came over for moral support.
I
decided the first thing was to find out why the electric fuel pump was
acting up. I soon found a loose connection inside the fuel pump cover,
so that was an easy fix.
We
had several Vintage Ferrari owners watching and socializing at the
garage, and everyone was ready to lend a hand. My only complaint was
I couldn't join them in watching someone else work!
The next
problem was the mechanical fuel pump. Pulling the pump to rebuild it
required doing something about the 15 gallons of fuel still in the
tank. I decided to disconnect the soft fuel hose from the tank
and
raise it higher than the level of the fuel instead of draining the
tank. I've never been able to do this maneuver without taking a bath in
fuel, and this was no exception. Needless to say we took precautions,
but it's never safe to have fuel soaked clothes! Trust me when I say
that whatever they're putting in the fuel these days sure burns the
skin.
Without fuel trying to siphon out of the mechanical fuel
pump, I worked on removing the fuel pump. In my mind this was a simple
procedure on a Ferrari V-12, but not so for a 330 America! Since the
engine is bigger than what this chassis was designed for, the clearance
for the fuel pump was tighter. It took removing some extra pieces, but
we finally got the fuel pump out. With everyone watching and helping,
we all lost track of time except for Mark Dempsey who came into the
garage dressed in a sport coat. It was 4:45 and the Jet Reception was
in 15 minutes!
I cleaned my hands as best as I could, and jumped
in the shower to wash off the overwhelming smell of unleaded fuel. 15
minutes later, I was inside Mark's car shaved, showered, dressed, and
ready for a cocktail. My 330 America would have to miss out on another
event.
It's
always a fun time to have Ferraris parked on the tarmac next to all the
corporate jets on display. I made the usual rounds, caught up with old
friends, and met new ones, but my Ferrari was always on my mind. I
wanted to get back to work and try to get her running again. Not only
did I want to take her to some of these events that I had registered
for, but she was also my ride home! I had to do whatever I could to get
her back on the road. There were many people willing to help me out
with my problem and Greg Jones, a local Ferrari restorer, had brought a
new brake hose down from his shop in Stuart Florida. I called him and arranged to
pick up the hose and some extra pieces on the way back from the Jet
Reception.
When we got back to Bill's shop at about 10 o'clock,
we continued on the fuel pump rebuilding. The diaphragm seemed O.K. but
when I put my mouth on the check valves, they didn't seem to be closing
very well. Looking at the parts in the rebuild kit, the old check
valves were slightly different than the ones in my replacement kit.
When I rebuilt my fuel pump years ago, I managed to get an NOS kit, and
there were two sizes of check valves. The rebuild kit I had in my hand
had only one size so only one set could be replaced. Without much
option, I replaced what parts could fit, and re assembled the pump. It
was late into the evening before we had the pump back on the engine, so
we called it a night.
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