330GT plastic shift lever extension

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Lowell
Posts: 189
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2002 1:40 am
Location: Santa Fe, NM

330GT plastic shift lever extension

Post by Lowell »

I sent my 330GT to Tom Ellis at his Thomas Vintage Motors to have the clutch repaired. To do this, the transmission was removed.

They noticed that the gear shift lever had a huge amount of play, so they removed the top cover of the transmission to which the lever is mounted. The end of the lever is of hemispherical shape truncated at the top by a small flat ridge. A plastic "spherical seat" [Ferrari part 55467] clips onto the hemisphere at the lever end making a joint that can swivel through small angles. The outside of the plastic is of cylindrical shape, and it fits into the transmission gear selection mechanism. They found that the bottom of the plastic part had broken off.

The same thing happened in 2004. Kerry and I (mostly Kerry) installed a correct Ferrari 55467 plastic part that he had had for many years. The car has been driven 3,700 miles since this repair.

During the clutch work, they found that the transmission had a bad seal. An end plate was removed to replace the seal. The opened transmission revealed not two but three bottom plastic pieces lying about.

So: Has a good, modern plastic part been manufactured to replace Ferrari part 55467, a part that will last more than 15 years and 3,700 miles?
Lowell Brown
1966 Gold 330 2+2 Series II
DWR46
Posts: 621
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:23 pm

Re: 330GT plastic shift lever extension

Post by DWR46 »

The early version of the shift lever bushings were translucent (that turned yellow with age) and the more current, stronger versions are dark gray.
Lowell
Posts: 189
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2002 1:40 am
Location: Santa Fe, NM

Re: 330GT plastic shift lever extension

Post by Lowell »

DWR46 wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:56 pm The early version of the shift lever bushings were translucent (that turned yellow with age) and the more current, stronger versions are dark gray.
Dyke, Thanks for your response.

The broken top part that Kerry and I found in 2014 was yellow. The "new, old (old, old?)" part that we installed was whitish.

Tom emailed me that of the three bottom halves found inside the transmission, one was black, two were white. So it appears that the bushing installed before I owned the car (2000) was black. Or perhaps it just turned black after a long time in the inner transmission environment.

Have you encountered any problems with the current versions, or have heard of any problems with them?

Could you PM me a good source for the current bushings?

Thanks again.
Lowell Brown
1966 Gold 330 2+2 Series II
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tyang
Posts: 4060
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2002 10:28 pm
Location: New York
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Re: 330GT plastic shift lever extension

Post by tyang »

Hi Lowell,

As Dyke said, the new ones are grey and seem to be holding up. I think all the usual suspect have these bushings. Partsource, T Rutlands, GT Car Parts...

Tom
'63 330 America #5053
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