Ferrari 360 Spider

  Bosch throttle bodies have a number of parts that are easily swapped out like the motor, magnets, middle gear and the potentiometers in the cover. The hard part is the valve assembly. This is a pretty robust piece that probably doesn't need to be replaced but it houses the sensitive potentiometer fingers which can be worn and also damaged very easily. The simple way to remove the valve assembly is to knock out the plug at the end of the valve and press it out. That would work nicely except the plug is a one shot deal and is destroyed by removing it. As far as I know, there is no place to buy them. For the throttle body in the Ferrari 360, there's very limited access to the shaft from that position. Another way in: Pry off the cap.  To take the valve assembly out, another way was needed that wouldn't be destructive to the original throttle body. Before removing the valve plate from the throttle body, measure the distance between the top of the cover and the shaft on the va...

I've been examining a failed heat exchanger sent in by a fellow Ferrari 360 owner and it appears that the problematic side is from the oil and not the coolant, at least in this case. Three leaks were detected by running water from a hose through the oil side. I used a set of banjo bolts (M16x1.5) purchased on Amazon for $13 to connect to the oil side. In addition, the HE oil side appeared to be literally packed with debris. I haven't analyzed it yet but it appears to be more than just oil mixes with coolant. I removed one of the tubes that had a leak by using a tapered reamer on a drill press. The tapered reamer would be self-centering so I wouldn't have to be concerned with being slightly off center, which would be an issue with straight bit. The stops were set at a very conservative place and when I reached the stop, progress was checked and if no sign of cut through, lower the stop a bit and repeat. Once cut through was detected, and that was pretty easy to see, the HE w...

  I had a weird rumble and some dribbles out the weep hole of my water pump on my Ferrari 360 so while I was in there for a belt change, I decided to do the water pump rebuild. The water pump on a Ferrari 360 is unusual in that to repair it, the bearings and seal are replaced instead of just replacing the entire unit. Rebuilding the water pump isn't trivial. It requires some specific tools, like a press (2 ton minimum) and suitable dies (30mm socket worked for me) to press out the existing bearing and seal and install the new ones, and a Ferrari specific tool (PST-01) to install the seal.  The special tool is required because the seal (G in the diagram) has to be pressed into place on two surfaces. The body of the water pump and the impeller shaft. In between is a fragile seal made from ceramic and plastic that is easily deformed, crushed, broken, or shattered. The special tool keeps the stress off the seal and on the metal surfaces of the seal so that both are pressed down to...

  To change the timing belts on the Ferrari 360, the cams have to be locked in place when the belt comes off. Failure to adequately secure the cams can result in major engine damage.  The Work Shop Manual for this car uses a pair of vice grips to lock the cam sprockets during the belt change. Unless the Vice Grips are really clamped hard, they can easily pop off. Too much clamping force might also damage the bearings at the end of the cam. I thought I could do something more secure and less damaging.  My thought was to create a locking mechanism that wouldn't put pressure on the bearing. To do that, the space between the sprockets would need to be filled with the clamp. I started with a picture and the measurements of the inner diameter of the sprockets and the space between them. This picture shows the areas the can be used to secure the sprockets.  Since this is a plastic clamp, the material bends easily under pressure so I had to come up with a way to move the for...

  One of the important jobs that need to be done periodically on the Ferrari 360 is a "belt service". The timing belts and the rest need to be changed every three to five years.  Once the crankshaft pulley is removed, a spacer needs to be inserted, and the bolt replaced so that the engine can be hand turned to move it to top dead center, and also, after the belts are installed, the engine needs to be turned over several times to seat the belts and checked for tension. Here's the bare crankshaft after the pulley has been removed. I found it cumbersome to turn the crankshaft using the large 36mm socket required as the crankshaft pulley bolt has a short head. With the large socket and heavy ratchet, it's really a two handed job to turn over the engine. Instead of using a short piece of pipe or washers to fill in the pulley space, I decided to make an adjustment that would allow the spacer to fit snugly over the crankshaft and lock into place using the key. To turn the cr...

  The Ferrari 360 is one of the first of that brand where changing the timing belts can be performed in the car, without having to remove the engine. This opens up this important task to the DIY owner and makes maintaining the car simpler. One of the tools required to perform the belt change is the Crankshaft Locking Tool (AV 3207), which allows taking off and torquing the crankshaft pulley nut.  The tool is available for purchase from several outlets with the Hill Engineering (HE) label, and it's a beautiful tool. Cost is considerable for a tool that's used exactly twice every three to five years. I'm certainly not one who scrimps on tools and I typically would buy such a thing. However, it looked like a part that could be 3D printed. Here's AV 3207. This tool protrudes into a gap in the clutch housing.  The first consideration is strength. The Ferrari style tool has a single protrusion that interferes with a single point on the clutch housing. That point has to take a...

The rear glove box in my Ferrari 360 Spider was destroyed by a previous owner who converted it into a tweeter. I received none of the removed parts when I purchased the car. There are two kinds of car owners in the world of classics and exotics. The first kind personalizes their car by doing custom modifications. The second kind buys these cars and brings them back to stock. I'm sure someone after me will undo what I've done. The rear "B" pillars had also been modified into a base speaker. I already found "B" pillars in Crema to replace that mess. To restore my rear glove box to original, I had to buy a complete unit from a breaker (on eBay of course). Finding a Crema colored unit proved to be impossible so after two years of looking, I bought the lightest color unit I could find, which was tan, and somehow turn it into Crema to match my car. Here's the starting point of this project. My rear glove box which had no guts at all, and the cover of the glove...