9/21/10
330GTC 10799: Brakes and Fuel

I eventually freed one of the parking brake cables from the depths of the the engine compartment. Someone had added an extra heat shield by the driver’s foot well that first had to be removed before I could gain access to the cable. When we got it out, we found the inner cable completely seized to the sheathing from the rust. Luckily, Francois had a stash of new sheathing and cable, so we cut the ends and brazed the fittings from the old cable onto the new cable. If you own an old car, go and exercise your parking brake mechanism. It might save it from seizing like this one.

With a new top cable installed, I tried it out only to find one of the rear cables was seized as well. The work continues…

David told me on his “to-do” list that the fuel gauge wasn’t working. I checked for voltage on the fuel tank sender wires, and found one 12 volt source, and one low voltage source when the ignition was on. The 12 volt source is for the “low fuel” light at the gauge. When this wire is grounded, the light goes on at the gauge. The low voltage source is from the gauge and when that wire is grounded, it pegs the fuel gauge to full. Thankfully, with this test, I proved the gauge is fine, but the sender was probably faulty because pulling the fuel gauge from behind this dash would not have been fun! I vacuumed all the debris from around the fuel sender, soaked the screws with penetrating oil, and hoped all the screws would come out without a fight!

The sender was in real bad shape. It was encrusted with scaly rust, and the float was filled with gasoline. Since the GTC gas tanks are made of aluminum, there was a fair amount of electrolytic corrosion on all the steel pieces. This piece will get boxed up and sent to our fuel sender rebuilder in Ohio.

Francois pointed out something that caught his eye that didn’t look right on the GTC. The top coolant pipe looked a little too offset from the height of the radiator. The radiator hose had to be mounted at an angle not normally seen with this set up. On closer inspection, we found the motor mounts to be a little worn, causing the engine to sag a little hence the offset radiator hose. New motor mounts are in order.

Reminder: If you’re looking for a Vintage Ferrari, or have a Vintage Ferrari for sale, please let me know. I would be happy to help you in any way that I can. I am not a broker, but occasionally hear of a good car for sale and can get them to the end user!

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