10/22/12
330s and 250s

I took a break from writing to this blog for a few days. The trip to the FCA National burned me out for several reasons, but I’m back!

I went to a Empire State FCA event a few weeks ago, and arranged to meet two GTE owners with my 330 America. Alan Wilzig hosted a second annual event at his private race track in Upstate New York, and it was a fun day to pitch these cars into the turns!

The engine rebuild on the 330 was continuing at the shop and we’re making good progress. The heads were installed, and timing chest was next. Special care was taken on the sealing of the various o-rings between the block, heads, and timing chest.

Inspecting the condition of the chain tensioner, I found the adjustment screw too tight in the body of the tensioner. After the I took apart the assembly, everything was cleaned, and freed so all the parts worked together smoothly.

After troubleshooting the Daytona Spyder electrics, I turned my attention to the window mechanisms. The electric windows were moving very slowly, and seemed to be getting slower and slower. After taking to door panels off, I found one of the window felts in the window tracks out of position. I replaced the felt, and although it was better, I still felt the window was moving too slowly. 

I inspected the Ducellier motor that operated the windows and found it was a little worn. I could hear the motor struggling against some worn internal bearing. Luckily, I found a Ferrari 308 motor was a direct replacement. With the correct electrical connections soldered in place, the new motor made a big difference. 

A new GTE arrived at the shop last week, and was the one pictured above at the Wilzig event. The new owner is local to me, and I am always excited to have another GTE nearby! This car was restored several years ago, but the previous owner seldom drove the car. The new owner plans to change that habit!

We made a “to-do” list for the car to finish as quickly as possible. In the Northeast, we’re always trying to get any last bit of driving in before the winter weather arrives, and I plan to get the car back as soon as possible. The list included some minor issues, like fixing the panel light switch and parking brake. An original steering wheel was purchased to replace one that was a little small for a GTE.

With the hub out of the car, now was the perfect time to polish up the aluminum.

The reproduction steering wheel was modified by a previous shop to fit the bolt pattern on the steering hub.

The original steering wheel had the correct bolt pattern, and went in without a problem.

The larger steering wheel not only looks better in the car, but will also give the driver the right leverage to steer this non-power-steering car!

There was a complaint of the front tires rubbing on the vent hoses in the wheel wells. Although this orange hose is incorrect for a Vintage Ferrari, I decided to first eliminate the rubbing with the old hose before destroying a new set of hoses. I started by collapsing some of the hose to gain some more clearance.

The ride height of this car looked fine, so we didn’t think there was an issue with the springs. Looking under that car, however, it became evident we were missing something that could affect the clearance issue.

The other GTE at the shop illustrates quite clearly what was missing: the bump stops. You can see this large rubber bumper mounted next to the shock in this picture. Without this bumper, on full compression, the tire was probably touching where it wasn’t supposed to, but we’ll know for sure when I install new bump stops in the new GTE.

The biggest job we have with this car is to install a new ANSA exhaust the owner bought for his car. There was a very fancy stainless steel exhaust system installed on this car that was made in Germany. It’s a reasonable facsimile, but not very accurate in the details to a stock exhaust system.

We’re going to keep the nicely fabricated stainless steel y-pipe that came with the car, but our first problem was the diameters are slightly different. A trip to our local muffler shop to expand the inlet to the ANSA system was in order.

Reminder: If you have a Ferrari related project, car, or idea you’d like to explore, I’d love to talk to you. I can also help if you’re thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I love to do, and now it’s how I make a living, so if you’d like to do something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!

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