6/28/14
Three 365s

We purchased new stainless steel pistons to fix the front calipers of the 365GT 2+2. The pistons came with the correct red assembly lube that I applied to the seals.

I cleaned the cast iron caliper bodies up and installed the new parts. I did not think it was necessary to re sleeve the caliper bodies since the corrosion was not too severe and cleaned up well. The design of this particular brake caliper has the seal inside the caliper body, so it rides on the face of the new piston. Since the piston is now stainless steel, there will be less of a chance of rust seizing the piston. With the earlier cars fitted with Dunlop calipers, the seals are mounted to the piston, and ride on the caliper body, this design makes the seal a lot more susceptible to rust in the caliper body. 

When I disassembled the rear calipers, I found the same corrosion on the pistons.

These new parts will last a lot longer and should give a better service life than the original steel units.

Since we were replacing all the consumables on the brake system, I went ahead and ordered new parking brake shoes.

We were putting final touches on a 365GTC/4 trying to resolve a headlight motor issue. After finding a bad motor, and waiting months to find a replacement, we discovered that wasn’t our only problem. With everything hooked up, the replacement motor would only work in one direction. This was beyond my level of troubleshooting, so we asked our electrical specialist to come down to the shop to see if he could make sense of the wiring. After looking through a barely legible factory wiring diagram, he found a dead wire in the circuit. Tugging on the wire that ran behind a fender, we found it easily slid out of the wiring loom! After disconnecting some of the accessories on the ends of the wiring loom, we managed to slide the loom just enough out from the inaccessible fender to find the broken wires. Not only was the headlight motor wire cut, but several other wires! That explained why the turn signal light wasn’t working either!

All the cut wires lined up and there were more that had been partially cut. The cut was from an errant cut off tool when the body work on this section of the car was repaired a while ago! It was upsetting to find this was our issue on so many levels, but I’m glad we found it and could repair the problem now. One of the partially cut wires was the cooling fan circuit, and it had the potential to cause even more damage if it was left alone! By the end of the day, we had a working headlight motor, turn signals, and A/C compressor that we didn’t even know wasn’t working!

A third 365 at the shop, was a 356GT/S 4, or a Daytona Spyder. We have a list of issues with this car that we’re trying to sort out, and some of them had to do with some broken interior pieces. I pulled the seats to gain access to the center console and set upon fixing the broken pieces. This car also has a headlight problem, but we’ve narrowed down the issue to the steering column switch which will be my next task to access!

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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