330 Vents and Lights



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It seems like we just had this 330 at the shop, but she’s back for a few more items on the list of repairs and tweaking.

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Everyone who owns a 330 Ferrari knows what this piece is, and when it’s not attached to the steering column, it’s not good!

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The turn signal stalks on a 330 and 365 Ferraris are very fragile and as they age, the plastic gets more and more brittle. They’re easily damaged with contact with a knee as the driver enters the car, and often break off simply by using the lights or turn signals.

The steel levers are molded into the plastic stalk that creates the contacts to operate everything from the lights, turn signals, and wipers, from the three stalks attached to the steering column. As these parts weaken and break, not only do the levers break off, but the electrical contacts start to lose connection causing all sorts of intermittent electrical gremlins.

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Access to the switch requires removal of the steering wheel and horn mechanism. There are a couple of square plugs at the end of the wiring harness that won’t allow it to come out of the column without individually disconnecting each wire.

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The easiest solution is to send the whole unit out to Jim Simpson at ODD PARTS for a full rebuild.

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Since the car was at the shop, the owner asked me to take a look at the side vents on his 330.

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The extractor vents on one side of the car didn’t seem to be installed correctly, and had gaps between the pieces. These vent pieces are individual parts that marry together to form the vents, so they needed some adjustment. Access to the vent required removing the wheel and splash shield to reach the nuts that held the vent pieces in place.

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After loosening the nuts, I shifted, shimmed, and readjusted the parts to fit without exposing the hardware behind.

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Another little tweak will be to fix the hood bumpers on this car. One of them was missing the rubber top of the spring loaded bumper. Without this rubber part, the bumper was marking up the bottom of the hood. I’ll have to check to see if this part is available, or I’ll just have to make one up.