Noisy bearing on the Ferrari 308

Been a while since I've posted.

I started my GT4 up yesterday after about 3 weeks of not running it and got a kind of tinkling, clicking, rattling noise. Difficult to describe, but sounded like a well worn and/or dry ball bearing.

I did the cam belts about 18 months ago and fitted new non-genuine tensioner bearings. One of the tensioners I pulled off was free running - had that dry/loose bearing feel when you spun it - but I didn't know this until I pulled it off so it wasn't making any grumbling sounds. The two new bearings were as they should be with no spin-on if you held the inner race and tried to spin the outer. Thus I don't think it could be the tensioners - I'll be putting some Hill Engineering ones on though at the next belt change as they are pretty cheap really.

So the question - does this sound like worn out water pump bearing(s) or generator bearing(s)?

Finally, the sound can clearly be heard at the belts end but gets less and less and a few minutes after starting is gone. When I started the car today there was very little evidence of it - but it was still there a little just after start-up.

I'll pull the generator/pump belt tomorrow and start the engine and see. That should quickly eliminate it, although it seems to be more apparent the longer I leave the car between runs.

Neither the water pump or generator have been touched since I've owned the car (4 years) so they are my prime suspects.

Watch this space.

Ferrari photo shoot

Nice sunny Sunday and a few of us from www.SuperCarDriver.com were invited to bring our cars for a Ferrari photo shoot for the website. My Dino 308 GT4 in the middle. Others in the picture, 355 Spyder, 308 GTS, 328 GTS, 360 Spyder and 430 CS.

Ferrari Dino 308GT4 Driveshaft seal replacement

So I got stuck in an tackled the drive shaft seal. First thing was to remove the axle from the car. Undoing the M8 hex bolts was ok for the inner C.V. joint using a long extension and a tough 8mm hex drive - turning the axle each time to get to the next bolt. The nuts are the locking type and were original so had probably never been off but they weren't rusty at least - they need a spanner on though until the bolt comes out. With the inner joint separated you need to remove the outer one to remove the axle. I needed to use the 8mm drive straight onto the bolts and jam the hub. I ended up removing the brake, disc, shock absorber, top A-arm and hum carrier to have a good clean around and better access to the axle and drive flange in the gearbox.








Everything out



The offending seal. Note the RTV sealant in the drive flange bolt hole. Oil can leak through the differantial, through the bolt in to the C.V. joints to you have to seal it when intalling the drive flange. I used ThreeBond/HondaBond.

With the axle and other bits out of the way it's easy to remove the one bolt to remove the drive flang, but I drained the transmission oil on my Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 first as I was going to change it anyway and I followed Robert Garvin's great tutorial on Birdman's website. The old seal came out of the differential case pretty easily and was rock hard as all the other seals I've replaced have been. New seal from www.superformance.co.uk for about £5 pushed into place and the drive flange refitted. Had a clean up with degreaser and a toothbrush whilst access was easy and also stripped both C.V. joints on the axle and fitted new boots and repacked with fresh grease - I figured the old ones must be 30 years old as they also looked original. It's a dirty job replacing C.V. grease but it's done now at least on the passenger side. With it all bolted up and a few good runs there's only a hint of oil residue, so no dripping leaks as before and now surprise given the state of the old seal. I was a little concerned that the inner drive flange had noticeable play when the axle was off, but R&D in Manchester seemed to think it was not too bad as did Nick Cartwright - thanks for the advice.

On to the next leak - drive flange seal :)

I've been getting oil spun up from the passenger side CV joint so investigated the cause. I ruled out leaks from the cam covers and resealed the cam end cover with some Hondabond and cleaned the CV joint and drive flange from the transmission. A short run revealed oil leaks moving outwards in lines from the drive seal on the differential cover confirming the drive flange seal to be the culprit. The main issue is that it is flicking oil up onto the rear exhaust manifold which is not clever, and it's also getting oil all over my lovely clean engine :)



It's a cheap part (£5), but will require the CV joint and drive flange to be removed. It all looks quite accessible but the CV bolts might be really tight - watch this space.

Ferrari Owners CLub Northwest Concours June 2010

I was invited to the Ferrari Owners CLub Northwest Concours June 13th. The weather forecast was dodgy but it turned out perfect. Around 50 cars in attendance including: 250 GT Cal, F40, 512 TR, BB512, Dyatona, Dinos, 360, 430, SuperAmerica, 308, 328, 348, 355 - wow that was an expensive field.

Enjoy the pictures.

Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder by Scaglietti and Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona

AutoItalia Stanford Hall 2010

This is a great show if you love Italian cars. Lots of rare cars show up is the weather is good and this time it was. Here's my Dino with an Enzo and F40 on the Ferrari section. The Ferrari Owners Club were welcoming despite me not being a club member and I plan on attending the Northwest Ferrari Concours meeting this Sunday 13th at Cranage Hall - a mere 20 miles down the road from me :) Enjoy the pictures from AutoItalia:

Didsbury and South Manchester car show July 11th

Well it's official now. If you are in Manchester and have classic car we are holding Didsbury's first car show on the afternoon of July 11th and it's all free. Register your car at http://www.didsburycarshow.org/ We have planned for around 50 or 60 cars and places are filling up so register now.