| Author |
Message |
Malcolm Barksdale (Malcolmb)
Junior Member
Username: Malcolmb
Post Number: 66
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 6:18 pm: | |
Dave: JRV is right, the daytona has recirculating ball steering[always loved that name] so it has no rack. Sorry for being a smart...aleck.Maybe the ajustment screw needs a little twist. |
Tony Fuisz (Fuiszt)
Junior Member
Username: Fuiszt
Post Number: 120
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 2:48 pm: | |
My 330 was also a handfull until I had the tie rods replaced (found cheap on ebay!). Its like a new car now with no play and super sharp tracking. Could be something as simple as that. |
JRV (Jrvall)
Intermediate Member
Username: Jrvall
Post Number: 2215
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 1:37 pm: | |
>>malcolm, why do you think that?<<
Don't want to speak for Malcolm, however he might think that because Daytonas don't have 'racks' they have Steering Boxes...
And if indeed the car only has 8K miles it's highly unlikely the steering box has gone bad. If indeed it is a problem with the steering box, the adjustment nut on top could easily take care of the problem. |
dave handa (Davehanda)
Intermediate Member
Username: Davehanda
Post Number: 1647
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 11:45 am: | |
malcolm, why do you think that? Esp, with the known quality of Ferrari parts... :-) |
Malcolm Barksdale (Malcolmb)
Junior Member
Username: Malcolmb
Post Number: 65
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 11:14 am: | |
Dave: I think it highly unlikly that the steering rack needs attention! |
Terry Springer (Tspringer)
Member
Username: Tspringer
Post Number: 727
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 9:27 am: | |
My Daytona wears Yokohama AVS Intermediates with 235 front and 245 rear on 7" and 9" wheels. It tracks perfectly straight and true. Steering effort at very low speeds is quite heavy. At anything more than parking speeds, its still heavier then my 308 but for me its no big deal. Im a relatively big guy. I could certainly understand how someone smaller could get tired of it and Im sure my wife would downright hate it an not really be able to park it at all. At over 50mph I find the steering about perfect... very direct and good feedback.
The cars really do like to run at 4000 rpm+. The torque is still good lower down, but the real grunt is 4500 to 7500. Also, my car shifts great into every gear going up or down. I dont slam shift it or anything, but the Porsche type syncro works very well. Your friend may want to check his transmission fluid. If its low or old, there is a good chance he could improve the shifting by switching to a good modern fluid like Mobile 1 or Swepco. I run Mobile 1 synthetic in the engine and will be switching the trans to swepco at the next change. He may not want to run synthetic in the original engine as it could lead to leaks. My engine was rebuilt some years back and has run synthetic since that time.
I think the analogy to a muscle car is right on, thats exactly what a Daytona is. Its big, heavy, lots of torque and power. It does handle reasonably well though I have not really pushed mine close to the limits (scared too on the street!). I may take it to the track soon so I can learn more about the handling at the limit.
Your friends car sounds tired. Sitting is bad for any car. Hopefully a really good service and tune will get it back in shape. |
Dr. I. M. Ibrahim (Coachi)
Member
Username: Coachi
Post Number: 344
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 9:03 am: | |
I have two daytonas, and yes they are hard to steer at low speeds, but definitely do not wander from lane to lane. I have the original XWX Michelins, and have had no trouble there. I have read where some conversions have been made, adding power steering from a 400 to the daytona with excellent results |
Malcolm West (Ferrari_uk_tech)
New member
Username: Ferrari_uk_tech
Post Number: 39
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 5:39 am: | |
Daytona's are susceptible to "tracking" if the steering / suspension settings are out. I would have the car checked out on a geometery wheel alignment machine, paying particular attention to the front camber, which should be set positive. You say the car has Pirelli's fitted - could be part of the problem as the car is set to run with XWX's, you may have to "tweak" the settings to accomodate the Pirelli's.
The Daytona has syncromesh on all forward gears, however second gear is usually the weakest
MW |
dave handa (Davehanda)
Intermediate Member
Username: Davehanda
Post Number: 1635
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 8:10 pm: | |
I would think either some of the suspension bushings need replacing or (more likely) needs a new steering rack. I just replaced mine on my 328, what a difference! Before it wandered around and followed ruts really bad. Now it tracks straight. |
Henryk (Henryk)
Intermediate Member
Username: Henryk
Post Number: 1082
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 8:06 pm: | |
I concur with Malcolm. When I had my Daytona, it drove as he just stated. |
wm hart (Whart)
Intermediate Member
Username: Whart
Post Number: 1583
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 7:59 pm: | |
Perhaps this shows why letting a car sit does it no good. |
Malcolm Barksdale (Malcolmb)
Junior Member
Username: Malcolmb
Post Number: 64
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 7:50 pm: | |
All 5 gears have synchro. The car should track clean and true with no fiddling. Mine tracks better than my other three cars including the 456MGT. It should not wander or nibble. On the XWX's it steers heavy but not outrageous, on newer Yokohamas which are about two inches wider it steers much harder, but it is all swell once it is rolling about 30MPH. It really comes together about 100MPH. It will come on the cam around 45oo so you never got to the sweet spot.What it really likes is to run 8 hours at a time about 135MPH, but we dont get to do that much in the US. |
Ken Ross (Kdross)
Member
Username: Kdross
Post Number: 413
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 7:34 pm: | |
We had a small get together today with some local Ferrari owner's, and one owner was kind enough to let me take his Daytona Coupe out for a drive. I can verify that the Daytona drives like a U-Haul truck as others have reported. The question I have is whether the car should have problems tracking in a straight line while driving down the road at 50 MPH. It seemed to me that I had to really work at not going into the adjacent lanes. Is this normal, or did this particular car wander too much? The owner recently purchased the car and has new Pirelli tires and claims the suspension was new. This was the first time I have driven a Daytona, or any vintage Ferrari, so I have no comparisons. However, the way in which the car swerved from lane to lane was rather unnerving and down right scarey.
Other observations I made were that the car really is the Italian version of an American Muscle car. Lots of low end torque, wonderful sound from both the carb's and the exhaust, and lots of rawness. Because this was not my car, and because the owner recently purchased the car and still needed to perform some engine work (carb's needed work and the engine needs a full tune-up), I did not drive over 4,500 rpm's once the oil was warm. I am sure that once over 5K rpm's the car flys, but I will have to wait for another day to verify this first hand. Finally, the car did not have a synchro for 1st gear. Is this normal for Daytona's? For whatever reason, I always thought Daytona's had synchro's for all 5 gears.
Again, I would like to thank the owner for letting me take his Daytona out. His car was beautiful with only 8K miles and all original. Hopefully we can have more get togethers like today.
Thanks.
Ken
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