355 gear lever vibration

A search of posts assures me that a rattle from the lever, vibrating in the metal gate, is not an uncommon feature in the 355. In my case it is mild, but getting progressively more annoying. f355spider mentions in a post dating from 2005 that the part concerned is silentblock #139555 but that there is also an adjustment process (and possibly an updated part). I would be grateful for information on how I can eliminate the fault, particularly how to perform the adjustment.
Thanks in advance,
Ron Brown

 

It's normally part #10 below that needs to be replaced.

Your 355 shift box comes out the bottom of the car similar to the 348's: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72446
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WOW---Never had this problem in my 355F1---Had to get that in there for all the F1 Haters...

 

Ha! Next you'll be telling me that your F1 shifts smoothly into 2nd gear even when cold...

 

You got it!!!! I had that problem with my 328--Do 355 stick cars have that same problem?

 

You should be able to pick out the part No Doubt refers to from the picture below.

As you can see, I dis-assembled mine, cleaned up, new grease and the movement is smooth and no vibration.

To gain access, you need to remove the centre underbody fairing, remove attachment bolts then the assembly is removed from below the car.
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replace #5 and #10 from the diagram above..... the whole assembly must come out as a unit to do this. Then remove the "circlip" on the side of the housing while holding a rag over the whole assembly..... otherwise the spring, circlip and slug will fly out and you will spend the next half hour looking for those pieces...... don't ask me how I know this.... !!!!

 

Hi No Doubt, Terry, gothspeed (and 285ferrari for his F1 "input"!)

Many thanks for such clear and concise advice; your combined knowledge is a perfect fit. Very fortunate for me that Terry took a pic of all the parts laid out a white cloth! Lovely job. Looks like I only have to order the two parts - from my manual #5 on the diagram is part no. 154745 and #10 is part no. 127446? Should I also order the two identical gaskets (seals?) shown as #26, part no. 145773?
I suppose that all the non F1 cars are identical in this area but, for info, my car was manufactured in the middle of 1997.
I now only need to be re-assured that my working on these outside gearbox controls will not result in gear selection problems (my gears select beautifully) - I presume that this work will only tighten up the mechanism and gear selection is governed by other parts (?).

Sincere thanks again for this knowledge transfer.

Ron

 

That's a good idea...... the more of those wearing parts you can replace while you are at it, the better!!!

 

The reason I stripped mine was to clean up everything (it was dirty around the stick and visible from the interior) and apply new grease. I inspected items 5 and 10 and they looked fine so did not replace them. I did change item 6 housing PN 154741 as I broke it during disassembly. It is made from a very hard black plastic material which I doubt would be subject to wear.

You can see in the first picture the circlip which gothspeed spoke about which needs removing for disassembly. Note the rust on the end on the rod (item 9) which extended under the rubber seal into the support. This would have stiffened the shift a little.

The second picture shows the housing which fits around item 5. The final picture is where I relieved the tension of the spring to allow removal of the pin item 4. This pin should be removed with the housing in place, I tried to remove the housing first and broke it.

No need to worry about changing any settings because there is no adjustment in the lever assembly. If you re-assemble correctly it will be fine.
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Thanks Terry for the additional pics and the very valuable detail on method of dis-assembly. Makes all the difference when one is warned of what can happen and one is told the order to dis-assemble to avoid damage.
I will be doing the job in a couple of week's time and I will update the post to close the thread out - at least for the time being.
I am beginning to realise that the most valuable tool available to me is the ferrarichat forum!

 

So what was the end result after all this disassembly and reassembly??

 

Yeah, we do talk a bit funny over here. I'll let you know when I have stopped tearing things down, changing things out etc.

 

Job done. Thanks to all. Replaced items 4,5,6 and 10 for completeness, but in my case, it was only item 10 (ball joint seat) which showed any wear. This seat supports a vertical as well as a horizontal motion (i.e. it slides up and down a bit inside the bore of the transmission rod item 9).
The cost of these parts is minor compared with many others, but it's worthwhile pointing out that the combined cost of the ball and its dowel pin (items 4 and 5) is 10 times that of the plastic ball housing (#6) + the plastic ball seat (#10). IMHO, the ball will never wear, only become polished as it "runs in" with use; same applies to the ball end of the gear lever (#2) which sits in the seat item 10. There was no discernable wear in the bushes (items #27). In my case, changing ONLY item #10 would have had the same effect there would have been no fiddling with circlips, detent plungers and hard-to-remove-without- breaking-the-plastic-housing dowel pin. Easy in retrovision mode but might be useful for others.
Net result for me (when driving the car) is that the gear lever vibrates less than before in the metal gear gate, BUT since the lever does not sit central in some of the gear slots (same space one each side of the lever) I can still make it sizzle on heavy over-run.
Since I am clearly paranoid, I COULD slot the 4 mounting holes and/or mill out the slots in the gear selector plate (#17) or fit a louder exhaust or wait until I go deaf. Slightly more seriously, I suppose that the lateral position of the gear lever in each of the slots in the gear selection plate is determined by the selection mechanism in the gearbox, transmitted through the control rods, linked by their couplings; the role of the plate seen by the driver merely aids the selection process and let's him (or her!) verify which gear is in use.........and reminds the driver that he/she is in a Ferrari.......
In short, I will have to live with the sizzle.......................or must I?

 

Since I replaced my #10, the shifter still buzzes but only once in a while. I noticed some modern shfiters are weighted at the shaft which I am sure dampens a host of vibrations. Our shift linkages are very light and thin tubing, so they are more prone to vibration. It does not help to have a flat crank v8 either....

 

Glad you have put things together and there is an improvement.

Just a thought. The attached picture is the rod connecting the lever to the gearbox at the gearbox end.

It looks like you may be able to move the lever to get it central in the slot by loosening the three lock bolts and rotating the rod slightly in one direction or the other. I have not done this myself as my lever is fine but it may be worth a try. If you scribe a line across the joint, you could put it back in the original location if it doesn't help or make it worse.
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Thanks for that - my manual shows two variants for the "rear control bar". From your picture, you clearly have the first solution. Don't know what I've got, but I will certainly be having a look this weekend. Looks like I can, as you say, rotate things to position the gear lever in the gates. Makes sense, as they must have some way of setting things up at the factory. Why did I not take the third tray off the underside when I was at it..................................

 

Adjustment as shown in the picture above is generally the first step in getting rid of the 3rd gear rattle.

 

Yes sir. I am certainly doing things in reverse order!

 

Adjusted as advised to give optimum positions of lever in the gate. Silly me. Learning every day. Thanks to all.
Ron

 

So did it help?

 

Yes. With the replacement of parts already described and the adjustment made such that the lever is centralised when in the slots for 3rd and fourth gear, there is no more sizzle and I'm a happy man. The "bar buffer" (item #44) - the shock reducing sandwich was like new. Enjoyed a vibration free run in the sunshine this morning giving as much overrun as would dare in the upper gears - 7500rpm is enough for me. Funny how the car looks even more beautiful than before....................

 

Terry - Sorry to resuscitate an ancient thread but just replaced the #10 ball joint (much tighter fit to old so hope it stops my shifter buzzing) but I’m having helluva time reinserting the Circlip and spring at side of housing. It requires far too much pressure to hold the spring down and realistically replace the clip. Should I somehow replace the clip and spring first and try to depress the cylinder from inside while then inserting the shifter assembly? Or does someone have a magic tool [emoji4]

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You might need to use and arbor press or large C-Clamp to compress the spring so you can get the clip inserted.

 

I used a socket a little smaller than the plunger diameter with a large G clamp. IIRC, I placed the circlip ready prior to positioning the socket. It worked for me.