Possible reason for gearbox failures...

Folks, I got my spare box today. a 12K mile '93 one to mate with my '89 Mondial t. I took it apart to make sure everything is OK, and found that the pin inside the layshaft that engages with the gearbox oil pump was broken and inside the layshaft.

This box had the newer BA636151A bearings and new sealant. Everything looked fine inside. The pin is easy to break, as if it is not engaged properly, the side plate settles in with a little gap. I bet many people would be tempted to just use the bolts to seat the housing in. The breaking of the pin makes a little "click" sound, then you think everything is OK...

My current gearbox, had the aluminium plug at the other end of the mainshaft unscrewed. In both cases, the pressurization of the gearbox oil is lost. This means that all the lower parts of the box are lubricated by partial immersion, the upper reaches of the gears by oil adhesion and splashing, but the upper box, eg. the differential and clutch shaft, probably get very little oil...

I am referring to Pin designated as part 2 in the following diagram...
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This is what I found inside the main shaft... and what fell out...
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Sir Marco of Stoogeshire, Lord of the Stoogeanor, or just plain meek "Marco the wrenchie"... Regardless I may have rounds of real Irish Guiness, or French vintages from last weekend's drive over there (of course carried by royal Ferrari)...

 

I guess with FBB reading this and not pitching in the last 33.33%, I'm not gonna get "in"...

you are a tough crowd. I decided then, I will mod the engine to use a hyperflux inductor, with Uranium (235 isotope of course) tetramethyl injection. The whole engine will be titanium-graphite encased with a liquid nitrogen evaporator for cooling. The exhaust will be coated with space shuttle ceramic tiles and rated for an operational temperature of around 15,000 Kelvin.

The gearbox will be removed and a direct drive differential installed with cryogenic cooling (no problem shifting when cold) and the revs upped to 22,000, replacing the pistons with harmonic shockwave drives that convert the elastic properties of polymeric-metallic discs, ensuring minimal inertia. Clearly this rotational speed requires that the chain tensioners in the oil pump drive are updated appropriately. The valves will be removed and replaced with an acoustic chamber, with a sonic shockwave ignition system that ensures sound waves do the compression and gas exchange.

This should all be good for around 6500-7000 hp. To slow it all up I will install crystalline graphite inductor coils as rotors and carbon lattice nanotube matrix for pads, that will absorb rotational energy through magnetic pulse induction. As the car brakes (with no friction but by kinetic absorption and potential energy conversion) I will be generating enough electrical energy to either move into the next dimension or solve the global power shortage - and that's only from 40 mph to zero.

As for acceleration, it will belong not in a scuderia, but in a worm-hole between 0 and the instant of when the car has already traveled to 100 mph, all the while being at the point it was when at 0. The car has a 0-60 speed of 0.00^Enth as it bends space/time so to overlap the beginning and the end of the timeline starting with the instant it is at 0 mph and ending at the instant of when it is at 100 mph. Thus it is in both states at the same instant. It has enough energy stored from the braking system to do this. The good news is that there is enough energy to power the fusebox into the next dimension without worrying about over stressing the 110 Ah nippondenso alternator.

To ensure good performance, one can remove all lights, lenses etc. as the car will bring its own daylight with it. You can get rid of the AC too as the kinetic drive is designed to operate at STP (Standard Temperature/Pressure - 15 deg C 1 Bar) and all you'll ever need is your trusty Ferrari hat and fleece.

I should have all this done by Thursday, about 3pm. Can I get the last vote then?

Notionally, I will ask Ferrari if I can change the car's name to Mondial "T"/hunder and change the logo to an equine prancing skeleton with a tricolor lightning bolt!

 

OK - I uploaded the 348 workshop manual pdf on http://public.me.com/mbussadori it is a free download and will be so until too many people download it and I start getting charged for the bandwidth.

Thanks for the honors in allowing me to join the stooges.

Re. the 355, I have tried to stay out of the conversation, but now I will get in. My neighbor bought a '97 355 manual blue/tan. He came along to brag and said I could take it for a spin. So I scared the crud out of him and now he appreciated I can get more out of my Mondial t than he'll ever get out of his 355.

It is newer, has the DNA of the cool looks of the 348 which I consider the end of the first half of Ferrari's history, you can tell, the "Ingegnere" was no longer influencing the designs after the 348. The last of the Ferraris that looked like a Ferrari. The 355 marks the beginning of the "new" Ferrari. The 355 looks like it belongs in Sloane Square, as part of someone's metrosexual look, while the 348, well it makes he driver part of its look.

The difference between "old" and "new", in the "old" world, the car was a driver's car, meant for drivers and only drivers. You had to master it but it did not make it easy for you to do so - uncompromising purity - so the man in the car was important.

The new Ferrari is a car around the man. Now, any "fat wallet" can get into one and flip a couple of switches, that trigger different personalities in a schizophrenic car. One computer chats to another, who then has tea with the third who then has cappuccino with the fourth, then they all decide what to do in a safe manner for the car, the environment and all so the driver's hair does not get ruffled. The 355 is part old, part new; so "grey", when I like "black or white".

I like the romance of the possibility that my stupidity + my car's unforgiveness can result in a silly outcome. Try to put your foot down in a 3X8 in a damp autumn day and you'll see the little horsey has big sharp teeth.

The 355 is a fine car, and if I had all the money in the world I'd have one. But only second to having a 348. I got the Mondial t as I wanted to make sure my son's first car ride was in a Ferrari (picked him up from hospital when he was born) and that I could share that with him and my wife. I could only fit one car in my garage, otherwise I'd have got a 348, the car that I have dreamt of since in my late teens.

So no, I don't dream of 355's, I respect them, like them but don't dream of them.

Incidentally, I believe the Mondial t is one of the most unique vehicles I have ever seen or driven. I am sure if the Mondial only existed as the T, the car's success would have been very different. I'm not denigrating the original car, the 8 or the 3.2, in fact lauding it as I believe it was Ferrari's longest living design!

The T is so fantastically balanced, a whole hoop of fun (if a tad overweight), considering that it is a 4 person 348. My boy always says "Daddy can you drive so fast it makes my pipi tickle?"... What did Enzo say about Ferraris and what emotions they should awaken when their driver put their right foot down? How my boy got that embodied! His name is Enzo Giuliano Bussadori, and his first word was "fwewwawi" and his favorite expression is "disgusting, ugly porsche". Clearly with the heart of the 348 beating behind me, that's going to be where my favor lies!