355 ssuspension rebuild - DIY attempt

Correct. I am running a Challenge car in various NASA, SCCA and CCR events since 2006 and my fronts at 2100-2200 and rears are 810-840.

 

Front bearings are a known weakness on these cars. Do them while you have it apart. They are very costly however so if you can find a non Ferrari source many of us will be appreciative. Clearly Maranello does not make them, so who does and what is the spec?

 

Keep up the great work Johnny!!!

 

Love what you’re doing!
Now you got me wondering if I should do my bearings this winter.

I just finished installing H&R springs tonight, well not completely I still have the front passenger side to do.

 

Re: the stuck brake rotor -- this may work, or may not: 1 block of wood on the back side of the rotor, 1 block of wood on the engine cradle or an inboard suspension mounting point, and a bottle jack mounted horizontally between the two. Extend the bottle jack and hopefully the rotor will pop free. I did this on the front of my Tundra last year when it was finally time to do a brake job at 110,000 miles.

 

Try to pop it with a down motion on the hat, it should pop out off the taper. I dont like to push off the rotor itself, too much leverage can bend warp things

 

Tim, I would agree with you on a lot of other parts on the car, but the block of wood applied against the back friction plate of the rotor spreads the load across a wide area. Factory disc is 1 piece cast iron, so it is very unlikely this level of force will distort it. The real force required to permanently distort the disc would be measured at the top of the stress-strain curve for cast iron.

 

Make sure you don't still have the parking brake set. And are the two little retaining/guide screws still on? If those both check out ok, then try a 50/50 mix of automatic transmission fluid & acetone to get it to come loose. Apply it the same way you would the PB Blaster.

 

This is why our maker gave us SLEDGE HAMMERS

LOL

 

I did not know you have F40 brakes, so with that knowledge it is possible you have galvanic corrosion between the aluminum hat and the steel hub flange. The corrosion would be worse if the aluminum hat was made from 7075, not as bad if it was made from 6061. Unfortunately the anodizing on the hat is not enough to prevent the hat and hub from forming a galvanic cell.

If brute force becomes your only option, at least you may be able to save the rotor and just replace the hat. The hat may show evidence of material exfoliation when you finally get it separated from the hub. If that is the case, do not re-use the hat.

 

F355 Challenge rules and kit had 2200 lbf/in and 1700 lbf/in front (going on memory for the 1700 spec, may have been less, can't find my notes) and 900 lbf/in and 700 lbf/in rear spring choices. So one had two front springs and two rear springs to choose from. Plus we also were allowed (and supplied) suspension packers to tune where the bump rubber (proper Cellasto) came in to play.

And I found my ARB notes from back then:

There was an "upgrade kit" issued that included wing, ARB's, cooler(s), steering rack... Here's the ARB data I originally posted here in '03...

The old front bar is approx 0.875 inch dia, 35 " length, 7" arm, 0.5 motion ratio, yielding a WHEEL RATE (the only spec that really matters) of 96.5 lb/in.

The old rear bar is 0.669" dia, 39" long, 7.75" arm length, 0.6 motion ratio, yielding a wheel rate of 35 lb/in.

New front bar is 0.945 inch dia, wheel rate of 131 lb/in.

New rear bar is 0.748 inch dia, wheel rate of 54 lb/in.

Best,
Rob

 

IIRC the parking brake is a simple brake drum/ shoe type common throughout the world. If I'm correct then remove the spring joining the two brake shoes, the link(s) to the brake cable, shoe retaining clips... shoes come out... yes?

As for the hat galvanized to the steel hub flange; are you using oxy/ acetylene or propane for heat? Oxy/ acetylene's the way to go, burns much hotter, gets components hot quick vs. slow bake. Rotor hat is probably trash as m5guy suspects so just heat it uniformly as quick as possible and use a soft blow mallet. Put some plywood or something under the rotor on the floor in case it pops and falls.

Best,
Rob

 

Is it pretty straight forward as to pressing apart of the bearings? I haven't looked at doing this yet but your journey has made me think about it. Would this press from harbor freight do the trick?
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-shop-press-33497.html

 

How did you get it off?

 

If so what is the part number and how does it differ from the 348 rack?