Fusebox repair

Gents,

This is typical of the fusebox. They are terrible. I have a day job and fixing Ferraris is not it. I did not know there is such demand 3 owners in an obscure post within 1 day. To fix these boxes is a real pain in the rear. It is like doing the gold connector kit. It is not difficult. It takes high quality 400*F milspec wire that is in the few dollars a foot category, solder, and very good soldering skills. But what it really takes is extreme concentration to make sure that you make zero mistakes and lots and lots of time. About all I could stand was rewiring 1 board per day. It is tedious! You can work faster and with less care but your errors would go up and that is not what you want. You want perfection. There are 5 foil boards in there all stacked together generating heat, shorting on each other, with wonky wave solder joints living in a near 150-200*F footwell.

I did some calculations and consultation with an electrical engineer to select a wire with head room to do the job. I consider my repair an beta testing. I have only had my repair working for 2 months so far but it is working perfectly. I am a big believer in SRI gold connector kits and rewiring fuseboxes for really good running Ferraris. That said I cannot say with certainty if my repair will last longer than Ferrari OEM or is better than buying a new fusebox. I only think that my repair is superior than stock because each solder joint is meticulous and the wire is proper for the loads and the heat. I need more miles and time to prove it. This is an ugly painful tedious job and I don't want to do it. If I rebuilt these for people it would not be cheap. I'm thinking this is a 1500-2000 job and I am being nice. On the other hand I can tell you how to do it and if we really go down this road there is a lot we can discuss for some really awesome fuseboxes. What I have done is very old school like from the 1970's.

 

Carl, although those boards are a really poor design, I think one step toward making them more reliable would be to move the big loads off the board entirely.

The ones that ought to be booted off that board first are the electric fan fuses & relays, then possibly the fuel pumps, although they're nowhere near as big a drain as the fans.

Kudos to you for taking this project on.

 

There are currently available on eBay at least two (2) 550 fuse boards.

They are not cheap !

On the other hand, looking diligently might
locate one in need of repair that IS cheap.

I bought a NEW 456GT fuseboard
from Ferrparts at a good price.

I figure that when finishing up my
SRI Gold Connector Kit and Hose kit
that the old fuseboard would have some
"residual value," and that I could also recoup
much of the cost of the "new" board.

Also, I would start with all new parts !

Scott

 

Carl,

I'd be interested in hearing what you did and how you went about it, pictures would be nice if you have any.

Thanks,

Dave

 

Carl.

I'm in the same boat as Dave in that I'd like to see posts of pictures and instructions as to what you have done to your fuse box. When you stated in the other thread that you rebuilt them, I made the assumption that you were soliciting to rebuild boxes for those complaining of theirs malfunctioning. Sorry about that.

Once again, however, I am very interested in how you went about repairing yours, as well as any suggestions on where I could get an after-market replacement, rebuilt unit, or new OEM... even, as Ricambi hasn't any in stock and the back-ordered situation seems to be indefinite.

In the meanwhile, my instrumentation, fog, park, and taillights weren't working (as usual), but for some reason... removing the "External lights" relay and re-inserting it sparked everything back to life..... for I while, I suppose.

Thanks.

 

Sounds like you might have some corrosion on the relay terminals or the relay receptacle contacts. Try some contact cleaner.

OR

You may have a cold solder joint on the relay receptacle. Does wiggling the relay change anything? That would indicate a cold solder joint

 

I inspected the contacts and to my surprise they look pretty good. I didn't try wiggling, I went straight to removal for inspection. The next time it stops working, and it will definitely stop, I'll try wiggling and see if I get the same results.

I'm sure you all have seen how ugly these panels can get, but below is how ugly mine is!

Thanks!
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I'm in between sessions at the racetrack so I can't post pics until I get home.

So the Apollo that landed on the moon was in the air ans space museum with panels lay bare for all to see. It was scary to take a million mile journey hostile environment and have you potentiometers on a breadboard wire wrapped. To those youngsters that was state of the art in 1965. If you soldered on the breadboard your connections were good but we got solid state and surface mount technology and wave soldering for a reason.

So there are many ways to rebuild the fuesbox but only a couple of ways to do it OEM looking. The pins I could not source. They are not typical amp. Getting the fans on a separate board with proper wires is a great idea but not OEM. So one way is to have the flexi boards remanufactured to a higher standard which can take the heat and load. I chose to ghetto breadboard it. I just used milspec near400*f wire and soldered directly to the pins using the stock pins and stock fiberboard. Everythings looks stock. The inside of the box looks like a bowl of pasta but the milspec cladding can take the heat and the proximity.

I will try and post pics tonight.

 

IMO if someone is willing to repair these boards pay them. It is really painful and tedious to do. I did a very very significant test today where I ran 2hrs to and from the race track then ran the car on track for 4 sessions giving people ride along's at about 7/10th's for a corporate event. This car got hot! I have 2 550's. I swear these cars like to be run. It sort of lossens them up. I really think we all need to go to the track and just run 5-7/10ths just for fun so you can break some speed limits without looking over you shoulder for cops. It is a safe place to do it and the cars love it. I swear my silver 550 feels better for running the trackday. When I got home I immediately took out my red 550 and it just does not feel as good or as responsive. It feels lumbering and asleep. Try it you'll like it. OK back to fuseboxes...

 

Here is the breadboard out of the black plastic box. You can see I have already applied the soldering iron to the other side pulling out the pins. Eventually when you get all the pins out the 5 flexiboards will fall free or be semi glued together by the melted plastic that got heated during the depin
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You are left with a stack of 3 kinds of pins for relays, fuses and connectors
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So now you got a clean breadboard and clean pins. You put the pins all back in the breadboard in the right locations using the plastic cover as a guide to where connector blades are and fuses and relays. Make sure to position the relay pins in the right direction so the relays can fit in. The detents in the plastic cover will help you.
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So then you put the plastic cover back on and put in the relays and the fuses in the pins. The blades for the connectors will stay in place from the friction of the cover slots. So what you will have is an assembled fusebox with no flexiborads and the pins will all be somewhat loose being held in place by the fuses and the relays. It does not matter the right fuse or relay is in place only that a 4 pin relay be with a 4 pins on the board and 5 pin relay be with a 5 pin unit on the board. It will make sense when you see it up close.
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Now the tedium begins. What you do is start with any board. You may as well do them in order. Mark out any foil trace with a sharpie and find out where it matches on the breadboard. Cut wire and strip and solder it.
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It is a very easy task. Mark out the foil paths as you go so you don't miss any traces. An error here means something isn't going to work and it will be a lot harder to find later. Any solder joint that is on a blade pin is not supported by a relay or a fuse. So that means you need to take extra care and push the pin home from the component side tight to the breadboard before you solder and you want to make sure that bladed pin is lined up well with the row of pins so the connector can connect freely. You need a good eye here. You don't want all your soldered pins to look like crooked teeth. There is play in the connector but neatness counts.
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It is a very easy job until things start looking like this. If you weren't paying attention now you better get a good night's sleep and continue in the morning.
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When you have rewired all the connections and every pin has a solder connection and a corresponding mate your box will look like this scary bowl of pasta. The OEM cover fits and it looks totally OEM stock from Ferrari when you button everything up. Then you check the position of all fuses and relays and voila! You got a working fusebox.
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Are cautions needed? I do not know how much heat a relay can take. I don't know if you can ruin one by soldering on it via the heat transfer through the pins. I am really good with a soldering iron and make really nice joints fast and cleanly. If one is wanting on soldering dexterity I don't know what will happen. I soldered with relays in place as the only way to hold the pins. My box works perfectly and has been track proven.

 

Wow!!

I totally understand this. Thanks! Though I could send mine away as a core for a rebuilt box on ebay, I tend to feel a little better when I've done things myself (because I know what I did and how I did it).

This is wonderful.

Thanks again!

By the way, I know EXACTLY what you mean when you say these cars run better on the track. I've not run my 550 because I'm still taking care of the little things that I feel need attention before doing so. I have taken one of my 355s to Road Atlanta before. At first I was worried because of the way she behaves when driving her around town. Two days with her on the track was a totally different story!

Even though it was hot that day, water temps ran cooler than normal. Oil temps were cooler than normal. Seals expanded and she dried up. The gearbox finally shifted like butter. She idled like a champ whenever I pulled into the paddock. And she handled like a dream.

Me on the track at Road Atlanta in my F355 GTS:
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Yes it is weird. Tracking makes for an indescribable betterness that is just not there when 90% of the drives are short hops to the local store. Since I race SCCA too I know the difference from cruising on track and beating the snot out of things to try and win. Moderate tracking well within the cars envelope is a really good thing even in a very heavy 550.

I agree with you on the fusebox. That other advantage is you have not runined anything with my method. You could do what I did years ago with this same fusebox design on the 348. We had similar problems that sometimes could be cured by resoldering the connection on the board with the flexi cuircuit boards. This did not cure poor traces or suboptimally sized traces but it took care of cold joints and failing joints. It sort of worked about 80%. The rewire I propose is a 100% solution. The question is it better than OEM? Will it last longer? What will the new failure mode be? I have used the worst kind of pin to wire connection totally relying on the solder. Ideally you want to wrap the wire and solder. You can't do that here. The best would be to crimp the wire to the pins because this is a high vibration environment. Look at other connectors in the engine bay for example all are crimped not soldered for a reason. Anyway so far I'm pretty impressed and it fixed some intermittent issues. My flexiboards looked so bad I'm sure I am better than what I started with.

The other great thing about taking the flexi boards out is you can now see exactly where they relate to other wiring and fuses because you can read the old boards like a road map. So if you do as John suggested which is take the fans off the fusebox it is pretty easy to see which wires they are on which connector and then wire a separate fuse block with heavy gauge wire or whatever.

 

Thanks Carl,

Good work, what gauge wire did you use? looks like 22 or24.

 

16. it was silvery like coated copper strand with the toughest cladding I have ever worked with. my soldering iron would not even burn it.

 

That sounds like the milspec MIL-W-16878/4 wire we use in the COP ignition harnesses. It's a 200degC rated wire, silver plated, with PTFE insulation. Soldering irons won't faze it at all. That stuff in 16 gauge is good for 32 amps for short distances, ie engine bays. It's a stiffer wire than most, due to the PTFE insulation and plating, so it becomes tough to work with in the larger sizes like 12 gauge, etc.

 

There are companies who will remanufacture the flexiboards. I know nothing about these kinds of boards. Is it worth having new boards made or is that just reinventing a Ferrari failed wheel?

Do you guys think the soldered breadbox method will hold up over time? I am not concerned over the wire and it's capability to do its job. I worry more about vibration and solder joint fracture on a stiff wire that can't really be wrapped around stunted pin tips. Others have done this kind of repair before and are happy. Either way the alternative is to live with a Ferrari fusebox which is not a win. To me this is the only solution if you want to stay OEM. The best solution would be a really quality fusebox unit but then you are not OEM.

 

Nicholas, is that blue painters tape on front of your car?, stuart