Tips/tricks for re-installing a 348 clutch housing?

This thread and this thread were life savers today .

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/triple-seals-and-pumpkin-installation-another-way.500255/#post-144203073


My recent experience is on my 355 up on quick jacks engine in situ and in 1st gear. I see there are slight differences with a 348.

So my rear bumper and muffler have been off as I am going through some deep cleaning and slowly removing things to get better access. An old invoice (from previous owner) shows a clutch assembly was replaced 4k mi ago in 2011 along with a Hill Engineering Clutch Release Bearing. Car currently has 29k mi. 2011 invoice shows car at 25k mi.

So my curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to see if the Hill Engineering bearing was really in there and see if there were any leaks and also peak at the condition of the clutch. The HE bearing had weird product numbers on the invoice and I nothing came up on Google. Must be any early version of the bearing. Bearing support was also replaced at the same time with an OE unit.

Everything looked good. I did some cleaning, but not much. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze lol. Here are some pics.

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What I wasn’t expecting was the pumpkin not going back in smoothly. Figured there must be a trick to it. Thank God for Fchat .

Went through the 2 threads and had a better understanding of what was going on going into it today. I did not mess with the clutch assembly. It is still attached to the pumpkin.

I was able to wiggle it in with my bare hands. No jack assistance. Car still up in the air (but low). No clutch alignment tool needed. Didn’t even use a screw driver . Didn’t loosen the clutch assembly either. I wiggled and pushed while spinning the clutch assembly by millimeters. It wasn’t long before it locked in and you can no longer spin the assembly.

I also didn’t bleed anything. The bearing is fully extended out. Not sure if this matters or not @ernie. Pumpkin won’t go all the way in. Perhaps about an inch left, but everything is locked in. I followed one of the tips here. I caught a stud and started bolting it down gradually until another stud popped up and did the same thing. Had to constantly tighten and loosen as I try to catch studs on opposite sides. Just making sure pressure is applied in a balanced way on cross sides.

That’s pretty much it. I’m actually shocked it worked. Did I miss anything?

 

Anyone who could do this with the muffler and bumper still on is a special man. You’d make killing being a Ferrari mechanic .

 

takes me 2hrs. To RR with bumper on

 

Must be a 348 thing .

 

That’s not the correct way of doing it. You can easily damage the throw out bearing as the pressure plate is forced on to the throw out bearing, as the clutch assembly is not seated correctly if you have to use the 13mm nuts to drive the assembly home.

It takes some patience and a good feel to get the splines lined up but the clutch assembly should pretty much go all the way to the bell housing if it’s correctly aligned. When I’m doing it, I feel like I’m cracking open a safe and looking for the right combination.

 

That’s interesting to know the assembly can go all the way to the bell housing.

I was taking into consideration @fatbillybob ’s comment about everything sitting about 1/2 inch from the bell housing once you get the assembly to slide over the larger splines. After reading the posts here, I just assumed that was normal and didn’t even bother to look inside to see what was preventing it from going all the way in.

Here’s two of his comments:

“The darn pumpkin is heavy. Not only do you have to push turn but wiggle too everything needs to go on just right. Often people are not parallel putting pumpkin centerline with the shafts. Then turning the ring gear as you slide it home gets the shafts to index. The whole thing will drop in place with a small 1/2" gap of bellhouse to gearbox. Then you can use the nuts to drive it the rest of the way home.”

“I never try and lock the T/O bearing fully toward the engine. There is no need for this. That is what bugs me. It sounds from your description as if the T/O bearing and PP fingers are coming together too much to spring you off the clutchshaft splines. That is weird. The pumpkin should sit cockeyed on the shafts. Then do the Jeff tweek, Vincinso's swearing, Bruces pull tug, my wiggling and the pumpkin should drop right on the splines and just sit there with no springing back. Then a bit more widget and the FW should index with the input shaft and slide about 1/2" from the gearbox. Then you can pull it all home with nuts.”



My question would be (since I didn’t take a look), what is preventing it from going all the way in once you’re able to slide it in over the larger splines? I’d assume once the clutch assembly gets over both small and large splines, it must be positioned correctly?

Is it the TO bearing not fully retracted holding the assembly back that 1/2 inch? If so, then I’d assume the proper method is to retract the TO bearing before starting?


I suppose I could always pull it back out just a notch just to peak at the condition of the TO bearing.

 

Make absolutely sure that your clutch alignment tool slides in-and-out effortlessly if there is any binding or resistance at all whatsoever loosen all of the pressure plate bolts, put the alignment tool in and wiggle it North South East and West and re-tighten the bolts. I had a tough time with mine until I tried I try this. BTW, I did mine with the rear bumper in place and only removing the lower muffler.....with the car jacked up however. In fact just did the dreaded clutch grease repack last month.

 

OMG my sausage and peppers hero weighs more then the entire assembly

 

It is normal to encounter some resistance over the last 1/2 in. or so of the pumpkin push-in as you have to compress the two springs that are behind the thrust bearing. These two springs keep the thrust bearing in constant contact with the pressure plate "fingers".

Otherwise, it is not necessary to re-align the clutch if you did not disassemble it. The only concern is, since you did not support the weight of and carefully align/center the pumpkin during push-in, whether there was any damage to the o-ring, shown on the attached picture, by the clutch disc splines (also shown and talked about in one of the earlier posts here). Hopefully, the o-rig is ok.

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I'll pull it all back out this weekend. How did you clean the inside ?

 

Your sausage and peppers are awesome!

 

If it is working just leave it.

 

I haven't driven my car since I put the pumpkin back on, so I'm not sure if it's working or not .

 

That's what test drive is for...it's a nice day 75 degrees 10 mile visiblity.

 

… 2.5 years later . I’m pulling it out this weekend.

 

Pulled back out just to make sure. Nothing visually wrong with O-ring or tripple seals. Same deal as last time shoving the pumpkin back in. 1/2 gap left. Nuts slowly push it home. Same as in Dave’s vid.

 

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Just something that helped me put the clutch housing back on .... if you put one of the wheels back on and put the car in gear you can rotate your wheel slowly with one hand whilst gently applying pressure on the pumpkin. When the splines align it should just push forward into place.

The other thing to remember is to loosen off the bleed nipple otherwise you will be fighting against the hydraulics to push it on.