360 vrsurgeon was right the entire time.

I've had a nagging problem with my 2000 factory gated 360 for almost a year. When the transmission is cool, it shifts like butter. When the transmission gets up to temp, it becomes more difficult to shift across the board. On a hot day, the trans temp slightly increases and the car is extremely difficult to shift. If you leave it in a single gear for too long (i.e. 10 miles) the shifter will basically be frozen in that gear. The problem got progressively worse over a period of a few months.
@vrsurgeon sent me a note suggesting that the shift actuator assembly was clogged up. I ran this idea by a couple of Ferrari mechanics who dismissed the idea. Nevertheless, I took the car to Carl at STR (he had rebuilt my transmission years ago and did a phenomenal job) and he sold me a rebuilt actuator box, kept mine as a core and performed the replacement himself.
It is absolutely unbelievable how the car shifts now. Way easier than it ever was (and I've owned the car for 17 years). I can literally change gears with my index finger. Shifting is now effortless, regardless of temp.
Many thanks to @vrsurgeon.

 

My pleasure! Glad the car is driving well!

 

What actuator are we talking bout?
The square thing with a teeth inside?

 

How does STR fix it? (also where/what is STR?)

 

This is an actuator. Your car does not have one. What part are you really talking about?
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PART NUMBER SIX

 

Thank you Randy.
Carl owns STR (Scuderia Transmission Repair). He knows more about 360 and 430 transmissions than anyone I know of. He has rebuilt over 50 430 transmissions and over 100 360 transmissions. He has transmissions sent to him from all over the world. He's been in business for over 10 years. I am fortunate enough to live only a couple of hours from his shop. You go in there and there are Ferrari transmissions everywhere. It's really cool. 1-209-810-6501

 

OK. Not the correct terminology but yes. Those can have issues on high mile cars. Happens quite slowly usually.

 

What is the proper terminology for part # 6?

 

I remembered @blackbolt22 posting about a problem like this that his mechanic could not fix in his gated 430. Maybe this can help him too

 

184022 - Complete Outer Control

 

That is exactly what I was thinking.
Evidently, it takes more than just a simple visual inspection and/or manually cycling the moving parts to declare that the assembly is road worthy, or simply dunking it into some WD40 and lubricating what you can see. It is possible to bring one back to life if you know what you're doing but your best bet is to either rebuild the assembly or acquire one rebuilt by a professional. It is my understanding that new assemblies are crazy expensive and almost impossible to find.

 

We pretty much figured out BLACKBOLT issue was islolated to the rear of his car meaning from his cables on up to the shifter was good. SO that leaves his actuator and gearbox left to check. What he did from there we dont know or i havent seen any response if he fixed it or not

 

Part of the point of this thread is while mechanics might know the name of the part… so few actually recommend replacing it when cars have these symptoms. So many want to charge $6000, $10000 to diagnose what’s in the box without even looking at the manual control assembly. And some idiot on the internet who doesn’t work on his car (sarcasm) calls it.

 

The world is full of people who are not good at their jobs. In fairness shifting issues with 360 and 430 6 speeds are pretty common. A problem with the outer control is pretty uncommon. Its no surprise they go for the better known, high profile issues first. Also, don't know about yours but Michaels car last I knew had a lot of miles. As the cars age and get more miles the list of possibilities gets bigger and bigger and the knowledge of those possibilities trails behind as in this case. Very few see many cars with that amount of use.

As for the name. I really like following the convention of calling parts by their known and accepted names. It helps so we can all be on the same page. I did really want to know what Michael was talking about so I asked. Sorry to offend everyone. And I also apologize to you for the lack of perfection in this industry.

 

My 360 shifted horribly when I first got it. Replaced the shift bushing (174967 MANUAL GEAR LEVER BUSHING) with the billet Hill part and that fixed all of the issues. But my original plastic factory bushing was not only cracked in 3 places, but crumbling apart.

Point is that there are lots of places things can go wrong. These cars are almost antiques.

Certainly finding a fix can be more expensive if you pay some to diagnose / throw parts at it vs. DIY or using a knowledgeable mechanic.

 

There are several issues making themselves known in both 360 and 430 attributable to the trans causing shifting issues. I cannot give a good reason for the lack of knowledge of them other than the general lowering of knowledge and skill in auto repair business. A transmission is viewed as an alien piece of technology by many. Many shops simply do not go inside of them and as a policy either subcontract out the repairs or replace with new. At this point a complete trans is NLA for both cars so I am sure the shop Michael referenced is going to be very busy.

 

Several years ago when I was still in California a client had his car in Virginia and it was having a transmission problem. He brought it to a local well known Ferrari shop managed by someone he knew. They came back with a $45,000 dollar estimate. I called and talked a while. It finally came out (This place had been around a long time and I have seen their praise here often) to them a transmission is a mystery. They were going to remove it, send it to another place in California for a complete rebuild, mark it up substantially to the client. Plus another long list of it seemed any part on the car that had any imperfection. Its just how many operate.

I told the client to get it on a truck and get it home. He hated spending for the truck ride but did it. I did a repair in the car for less than $1000. He went on to put a lot more miles on that car.
Same applies to many skills and professions. Hire a contractor sometime or have a pool built.

There are good people out there. Michael went to the trouble to find one. Don't count on perfection from the first guy you meet. You have to go to the trouble to find one.

 

They probably are NLA as a result of the popularity of 6 speed conversions.

 

Afflicted 430 is at mechanic #3 as of 2 months ago. Talked with David in Sarasota who recommended replacing entire gearbox. Nice man but he was too busy to do the swap. Seems a straight swap wouldn't be that much trouble but what do i know?

He recommended another shop. I sent lengthy email detailing my troubles the last 10 yrs and first thing they asked is what kind of gearbox oil are you using? Are you effin serious??? First thing we effin tried!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next!!!.

New mechanic has a shop full of exotics and owns a high mileage.manual 360. I told him I was about over it and to replace gearbox. He wants to try a few different things before we do that. I do applaud him for actually explaining things to me, telling me what he wants to try and why. He replaced leaking clutch master cylinder and is waiting on a hill engineering bleeder block. He's trying to eliminate a few obvious things first without spending a whole lot of money. At the moment he's waiting on parts. It's been 11 months since shift cable broke so what's a few more months?? What's a few more years??? It hasn't worked right in 10 or 11 years.

Meanwhile car has been sitting in sun and rain outside his shop for 2 months. I messaged just yesterday I want to pick it up until parts arrive. Good times...

Keep me posted if you have a buyer when I get this POS fixed....

 

Yikes. I feel for your pain.

 

Hi all from Finland. My 430 has exact problem and the outer control unit and cables were changed some 6000 km ago.
Hard to believe a part only lasts this long and I should now change again.

 

I'm not sure I understand. Everything from the shifter cables on up was already cleared to be OK.. So that leaves the actuator and the gearbox. 1st thing I would do is take the actuator apart make sure it's clean and the shaft is moving in-and-out correctly.

 

Dont get too stuck on it being an outer control issue. I have seen more problems with the bushings on the shift forks causing that symptom.

None of these is hard to diagnose for someone who understand the basics of how a transmission works. If in a day or two your guy doesn't find the issue, hes the wrong guy, move on. Quit flogging a dead horse. There are good people out the, find one.