Embarrasing 348 moment

John - yeah, I'm going to look! I didn't mean for my reply to be so short, but I had a shoulder full of baby vomit. Interesting stuff... I always assumed the push-to-reverse was built into the linkage or box. Frankly, I never really looked.

 

Here's an old picture of the underside of a Hill gate, showing the reverse detent block.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

This is kinda neat. Once again, one of these little 348 "issues" turns out to be nothing. The reason why my 348 can be shifted into reverse without pushing down on the lever is obvious when you look at this picture. The detent on the shift gate and the block on the lever have been grinding against each other for 15 years and 50,000 miles, until they no longer contact each other, whether the lever is pushed down or not. There is no problem in the shift linkage, or in the transmission, just that little worn spot on the lever. Took about 2 minutes to diagnose that problem, once I decided to investigate.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Okay guys here is the deal. Yes there is a spring in the shifter, but it does nothing. The leaver is held in place by two half blocks, and the spring is on the inside of the blocks around the bottom of the lever. The bottom of the shift lever has a groove on the bottom of it that allows one of the retaining screws to go through. The only thing the spring does it keep the lever pressed up inside the blocks. That's it, there is no special reverse groove that you need to push down, or a reverse release. It's kind of like the folding key, a usless function.

The reverse gears are switched by cable at the gear box. I know that the spring does nothing because I have taken apart the shift lever a couple of times, due to the pencil thin lever breaking. It is a stupid design, that could have been much simpler. Way too may parts for only one function. But they sort of fixed that with the 355.

If you are have problems shifting into reverse it could be a few things. 1) Your shift cables need adjusting, 2) you are having a syncro problem. The other thing it MAYBE could be is the slider that is on the shaft going into the gear box. There is an allen screw that runs through one side of the slider. It tightens down to hold the slider in place. On the shaft coming out of the gear box there is a groove that the screw runs through. So the allen screw could be loose causing the slider to get a bit out of place. But more that likely you need to have the cables adjusted.

 

Well BLOWN ME DOWN!!!!! My 348 doesn't have that at all. Hummmmmmm guess there is a reason for the spring.

Okay so the new question is:

How many of you have the reverse detent on the bottom of your shift gate?

 

That's pretty cool!

 

What kills me is that the "push down" feature for shifting into Reverse isn't even in the Owner's Manual.

Lets face it, we're far more technical than the blokes who bought these beasts brand new from a Ferrari dealer's showroom floor...so us getting surprised is mild compared to the investment banker who sees no mention of pushing down to shift into Reverse in his Owner's Manual.

 

No kidding!!!

The manuals are VERY POORLY written. How can they leave out an important thing like that?

 

Jeff - Paul Hill wraps his products in so much damn bubble wrap, that you'd never notice that detent while it's sitting on the self. Whoa Bessie! That's pretty damn cool. I do have an open Hill Gate for a 512M, and it's got a mammoth detent block.

Ernie & Jeff get the "Brotherhood" award for the day.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Exactly!! That's what I found out when I put a new Hill gate on and then couldn't shift into reverse. In fact even after Paul told me the secret I still couldn't get to reverse. My shift lever had been in the up position for so long I had to literally lean on it to push it down. A little WD-40 and some cleaning and working and now it's fine.

Ernie, I see you figured out what we were talking about.

The pic below is of my original gate. Nice groove huh? It was actually ground to a knife edge.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I got in my 328 for the first time and fired it up. Was sitting in it checking things out and it started getting hot in the compartment since it was a hot summer day. Didn't want to turn the air on as I just wanted to get it home before I started futzing with it. Didn't even want to open the windows.

So basically I was trapped and looking for the door handle and started to wonder if I would bake to death before getting out. It was a strange panicky few seconds. What made it worse is that a group of kid had walked over to check out the car (as it was dropped of in a parking lot near a McDonald's since the truck couldn't make it into my subdivision.

I couldn't find the damn things for the life of me. I finally called the previous owner to ask him where the heck the handles were. Embarassing.

 

hah! i actually knew how to put it in reserve. it's the same on honda s2000. i feel like i'm smarter than all of you! hah! jk, i had problem when i took the s2000 for a spin the first time, hehe.

 

i don't need to do anything to put the reverse in...
I'll try to look why...

 

I've had several '89 328s over the years, all with the push down/reverse feature.

A related phenomenon I noticed on all of them: Even if you have the clutch-pedal completely floored, you can still get some gear-grinding if you move the lever into "reverse" too quickly. If you wait an extra second or two, apparently for everything down there to stop whirring, no problem.

I've never experienced this in any of the forward gears - just reverse.

 

I have to push down to get into reverse.

As for embaressing moments............

I still can't figure out how to flash the lights!

I spent ages trying to figure out where the oil dipstick was.

Have another embaressing problem...but I'll take a pic of it and post it.

 

Okay so I just looked at the bottom of my shift gate, and the detent is worn to a nub. No wonder I thought there wasn't one. No how embareassing is that. Here I was arguing that there wasn't anything and it turns out there is. DOOOOOORRRRRRR

 

I don't even have a ferrari (YET!) and i just read this whole thread. Very interesting stuff. Helpful for when i get mine

 

Pull the turn signal lever toward you instead of putting it down.

 

i assume that 94 348s and spiders dont have this.

 

Sorry, long day...I meant the lever that controls the headlamps...My bad!

 

Tried that and it does'nt work.

Could be they don't work at all on my car.