Quote: Originally Posted by PAP 348 First of all Tom.......DO NOT START YOUR CAR ANYMORE PLEASE!! +1x1,000,000 That is the best bit of advice anyone has made. I would not TOUCH the starter again until I knew exactly what's going wrong, even if you have to roll it down your driveway for flatbed pick-up to the shop.
Hi Tom, I was with a 355 owner last Sunday who had a similar problem to you, he was driving up the M6 Motorway when he had to pull over to the hard shoulder. When I stopped to find out what happened he had the same symptoms as you have had, he told me one more thing though, his ignition warning light had also come on!! It lead me to believe he had lost the alt belt, not the cam belt he thought he had lost!! I saw the car the next afternoon at the garage and the alternator tensioner bearing had failed (totally shot), he was lucky none of the broken belt had found its way into the cam belts but there were bits of belt hanging off various bits of the engine. So hopefully you will be as lucky and it will be the ac or alt belt?? Good luck, Phil.
Why don't you jack the car up, remove the underbody panel and check the a/c , alt belt, ect. If its the a/c belt just cut the belt off and drive the car to a local shop to replace the a/c compressor.
I'm an Engineer, not a Mechanic. ;-) I'll put the car on jack stands today and see if I can get the bottom panel off. I know where the alternator is, but the rest I'll have to look up in the shop manual. I may post for more help in an hour of two. Here's my plan. I will remove the bottom panel and loosen the bolt holding the AC pump in place. That will release the belt and I should be able to turn the pully (right??). If the pully turns, then I will loosen the alternator and try to turn that pully. If it turns then I will try to turn the water pump pully (I assume that is the other pully in Pap's photo and my 355 setup is reversed from his). Does this sound good? Hopefully we don't have an earthquake while I'm under the car.
Look at the pic in post 11 here. That is the alt and a/c compressor man. Alt on the right, a/c compressor on the left. Please be very careful when laying under the car Tom. Make sure you chock the front wheels and you use chassis stands under there brother. We dont want you to get hurt buddy. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Step one done, I think. Front wheels are blocked and I think I used the right jackstand locations. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It looks like maybe the pulley between the main pulley and the alternator pulley has burnt rubber on it. What pulley is it? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Why the bloody hell was I thinking you owned a 348 Tom?? Here is a pic of the front of a 355 engine. Missing from that pic is the alt adjuster pulley and the belts. But the alt is on the right side. Those jack stands look good enough to me. I usually give the car a little shake when I 1st put it up on stands. If it dont fall, then you should be right. Image Unavailable, Please Login
That is your alternator adjuster pulley Tom. Remove and you will probably find it has seized bearings in it. Loosen that nut on the front, wind out that adjuster bolt, then remove the front nut again to remove the adjuster pulley out of the car. Then, replace the bearings in it. Replace both of those belts while you are under there too mate.
Alright, looking in the manual, it looks like I am seeing some burnt rubber and marks from skipping on the tensioner bearing next to the alternator. What do you think? Is this a simple thing to replace? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Guess we posted at the same time. I will try to remove the tensioner. I will probably end up having to take it to the shop though to have the tension set correctly on the belt. Should I use the Hill Engineering Part # PT355 355 Tensioner Bearing (PAIR) from Ricambi? Or is it 123350 [123350 BEARING]? The price difference is very significant.
PT355 is a timing belt tensioner, not for the alternator. If it was your t-belt, I can assure you you'd be drinking something quite strong right about now. My guess is that your alternator bearing is shot. There are two different versions from Ferrari -- one is a simple steel bearing; the newer 'upgrade' is a steel bearing pressed into a plastic pulley. Look at this diagram, and the 'inset' smaller diagram on the lower right: http://www.ricambiamerica.com/parts_catalogs.php?M=FE&P=&V=diag&I=1495 The new thing-a-ma-bobber looks like this: http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?products_id=206230
Yeah, brother. EASY to remove/replace that pulley. Changing that burnt up alt belt is a 'tad' more difficult.
Tom if you need help I'm in San Jose. I have all the tools and know my way around under there. PM sent. I'm an engineer, mechanic and owner with time spent working at the dealer.
Thats why you gotta LOVE Fchat. We all share the same passion for these cars! Helping another Ferrari owner when he is down is what I love to see. Nice work!! I wish I was there to give a helping hand also. (Pap wipes away a tear while posting this )
Never give an Electrical Engineer a wrench. I tried to loosen the tensioner, but broke it instead. And this is a much, much more expensive piece. The belt did not loosen at all. Also, the nut will not come off the pulley shaft and the pulley will not come off because there is not enough clearance. I tried to reach the third nut on the bracket that I broke, but I can't get a wrench or socket driver on it and have enough room to loosen the bolt. Not to mention that the belt is still tight, so I wouldn't be able to remove the bracket anyway. Any hints???? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Tom, see the attachments With the center big bolt loose you should be able too get the belt off since you have broken the housing that holds the adjusting flanged bolt. Check your PMs Dave Bigger pic here http://www.ricambiamerica.com/images/diagrams/full/F35552_53.jpg Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Actually, the belt didn't loosen at all. I think the bearing welded to the bracket so it doesn't slide up and down in the slot like it should. I have help on the way. We are going to try to pull the frame mounting studs to get the entire assembly out. Should have another update in a couple hours.
Once you have lossened the lock bolt (from the photos I see you have), you then loosen the belt tensioner bolt but it has a REVERSE thread. This is likely what caused the tensioner bracket to break (and the reason you never saw the belt tension to slacken).
Man O man!! Those bloody engineers! There must be something wrong there ol son. Normally, when you loosen that front nut on the idler, the adjuster bolt should wind in and out easily. If that housing broke out, it makes you wonder if the heat of the seized bearing "fused" the idler to the bracket, which is why you broke the housing when you tried to loosen the adjuster bolt. Normally, you could spin that nut off the front and push the bolt back in slightly to get that pulley off. If the bolt aint budging, then it may be all melted/fused together.
Yes, I tried to push the bolt back by prying a wrench between the firewall and the end of the bolt, but it wouldn't budge. Hopefully my help that's arriving in about a half hour is able to pull the studs, otherwise, I guess the engine will have to come out to get the bracket off.
Couple of things Have you got the nut on the top stud off yet? Cant remember but I think its 13mm I have a good assortment of curved and S shaped wrenches, plus several odd shape 13 mm Id be happy to run down to you. Take me about an hour or so. Have you tried hitting the pulley bearing bolt, the one the adjusting bolt screws into with a large hammer to try to break the bond? Or maybe just whack on the pulley, the whole things trash anyway.
How many Engineers does it take to fix a Ferrari???? Two....as long as you have six bottles of wine! Lol! Thanks MaterMech! It turned out that it definitely was the alternator tensioner bearing. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Congrats on getting to the bottom of this with a little help from a friend. Even Ferrari's are just nuts and bolts at the end of the day. Enjoy a well earned glass of wine, or 2.
