348 clutch, to resurface or not...

I swear I do not know what you are talking about. After 2 348's, granted late model cars, I found them to be very reliable and no more problematic than any other 15 year old car. Of course, having a good home probably helps and the desire to keep up on routine and preventative maintenance. Sorry this is off topic, but I just reacted to this constant claim that the 348 is a junk Ferrari. I call BS. Just get a late model version.

 

Well I know the most about 348's because I have had to fix just about everything on them at least once either for me or for someone else. Now contrast the 348 with either of the other 3 models of Ferrari I have owned and you would come to my conclusions. Also if you read the other fchat boards the 348/355 brotherhood is the coolest and the strongest because we have fixed everything under the sun. You can't find out squat on 550s for example because they are just plain old Toyota boring. Even poor Bruce has his problems....Look in the tech section for his post on how to get his A-arms out. BTW, I invited us over to his house tomorrow under the guise of helping him on his 348 but actually we are going to drink his beer.

 

well if you take it out yourself PM for my phone # and I'll talk you through some checks. You are not getting proper release and or proper mating of parts


I have seen inexperienced people jamb on the pumpkin using the pumpkin to gerabox bolts bending and or breaking and or putting binding pressure on the fingers of the pressure plate. Or I guess it is possible somehow you got toasted plates or even blown out rivets on a plate causing uneven clutch plate surface or maybe a marcel breakdown which could cause the same thing. Certainly something is wrong. First I would bleed the clutch two man style with 2 important issues especially for the noob. First put the rear on jackstands so the tail of car is about 1-1.5ft off the ground which helps make sure the air can be driven from the throwout bearing area. Second make sure the person maning the bleeder only opens the bleeder 1/4 to less than 1/2 turn because the threads are crap and you can suck air there if you open too big. Watch out for the front reservoir because the clutch slave inlet is only 1/3rd the way down from full on the master cylinder and you do not want to suck air!!!!!!!!!!!!

This will help you or no change. this will be your best chance of an easy fix.


Next sometimes you can get debris and crap on clutch discs. I have actually used the following method to free up rivets rusted to flywheels on multi disc clutch left to sit to long and rust. So you rev the motor good and do a couple (two not 20) of burnouts. This will either help you, make things worse if parts and fingers in the pressure plate are broken, or make no change. This is a last ditch effort before you open things up.

If these things don't work then take the pumpkin off. I think you will be taking the pumpkin off.

You will need some gehetto tools: calipers, straight edge, c-clamp or bench vise, good light. Do a bit of web research...I'll talk you through checking "set-up" height", plate thickness uncompressed and compressed, intermediate plate,thickness, freedom, flatness , roughness, flywheel thicknes,flatness and roughness , pressure plate finger/counter weight exam to start. If we get though that you grease the flywheel guts and reassemble with new triple seals. There are some good threads on this on the 348 board written by others. If you really get stuck you could send the unit to DaveH or BrianC and I'm sure they could get it professionally ready to install. Or as a last resort you could send it to us Stooges but you will have to send along 30 case of beer. Are you ready for this?