1998 550 Maranello "sorting" thread--DIY

I've had those "fences" come adrift on the race car engine, the fences were just staked on, the fix is to TIG weld them on. Once that's done they are never a worry item again.

BTW, it's called a Gilmer Drive pulley

 

Pete, you've got two sealed bearings that have been operating in a 200+ degree environment for 13 years under fairly heavy side loads.

In the oil & gas industry, we count ourselves pretty fortunate if we get 10 years out of a sealed bearing on a motor. Of course a standard sealed bearing on a $5,000 motor can't be compared to these sealed bearings which are probably built to Ferrari's specifications, but still.....

Also, just FYI, according to SKF, the typical life of a bearing is inversely proportional to the CUBE of the load. So getting that belt tension right is everything....

I'm not a bearing expert, but if it were me, for another 200 bucks or so, I would change them, so I could sleep better for the next 10 years, and not have those "woulda coulda shoulda" doubts.

I'd also probably have some discussions with SKF or NTN to learn what the technical characteristics of this bearing are, and get their thoughts/recommendations whether there is an improved type which would tolerate the heavy side loads better. Not saying that Ferrari didn't put the absolute best bearing possible at the time inside their motor, but things can change in 13 years.....

 

Initially, I disagree with john. If you have a low mile car my tendency is to leave it especially if you trust your feel of the bearing play. OTOH it is just a timing cover it won't take much to take it out and pull the bearings. You might even be able to get the bearing out without pulling the cover but it would be so much easier and cleaner to just pull the cover. The other thing is what dave said about the fence failure. Dave is implying a cause unrelated to ferrari crappy welds and construction. I think their welds are cr@p and quite embarassing IMHO. So many look like bird p00p. So what does the close up pics of the gear and fence look like? Can we gleen any info on why the failure. Ah the heck with it just replace'em. You already got the gears off.

 

There in lies the problem, the 456/550 gear fences were never welded..... ooops. The stitch welding of fences did not start until the 360 model and even at that I do not remember the early cars having the welds..... I could easily be wrong on that point.

I have found that on my IMSA 348 race car, with the absurd cams being run in that with a 4 hour total life span, welded fences are a must. Following Ferrari's method on the 360 I did two stitch welds 180 degrees apart knowing this didnt look right to me. I quickly learned that left too much unsupported fence to flex and changed my method to three stitch welds per side as my photo shows.

The call on the bearings shown is a tough one, those look pretty darn nice. I sent Moorfan a few photo's of failed bearings and when you see them, there is no question as to the direction required. I will post up a few photo's when I get in this AM so the problem can be better understood. These.... that is a tough call as they look quite nice, have no play, show no signs of trauma. This would amount to a call to the customer, laying out all the facts and asking, Are you feeling lucky? In a perfect world where money and time had no reflection on decission making, sure, replace them all. I am quite strongly opposed to shotgun type repairs where everything is replaced these days just to play out CYA. As this thread shows quite clearly, there are items that very few look at that DO require maintainance and I believe a budget is better spent doing the items that Need work.

Getting a new Pollen filter at the major is nice but not when things like these are ignored, its a matter of choice, I damn sure would rather do the filter than this job. Remember, it is only my opinion, worth what was paid for it but..... these front engine 12's are a wonderful design and a great deal of what is being identified here are "caused failures", not design flaws. Dont think poorly of the model, they tolerated a great deal and still live to have this work done. It's the reason I have asked in so many 'cheap major' threads, "What is included in a Major"
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This is bad...
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Pete, please post the manufacturer and P/N of the bearings when you can? I have pretty good lines of communication with SKF (all our portable vibration monitoring equipment is SKF and we have a longterm technical support contract with them), so I'd be very curious what they have to say about these.

Dave, those look like some of our bearings over here!

One of our biggest problems with both sealed and regreasable bearings is the grease drying out, the bearing running dry, then eating itself, along with the casing. This can happen with our cars too, if they're not driven frequently enough.

 

Sure enough, they do have to run to keep the lube moving.

I THINK what has happened with my example is.... and its only a guess trying to connect all the evidence to one story line....

Belts set quite tight created a extremely heavy bearing side load. This side load caused the bearings to heat up beyond the designed norm thus throwing grease as well as expanding the inner race to the point where the clearances opened up and fretting between the shaft and bearing race occured. Most every time I see it there is also belt debris in the covers. My problem is it will be another 2 years before I know how my first of 5 different test settings worked, how the drive gear bearings faired and if the fretting reoccured. I know the rubber dust is gone as I inspect the test mules closely each time they come in for any service. I have these cars on a 5 yr belt cycle as a test.

Until I can come up with something better or a better story line..... that will have to do.

 

Could you "feel" it bad as well? As in could you feel play in the bearings?

 

Yup, slight but it was there. Verified by dial indicator as I have no finger tip feeling left. I don't remember how much it was, something on the line of .0015.... ie, long gone. The staging of the lash in the gear had to be right or it couldn't be felt while trying to climb the circumference of the driven gear given the inner bearing was still serviceable.

Both nuts were at spec and the paint marks were still present so that was not the problem. One case/example can be written off as an anomaly but I have now dealt with this multiple times and they all share varying degrees of un natural ugly.

 

Good Job! You are fast becomming a 550 expert but I'm sure wish you were not. You are going to pull those bearings behind the gearshafts I assume? What did you deform the tips of the drive gears from the home made tool? That SKF number looks to be 881863112? The base you used from HFT was what item number? HFT is all over the place and for the sake of being complete.... If you did not know it already you can source the bearings from a good local bearing house unless ferrari proprietary but just don't use chinese bearings. QC from china is all over the map. Often times you can get a bearing that is close that meets specs and with a little fiddle faddle they work just fine such as the Reiner bearing some have used in the 348 gearboxes to avoid a Ferrari $200 bearing. I think you will soon see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Pete you are a creative guy think about buying a MIG welder, grinder, some cutting tools, torch w/MAP gas, and kasdenit. With those crude tools you can make many tools to work on your Ferrari. HFT is a great source of cheap base stock.

 

Pete,

Please do the crimps over again. They are supposed to look like these pics. You need to have the rubber seal just about to the end of the stripped wire in the first pic. The seal helps to position and center the wire so you get a clean crimp with good dirt and moisture seal. You can see the picture progression until the final seating of the wires that click into the plug body.
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Pete, thanks for posting the pix of those bearings, but can you confirm that P/N is correct that FBB posted? I can't quite make it out from your photo on my little laptop screen (I'm finally on my way home from the big sandbox). I probably won't be able to get in touch with the SKF people for the next couple of days, but once I'm back in Houston I will.

I noticed the rust between the shaft and those bearings and figured it was going to be a royal PITA to pull that cover. Kudos to you for your perseverence and ingenuity!

Crimping: RET Monitor, a monthly newsletter that I get from RET (Race Engine Technology) has an interesting article this month about a "belt & braces" method of crimping that addresses that age old debate about crimp vs solder.

It involves the normal crimping process, but then adding "just" a teensy dab of solder on the first crimped joint to ensure a great electrical as well as mechanical contact. You have to be careful to use a small iron, and not too much solder, otherwise it'll wick further up the conductor, and it'll become stiff and subject to breakage.

Edit: You might want to consult with Dave to see if using this method would affect the spring tension of his terminals.

http://www.ret-monitor.com/articles/1825/solder-or-crimp/?utm_source=newsletter_ecuems_201109&utm_medium=email&utm_term=23Sep2011&utm_campaign=newsletter

For added weather protection, you might also want to consider putting heat shrink tubing over each connector. McMaster's 4:1 Polyolefin works well and doesn't get brittle in the engine bay. Gives the ends a nice "finished" look too.

 

Call dave and ask. There may be a reason for the modification. I was a beta testor and things may have changed for a reason. When I was the beta testor there was no instruction book so we had to figure it out and have him look at these pics so he knows what we are talking about.

 

I have some questions on the gold connectors. What did you do with the old ones, did you just cut them off, is there enough cable left?

Why did you decide to start with the flywheel sensors, are these the most critical ones?

Thanks again for your great write up and pictures!!

 

Nope, no changes made.

The seals are designed to be held by the crimped wings. I will re-read the instruction book this AM. It is possible that the dozen installers who proofed it beyond us might have missed something.

 

No solder. Any connector that is hot enough to properly solder is also hot enough to wick solder into the wire strands and make the connection brittle. Been there, years of testing proved the point clearly.