Help Clutch or bearings or XYZ

Common issue, the difficult 1st to 2nd, especially when cold.

Fades over time because the gearbox has warmed up and the shifting becomes smoother, and then returns on the next drive because everything's cold again and you're back to square one.

What type of gear oil do you have in there? I would try Redline 75W90NS, that will improve greatly what you are experiencing.

 

Common issue with Ferraris.

If you need to drive the car before the gear box is fully warmed up you can double clutch it to get from 1st - 2nd. That's what I do anyway.

 

You can do it at home with ramps or a floor jack. Drain plug is at the bottom of the transaxle. Fill plug on the F355 is on the left side of the transaxle case near the axle shaft. You fill from the dipstick hole. If you have a 96-up car, you can actually reach the hex on the dipstick plug by simply removing the air intake resonator (the square box on the left side of the air intake) and using a couple of long extension connected to the hex bit. You may need to put a breaker bar on to crack the fill plug loose. Mine was tight as hell. Long funnel used to put fluid back in.

 

Very easy job on a 348, and judging from M5Guy's response also easy on a 355.

Which model do you have?

 

Luckily all you need for this job are hex head sockets and maybe some extensions. The fill plug is a weird size -- 14mm as I recall. I can confirm when I get home tonight. The drain plug is smaller. The easiest (and cheapest) way to make sure you have both hex bits is to go to Harbor Freight and get their metric hex socket set that goes all the way up to either 17mm (or larger.) Again, working from memory I think it only cost $16 for the whole set.

 

Drain plug on a 348 is 10mm, as M5guy mentioned it is a hex-head...once again, what model do you have? It will be easier to give you advice if we knew what model we are talking about.

 

Same size drain plug on the 355, 10mm. The 355 fill plug is 12mm hex. Be careful not to overtighten the drain plug when you put it back in. The small 10mm size is spec'd out to prevent you from using a 1/2" drive ratchet on it. Good luck!

 

I use a 1/2" ratchet on mine as the 10mm socket is 1/2"

 

That is because you are exceptionally manly! Mine is the smaller 3/8" drive.

 

LOL!

 

Suggest you bring that car to the next Stooge-In so that the Stooges can test-drive your car and make sure everything is OK.

 

In case you don't know already. Loosen the filler plug first. That way you don't drain the oil and then find you have a seized filler plug and then no way of refilling it!

Learn from other's mistakes!

Cheers.

 

Cat ecu unplugged? Do you have cats on the car or test pipes?

 

Maybe not enough heat in the cats due to lack of low-end backpressure? Lack of signal from bypass probe? (Jst a wild guess on my part)

 

How far are you willing to drive to pick up Redline (75/90W NS transaxle oil.) The Redline distributor in Long Beach has it and they may be open today (Saturday) until noon. They are:

AP FISCHER
1601 Caspain Ave
Long Beach, 90813

They are located a few blocks off the 710 Freeway at the Pacific Coast Highway exit.