Brave enough to change a clutch disk?

First re contamination. It is either gearbox oil, clutch fluid or liquid grease from flywheel.
It is easy to tell apart, oil does not mix with water, clutch fluid does. Grease is light grey and thicker.
We are now doing more 355s grease as the kluber comes to the end of its life. Especially when hard driven.
Re pressure plate, Main thing is is it flat? If not cant be rebuilt but you need to make sure any material taken off from front is put back on rear so spec stays same. Same goes for flywheel surface, it has to be flat, and heat is creating many to dish now. When dished it only grips on outside and either rips off new friction disk material or just causes more heat, more dishing and a quickly worn out plate.

From the sounds of it, you have grease contamination, so a rebuild required. not too difficult but dont follow instructions for 348 this is different and trying to push it out with bolts in back wont work, there is a - word escapes me in a senior moment - spring clip thingy in there. snap ring thats it.

also make sure your replacement O rings are up to the job. need ones that cope with the heat, similarly only use kluber. we tried others and they didnt work, kluber is harder to get nowadays so pm me if a problem, Ricambi still has US stock i think.

Rear bearing I dont usually replace, unless feels bad. or refurbishing pumpkin at same time.
Do replace both bearings on flywheel. they will be damaged in removal to resurface flywheel anyway.

shout if you need anything more.

 

triple seals at Ricambi

 

Triple seals are Ferrari parts. so Daniel is your friend.
Yes remove 8 hex bolts and off it comes. You wont be able to assess the condition of these things till taken apart.
if just the clutch friction plate Im sure you can find someone local to reline. But they need to know what they are doing as Ive known many rip the material off with the power. especially if surfaces not flat.

If you dont need to do the flywheel I wouldn't bother, and can be easily accessed when necessary. You also need special tools to remove it, and remove the bearings.

Here is a list of what to check from our site.

"A common problem with these plates is their tendency to warp under the high heat they have to endure. As soon as you get any oil from a triple seal failure going onto the plate, the clutch slips and the damage is done. If you have the blue burn marks check the pressure plate and flywheel are still good enough.

If you have uneven wear on your clutch friction plate, i.e. it is worn on the outside not the inside, easily seen by the wear pattern on the grooves, you have a dished pressure plate, and worse, probably a dished flywheel as well.

When changing your clutch always put a straight level across both the pressure plate and flywheel tocheck they are both flat. (I use a hacksaw blade to do the flywheel, just break it off to the right length to fit inside the housing.)

Next is the flywheel. An issue as Ferrari only sell the complete unit for mega bucks and not just the flywheel itself. But if you don't do it you will continue to have a problem of uneven wear, and worse, if you have a flat pressure plate and dished flywheel there is a tendency to rip the material off the lower surface due to the uneven pressures being placed upon it. Not the materials fault!

You may hear some people mention the flywheel comes dished from new to help ease the drive take up. This is true, but only to a very small extent, when we have looked at new ones there is just the smallest of gaps, nothing that you would notice unless closely examined.

We have tested some new seals and bearings to enable us to refurb the flywheels, the originals are not obtainable anywhere."

 

when you have removed the 8 bolts the pressure plate is disconnected but can be sticky. So may need a jolt to come free. Lever off or tap with rubber mallet does the trick.

 

So you can just replace the clutch disc and not spent $2k-$3k on a whole new clutch assembly?

 

Yes, or you can have your original relined. Just make sure the flywheel and pressure plate aren't warped.

 

Great thread guys!!

As a guy looking to get into my first 355, this is some realy wnderful info. Would be nice to hear the follow up from the OP - looks like he has not posted since April...