355 ssuspension rebuild - DIY attempt

Correct. I am running a Challenge car in various NASA, SCCA and CCR events since 2006 and my fronts at 2100-2200 and rears are 810-840.

 

Front bearings are a known weakness on these cars. Do them while you have it apart. They are very costly however so if you can find a non Ferrari source many of us will be appreciative. Clearly Maranello does not make them, so who does and what is the spec?

 

They are SKF bearings, part number shown as 636021A. I'll see what I can find out.

 

Rear suspension is all apart and I have started putting some things back together. Sway bar bushings replaced, new drop link installed on rear. Including some pictures of the rear bushings. They look worse than the fronts.
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Keep up the great work Johnny!!!

 

Love what you’re doing!
Now you got me wondering if I should do my bearings this winter.

I just finished installing H&R springs tonight, well not completely I still have the front passenger side to do.

 

I have two issues on the rear. If I want to get to the bearings I need to remove the hand brake assembly. The service manual only says how to adjust it, not how to disassemble it. Any tips?

Also, I am embarrassed to say the right rear disc is still fused to the hub. I have it swimming in PB blaster now. If I cannot get it free, I will not be able to get to the rear bearings.

 

Re: the stuck brake rotor -- this may work, or may not: 1 block of wood on the back side of the rotor, 1 block of wood on the engine cradle or an inboard suspension mounting point, and a bottle jack mounted horizontally between the two. Extend the bottle jack and hopefully the rotor will pop free. I did this on the front of my Tundra last year when it was finally time to do a brake job at 110,000 miles.

 

Try to pop it with a down motion on the hat, it should pop out off the taper. I dont like to push off the rotor itself, too much leverage can bend warp things

 

Tim, I would agree with you on a lot of other parts on the car, but the block of wood applied against the back friction plate of the rotor spreads the load across a wide area. Factory disc is 1 piece cast iron, so it is very unlikely this level of force will distort it. The real force required to permanently distort the disc would be measured at the top of the stress-strain curve for cast iron.

 

Make sure you don't still have the parking brake set. And are the two little retaining/guide screws still on? If those both check out ok, then try a 50/50 mix of automatic transmission fluid & acetone to get it to come loose. Apply it the same way you would the PB Blaster.

 

I do not have the retaining bolts on, and the parking brake is off; I can rotate the wheel no issues and the other rotor is off. In fact, the whole hub assembly is off at this point. I may try the acetone AT fluid thing, as I can fill a plastic dish and literally float it in it at this point.

Keep in mind, I have F40 brakes, so it's an aluminum hat and much more expensive than the stock rotor!

 

This is why our maker gave us SLEDGE HAMMERS

LOL

 

I did not know you have F40 brakes, so with that knowledge it is possible you have galvanic corrosion between the aluminum hat and the steel hub flange. The corrosion would be worse if the aluminum hat was made from 7075, not as bad if it was made from 6061. Unfortunately the anodizing on the hat is not enough to prevent the hat and hub from forming a galvanic cell.

If brute force becomes your only option, at least you may be able to save the rotor and just replace the hat. The hat may show evidence of material exfoliation when you finally get it separated from the hub. If that is the case, do not re-use the hat.

 

F355 Challenge rules and kit had 2200 lbf/in and 1700 lbf/in front (going on memory for the 1700 spec, may have been less, can't find my notes) and 900 lbf/in and 700 lbf/in rear spring choices. So one had two front springs and two rear springs to choose from. Plus we also were allowed (and supplied) suspension packers to tune where the bump rubber (proper Cellasto) came in to play.

And I found my ARB notes from back then:

There was an "upgrade kit" issued that included wing, ARB's, cooler(s), steering rack... Here's the ARB data I originally posted here in '03...

The old front bar is approx 0.875 inch dia, 35 " length, 7" arm, 0.5 motion ratio, yielding a WHEEL RATE (the only spec that really matters) of 96.5 lb/in.

The old rear bar is 0.669" dia, 39" long, 7.75" arm length, 0.6 motion ratio, yielding a wheel rate of 35 lb/in.

New front bar is 0.945 inch dia, wheel rate of 131 lb/in.

New rear bar is 0.748 inch dia, wheel rate of 54 lb/in.

Best,
Rob

 

IIRC the parking brake is a simple brake drum/ shoe type common throughout the world. If I'm correct then remove the spring joining the two brake shoes, the link(s) to the brake cable, shoe retaining clips... shoes come out... yes?

As for the hat galvanized to the steel hub flange; are you using oxy/ acetylene or propane for heat? Oxy/ acetylene's the way to go, burns much hotter, gets components hot quick vs. slow bake. Rotor hat is probably trash as m5guy suspects so just heat it uniformly as quick as possible and use a soft blow mallet. Put some plywood or something under the rotor on the floor in case it pops and falls.

Best,
Rob

 

Finally got the disc off! Details to follow! Merry Christmas!

 

Pressed apart all four bearings, no problems. Both left sides are soaking in cleaner, and I have cleaned up the left side hubs. It will take a couple of days to get all four cleaned and repacked. Then they will need to be pressed back together.

Grease in the fronts looks dry. The rears actually looked pretty good, probably would have been fine. But hey... Now they will be as new. All the races appear smooth and clean, no pits or chips.
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Is it pretty straight forward as to pressing apart of the bearings? I haven't looked at doing this yet but your journey has made me think about it. Would this press from harbor freight do the trick?
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-shop-press-33497.html

 

How did you get it off?

 

Ultimately I supported the disc on wooden racks horizontally, then let the center bit soak in PB blaster. I put old wheel bolts back in to catch the hub, then I put a socket in the center of the hub and drove it down and out. It was binding in the center; the hat was not fused at all to the hub surface. It appears the disc and hat are undamaged. Whew!

 

That looks just like the press we used. Two metal plates on each side to support 2 ears on the hub, then a metal plug just smaller in diameter to the axle under the piston of the press. Couple of pulls on the handle and Bob's your uncle!

 

Everything is cleaned, and I think I made myself a little loopy from 2 cans of brake cleaner.

I chose Sta-Lube Sta-Plex grease:
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/STL4/SL3191/N0415.oap?ck=Search_N0415_-1_-1&pt=N0415&ppt=C0139

I looked at several things and read all kinds of recommendations. At the end of the day it is a little like oil: there are almost more opinions than you can handle. My original intent was to use a race grease like the stuff from Amsoil or Mobil. When you look at the intent, race greases are designed to minimize friction first, with durability taking a back seat; it is intended to be replaced often. I want something that will last. When you actual look at the data, this appears to outperform many higher priced "race" greases.

If I missing something, someone let me know...

Now it's all about reassembly, but I am still waiting on the bushings and the shocks.

 

Just discovered that the Superformance supplied drop links do not have the same thread as the originals. The original Ferrari units are M10 x 1.25. The supplied drop links are M10 x 1.5, a slightly coarser thread. Not a problem in the rear, where matching nuts are supplied. But in the front, the drop links thread INTO a threaded hole in the a-arms. This is a problem, and I'll tell you that a 1.5 thread will hand spin several millimeters into a 1.25 hole before progressively binding in such a way that it seems to be a burr or something and you grab a wrench to just clear it out and end up buggering the threads...

I have emailed Superformance. There are different kits for power steering and manual, so maybe that's the difference...

 

If so what is the part number and how does it differ from the 348 rack?