'The Ratarossa': The Testarossa Spider Rebuild Project

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Does anyone know if Testarossa steering racks can be rebuilt or do you have to replace the complete rack as one part ?

Ive had a look and can only see the part number for the complete LHD rack 131689

I have a slight bit of play on my passenger wheel and its at the rack end

 

Cheers fellas, The play in the joint is not so bad at the moment so I will live with it this summer and when i take the Ratarossa of the road this winter i'll then strip out that rack and try it myself or check out your guy Graham.

 

Thanks for the kind words Doug, good luck with the project, be great to see it on here.

Just try and enjoy the process, I took my time and really enjoyed the Ratarossa up until this point, obviously there have been some hairy moments and lots of head scratching, but then it feels that much better when you finally figure those dilemmas out. The guys on here are top notch, with all the help I was able to do the Testarossa ...... They are not life savers they are 'car savers' , together we literally saved the Ratarossa from the breakers yard.

 

The ‘Ratarossa’ project just had a lovely write up and got Build Of The Week on Jalopnik

https://jalopnik.com/this-ferrari-testarossa-rat-rod-is-being-built-in-a-hom-1826478605/amp?__twitter_impression=true

 

Yes belts got changed a while back after getting the engine running, they were done by a local guy who has worked on lots of my Ferraris in the past, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at the time so couldn't upload.

After recently driving the car a few times, Im compiling a list of jobs that need doing on the Rat and then planning when they will be done. Again when the cars off the road this winter I would like to get the engine out myself and start to clean it up and replace 'all' of the old belts and pipes. get everything running sweet and looking clean (under the skin)

 

Back in the garage today.

Couple of quick jobs to rectify two annoying items

First was securing the brown speaker covers panels in place. I hadn’t put screws in these before due to them being modified from factory. So today fixed this. They had kept falling into my feet or passenger footwell while out driving so both dangerous and annoying

Secondly my drivers wing mirror had a terrible vibration wobble. Tracked this down to the two bolts that hold it in place. After trying to tighten them it was clear the issue was the threads had stripped. In order to rectify I luckily have a spare mirror, just missing the glass. However the electrics and cable were looking a bit sorry so instead I opted to just change over the mounting bracket.

To remove the mirror from mount you need to unthread the cable, this involves removing the round 6 pin connector as it is to large to pass through hole.

After swapping everything and bolting back in place I now have a nice clear and steady rear view while sat driving
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Have picked up Exhaust from storage (back seat of 911). Going to start measuring up to see how different it is from the US fitments
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

So heres the challenge, convert the US system to Euro in order to fit the new exhaust box
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Looking at the layout i'm not convinced its so easy. For one I am pretty sure I would have to lose the Cats due to the difference in the way the Euro pipes come into the car. Also I unless completely needed want to hack the S/S euro box apart

My idea:
1. Fit Euro box in place .... hopefully it will hang on the same position brackets ? (my 308 had to be modified as the mounting points were direct US v Euro cars)
2. Remove the Cats. This creates a void between the manifold/headers and muffler
3. Get some straight through pipes fabricated with a 2 bolt clamp at US manifold side and 3 bolt camp at other Euro muffler side
Job done ....lose the cats and create more noise

However one question before doing this is to figure out by removing the current system and cats and all the sensors thermocouple and analysing pipes associated with it. Will this then throw up errors and cause running issues ?

I did something very similar on my old 308 and converted the whole system to Euro, all the sensors were removed and it made zero difference.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Running a few easy tests to see what happens if I install exhaust without sensors to US car.

First test: disconnect the o2 sensors

Result: Car starts and runs fine (in garage, not road tested yet)

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login