I am removing my intake plenum to be powder coated. I'll be posting much more about the process soon, but I have hit a snag. On the front of the intake plenum there is a ball socket that is an absolute pain to remove. Here is what the WSM says. I have no idea what this is showing me. I had to resort to unscrewing the actuator arm from this ball socket. You can see from the gouges on this socket, I am using much more effort than the dainty screwdriver shown in the WSM. How do the professionals remove this spherical joint? I doubt crowbars are involved like my attempts. Any advice is appreciated!
Not to hijack your thread but I need my plenum repainted too. Can you give a sense of just how much this should cost? I wasn’t planning on powder-coating; just having it repainted in crinkle paint to factory spec. Any thoughts and advice appreciated.
I ran into the same snag when I removed mine and just removed the entire valve assembly with it attached to the Plenum to avoid having to put too much pressure on that little ball joint.
Okay. This is good to know. I suspect there is a trick or a tool that I am unaware of that pops this joint off easily. There are F-chatters here that have done this more than a few times.
Typically, you straddle the fitting with a pair of needle nose and pry it off. This type of ball connection sometimes get stuck because of tight tolerances and don't come off easy. My experience is 1 out of 3 will get stuck so removing the attachment like you did is a doable alternative. I did notice that your ball attachment has a crack on it from the prying, Probably worth it to replace that if you can find it.
Thanks for the advice. I ended up just leaving this component on the plenum. There were no issues with the chemical stripping process and the powder coater just masked it off carefully. Everything worked out perfectly.
Hey Charles, Without very close examination of the ball/socket assy it appears that there may be a clip/pin that needs to be removed first. This is used on many metal ball and socket components..it is achieved by rotating the locking clip off of the lower portion of the ball [outside of the assy] then sliding the clip/pin out of the ball and socket...once the clip is removed this allows the ball freedom from its socket. Below your picture I added where the clip/pin should reside the blue line represents the lock that needs to be rotated off the socket and the white is the pin that should slide through the housing to lock the ball and socket together. I could be compltely wrong but with the witness marks from the prying that assy should have been disconnected. Hope this helps. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thank you for your insight Kaspar. This problem is behind me now, but here is another closeup of that socket from a different angle.
In this thread F430 Air intake manifold, Marcel removed the whole spring assembly by removing the center nut. Which I consider a brave move. He fully removed the spring assembly but still got stuck at this point. The stories I am hearing so far (including my own) are that masking around the whole component is the easiest of the available options.
I was hoping to be able to take the whole assembly apart to do a thorough cleaning whilst I had the part off the car, but I couldn't get past that locking washer. The nut is easy to take off, but there is a metal clip that locks it in place. You will need to pry open those metal clasps to be able to spin off the nut. Not that troublesome. Love these cars, but some engineering items complexities don't make sense.
Wow, shocked to see the plenum paint is such bad shape above....my 04 360 is still perfect. Is this an issue with the 430?
I followed the official step-by-step in the WSM. Some bolts are upside-down, but that's the extent of the difficulty.
So I'm starting to think that the WSM "guy/gal" screwed up and was supposed to take a picture of the bottom of that actuator. If you remove the vacuum tubing you can simply press away the plastic ball-joint from the lower intake manifold. I hesitated removing the upper intake for about half a year not wanting to get that actuator "out of adjustment" and you never have to touch any of that. Undo vacuum line & rotate lower plastic ball joint...pops off. Undo the bolts and MAF done! Easy and like an hour job. Little interesting tidbit is that the F430 stock intake lower manifold is cast while the scuderia is polished for the intake runners. Worth how much hp? Dunno. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Just doing this today. This worked for me. Photos of the pliers I used below. Just twister the pliers a bit and pushed toward the front of the car. Came off no problem. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Your black magic is not welcome here. Lol but glad someone got it. I think leaving the actuator on is easier.
My covers are in decent shape, however the shiny "FERRARI" and cavallino have lost some luster Considering metal polish or possibly wet sanding with 3000 grit Has anyone attempted? Thanks all!