365 BB: When were leather dash, reclining seats, headrests, vented rear clam introduced?

Steve: I will try to help with some of your questions:

1. The Vented Rear Clamshell, according to the parts book appears with Body #248. I do not know which chassis number this corresponds to.

2. The transaxle is a major can of worms. I count at least SEVEN changes during 365 Boxer production:

First version, then changes at: 17543, 17847, 18059, 18169, 18225 and 18955.

The transaxle had numerous problems, but basically it did not have adequate oil capacity when first introduced. It was originally set up to hold about six quarts of oil and that starved the unit. The first temporary fix was the add a "standpipe" to the fill hole so you put about 10 quarts in before it came out the hole. Eventually, they raised the fill hole in the side of the case so 10 quarts was the correct amount, and this helped a lot. Early transaxles still used Porsche synchros, but the heavier gears designed to transmit larger amounts of torque exceeded the design capacity of the Porsche synchro system. One of the many updates was to switch to the ZF (American) style synchro which can match gear speeds of much larger gears reliably.

I believe the leather dash, and reclining seats with head rests came pretty early in production.

Hope this helps.

 

Great thread. May I add a couple changes I have observed and am curious about? Would be interested to know how these fit in the timeline.

• Air filter housing lid color changes from black to silver
• Removal of fiberglass cover over washer bottle

 

17771 (body number 68) with mousehair dash
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Black airbox lids on 17771, all original one owner from new 12,000 kms when this photo was taken. It's a bit cleaner now!
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17771 was originally supplied with fixed seats without headrests but these were replaced with reclining seats at the factory in 1975.

 

Yes they raised the oil level in the box, they had no oil pump so the increase in capacity was good but then the front vent can puke gear oil so you need to plug it and rely on the bell housing vent only. The biggest issue I've found with the gearbox was the high numerical crown and pinion ratio on the early cars. They had one pinion tooth of contact by design so they would break pinion gears. (I dont recall the type of hypoid gear design used originally but we convert it to the Gleason design which is better / stronger but takes up more space.) As the ratio was lowered during production they arrived at the minimum one and a half teeth of constant contact effectively neutering the 365 so the increase in capacity to 5L overcame that. I learned the importance of this tooth contact detail from the gear manufacturer I use to make custom and stock gear sets for these gearboxes. The most I can arrive at is a 3.7:1 and have it fit inside the box. The other issue is the box is full of compromises because of the packaging with the engine on top.

 

Just had our Gearbox apart and it is back together.

I was astonished, that the housing is massively large and the gearbox mechanic is quite cute, if you remember that big engine above....

No wonder, they had trouble.

 

If this is 17771, why does it have adjustable seats (headrests) and jute material door pockets (first 24 cars only) and the coolant tank is in the wrong place ?

 

17771 was ordered with black leather interior. It was delivered with fixed leather seats but jute in the doors! In 1975 it went back to the factory to have adjustable seats fitted. The owner asked for the doors to be re-trimmed in black leather at the same time but they never did. Most of the early cars I have seen have the coolant tank on the side instead of on top of the engine.

 

Body #248 is S/N 18197.

Marcel Massini

 

Very early 365BB airbox lids were not only blue but also fibreglass. my car is 17535 (first series) and has these black fibreglass lids

 

Hi, Are these lids metal or fibreglass ?

 

Fibreglass

 

This should read “black lids not blue”