308 GTSi Suspension Rebuild

Hey Steve, I'm doing the same this winter.
As far as stiffer/lower springs for the stock Konis,
the choices are rather limited.
Off the top of my head, I think I remember that superformance in the UK has some.
The spring selection gets better if you go to an aftermarket shock to replace the stock Koni with as I did.

 

I'm doing mine this Feb/March. With all of the bushings, tie rods, ball joints, new shocks, etc...the tab should be ~ $1800.00. I was going to have Nicks and Superformance price the parts list.

Where have you purchased your parts from?

 

I'm doing the same on my 79 308, total in parts right at $2200, most parts from Ferrari UK, shocks from tirerack some rear outer bushing parts from McCann and ES bushings for all the inners and swaybars

 

Hypercoil will sell you springs. http://www.hypercoils.com They supply CART and IRL cars also. Call them. I recall they can sell normal springs, lowering springs, race springs. etc. And I believe they are fairly reasonable @ 180$ per spring.

 

Hi
I did the suspension etc. on my 308GT4 last winter. Photos at http://dino308gt4.com. I also had the calipers rebuilt, all parts replated to correct colours, new brake hoses, new rear hub bearings, replaced cv joint boots and grease (VERY messy job but worth it to know there are o problems in that area).

Superformance shock bushings are a bit different from the originals. They seem to work fine however.

 

I just finished the rear hubs, front and rear a-arm bushings and am now rebuilding the 4 brake calipers. I have 1 rear caliper to go then I'm finished with all 4 corners. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the shocks. Koni's or change to adjustable aluminum?
I now have a digital camera (finally) and as soon as I learn how to post photos I will post some of what I've done already. (Any help here?)
As far as ordering parts, I went to Superformance, Rutlands and my local Ferrari dealer. So far my vote is for Rutlands. Superformance is good but with the shipping and duty costs I could have and would have gladly bought the stuff from someone closer and still might have been less then Superformance.
Have'n fun!

 

I am also going to rebuild my suspension this winter. I did a repair last year (see picture) This year I want to do it right, and your posts sure help… thanks to all! ..

Gerritv: great series of pictures!
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hey Jet...Thats a recall problem. Take your car to the dealer!!

 

Please give more info on this recall, years/models ?

thanks tbakowsky

 

Steve
I re-did shocks, bushings etc last winter and have played around quite a bit with settings at the track. I put on an adjustable ARB (rear) last year and have a 22mm front being built. Each of these was $225 - 250 including end links (source: Saner Performance Fabrication).

I have also just bought a set of springs from Phil Warburton (at QV London). He makes a 20% stiffer, slightly shorter spring for 160 pounds sterling (about $280) for a set of 4. They are in shipment so will advise any issues when I put them on.

HTH
Philip

 

A member asked me the following questions. Guess he's feeling a bit shy. However, since the answers are relevant to this thread, I'm responding here.

Anyone have the rear suspension Baum tool they'd loan/rent to a fellow member? If so, send me eMAIL & I'll fwd it to the asker.

Haven't gotten into them, but I'm, reasonably sure they're re-packable.

I use Valvoline's DuraBlend synthetic moly fortified grease for both wheel bearings & the half-shaft CV bearings. The critical element is the moly which Ferrari WSMs specify.

Almost any modern moly based synthetic grease rated for CV joint applications should be fine. Modern synthetic greases have 25 years of FWD CV joint reliability driven technology advances over the fairly crude dino greases of the early '70s that were available when the 308 was designed. Moly was just coming into general use back then. Another good one is the Mobil 1 synthetic grease.

The hallf-shafts are completely separated from the wheel bearings as you'll see when you pull things apart. BTW, the half-shafts have funny washer like balancing weights that span across pairs of the bolts. Be sure to note/mark where each comes off.

Be very careful handling the half-shafts. The bearings are relatively fragile & can be damaged by letting the weight of the shaft plus 1 end drop suddenly, thus taking the supporting bearing to it's travel limits. The WSM warns against this.