308 in barn...issues..

Bubba?

Well my friend, I'd be a liar if I said I never hooked a battery up backwards. If there is any luck to be had, the early 308 has a really simple electrical system, so probably the worst you done was knock out the regulator on the alternator. Or diodes. Either way you have that to R&R. Well, you probably cooked the radio too

Fuel leaks eh. Well, you been on here enough you know what needs doing. And being your in that neck of the woods down there, you know theres a bunch a crazies on here will come over and help ya. Specially if you whip out them ribeyes and that home make liquor. hehehe. Id come over, but Im a tad more than 5 minutes away.

Car quits cuz the gen aint gennen and the battery is terminated. Or you knocked out the ballast resistor, or the relay/fuse to the ballast is inop. You could check for running voltage at the coil with key in run position. But all thems fuel leaks would have me scared. Tackle that issue first.

 

(scratching head) How does a 308 wind up in a barn?

Any pics???

 

Bummer!!!

You should still takes pics. You'll have a good chuckle looking at them once all the gremlins are sorted.

Good luck Bubba!

 

Yup, its ALL inside the alternator. They took that great big regulator box that sat on the fenders of old cars, and stuck it in a dohicky the size of a pencil eraser.

Understand the sad part of the situation. Barns can be a bad environment. Is that the blue car?

 

I think with all of the problems that were listed, the owner got fed up of dealing with them, parked it with some future intention to fix it and never did.

That's happened to sooooooo many cars.

BTW, I had heard of a 308 GTB in a barn here in Vancouver (Abottsford actually).

 

Please don't ask me how I know but by hooking up the booster/battery backwards you have fried at least the diodes in the alternator. (That was the burning smell) The regulator might also be gone. All in it shouldn't be expensive to get rebuilt. In the frozen north here I can get a generic regulator to fit for CAD35. A rebuild cost me < CAD150, in USD that will of course be less. Just tell whoever it is that the alt is from a FIAT.

The bigger risk is to your speedometer and radio. I didn't care about my radio anyway but the speedo is another matter. Since we, at least for now, know a source for the chip that fries that too is solvable at a reasonable price if you are a bit handy.

Re: the fuel hoses, you know the answer is to replace them ALL


Gerrit
http://dino308gt4.com

 

Bubba knows better than to put the car in the barn! Bubba, whatcha thinkin' bro??? You gotta drive 'em!

The thing that frightens me the most about storage, whether it's a barn, a garage or a tent, is the friggin' mice. They can wreak havoc in very short order. Man, they made a mess out of my dad's vette one winter. I put poison and traps all over the place. It's like a ******* mine field! I hate mice, little bastards. They should be terminated from Earth.

Birdman

 

Out west we have "whistle pigs", our local ground squirrel. Talk about wreaking havoc. Removed the complete firewall insulation, and noise dampening material from my 4Runner and commenced to build a nest in the intake just to spite me.

The receive no mercy....

 

Tex, i would pull the fuse box cover and take a look. a local guy here ended up with a beat up 308 and his son and wife hooked the battery up backwards and fried the whole dash wire harness. car was a parts car after that, given the body damage it had and the other problems you could see. doubt your car is that bad off, but look carefully before trying to fire it up again.

i mark my battery cables with tape + / -, just in case !

 

Bubbas car was blessed by Mario hisself, a good Catholic man. We can be sure as God made green apples that nothing more than a fried alternator will develop. (throwing salt over shoulder.......)

 

And?? Please tell us more to the story....

 

Honestly, I don't know if it's true or not. A couple of years ago while at our annual Italian car show in North Vancouver, I was approached by a gentleman who owns a local restoration shop (specialising in hot rods and stuff) and he was asking questions about the 308 series of Ferraris. What I don't remember that well was did he say he already bought the car, or was considering buying it, but in any case, it was in Abottsford (not far from where I am, where there are many farms) and that it needed to be restored. I offered him assistance in respect to gathering info, recommending parts sources, inviting him to join the club, etc... We exchanged contact info and that was the end of the story.

Did he buy the car? Did he restore it or is it still under restoration? Was the whole story a myth?

I wouldn't doubt the fact that a 308 would end up in a barn, or barn-like storage place - many of these cars can be found on eBay - so it is possible and probably was true.

Last Monday evening, I went to a meeting with one of the other car clubs I belong to (Italian Car Club of B.C.) and the "oldtimers" were reminiscing about the cars "that got away". Let me tell you, Vancouver had some of the best of the best rotting away in gas station garages and peoples back yards way back when...

 

Tex,
I did something similar, except I hooked up the charger to the battery backwards (no light it the garage, and there was a red cable to the batt negative, and a black to the positive, I didn't know the negative cable was a replacement cable, both cables would normally be black) so I tried charging it and fried the alternator, and f'd up the negative cable. I replaced the alternator which was going anyway, and I've had no problems since.

Jim

 

Hi Tex
If you have an older 308 (I think you do as it has carbs) then the speedo chip is available for now. Not a big deal to open it up and replace the chip. I would volunteer but shipping across the ever thickening border between our two countries is becmoing more and more expensive/tiresome.

And of course this is assuming your speedo fried. It is quite likely fine.

Gerrit

 

If the light is on even with the key out of the ignition then the diodes are indeed faulty. Here is a link to my experience with this problem. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135902011&postcount=25 I had posted a link to the Bosch alternator diodes but good luck trying to buy them...

I wound up having a local alternator guy rebuild it for $150.

 

You mean "gotta start working now".....That post was during work hours, Tex!