Just as the title says... I'm hitting a wall! 1990 Testarossa, I have everything disconnected from the compressor. No worries, except for the pivot bolt. The last man standing, I can't believe I can't get it out.... it hits the metal coolant line on the firewall. For all of you that have removed the compressor yourself in the past, any pointers? I saw someone deep in the search function say they loosened the passenger engine mount and raised the engine 1/4 inch? Is there really no other way? Anything else that has worked? Thanks in advance
Raise the engine so the bolt passes over the coolant pipe: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/149201871/ Additional tips/information from kartnboy1234 in a few following posts in that thread.
Thank you! What a bummer... So loosen both engine mounts on the passenger side? Should I slightly loosen the driverside at all?
first only the passenger side and then try, if not working then only loosen additional the front driver side
Well, I lifted the engine and got the pivot bolt out and thought I was scott-free.... Now I have spent the past hour trying every which way to pull the compressor out and sadly had to call it a night. Does anyone have tips for pulling the compressor out? I unclipped the two coolant sensor wires in the center of the engine and tried slipping out of there, but no way hit the zinc-coated curved bracket every which way I tried, hits the lip for the grille surround (grille is obviously removed), hits the intake manifold, etc. Tried pulling out around the intake manifold on the passenger side and hit everything too. There has to be a simpler way or process??
you may loosen this bracket or remove but now you know why the official ferrari repairshops are so expensive. they have the same problem but they get money for their work
Yeah I just always work on and build my own cars and race cars, I’ve personally had terrible experiences with Ferrari shops in the past and have had to redo their work every time sadly Seems silly, but this is one of the only jobs I’ve ever got frustrated with on the testarossa. May have made more sense to just drop the engine at this point. Just don’t know if loosening that bracket will be enough or give enough clearance to get it out and worry more about trying to get it right when installing back in. I was hoping to find someone here that has actually done this job in the car and would be able to tell me, oh yeah you need to do this, move that, and pull it out here. If only that easy though lol
The adjusting bracket is only held in with one easy to get to bolt. Take it out. It is an easy job. Done it many times and never once considered it hard to figure out. If you have to redo the work of the professionals you choose, thats on you.
My time to shine since I just went through this. Remove the compressor by slowly moving it around the right side of the engine. You will have to play around with orientation and maybe put masking tape or thick cardboard to protect the intakes because they will rub. Basically angle it so the ports on the compressor are facing up and have one of them above the metal flange that the grill sits on. Its heavy and a weird angle, be sure to swear a lot. Also it can snag wires and fuel lines, so be careful.
Agreed, one should be able to trust Algar, Ft. Lauderdale, Scottsdale Ferrari and a few claimed “concours” specialists…. But you know why they say, you are only as good as your last job. Live and learn
sounds good, I’ll give this a shot again tonight, did you still have the valve fittings on the top of the compressor ports? Or did you remove those too? If I can’t get it out this way I’ll pull the bracket like rifledriver mentioned and try that too.
Some personal experience and a lot of speculation but for "older" 575/430(?) era and older, perhaps independent with older techs are a better choice. Do younger techs, trained in the era of computer diagnostics and replace rather than "fix"; do they do well with more "analog" cars? A few years ago, had issues with AC not cooling, well respected dealer quoted $16k to fix, well respected independent solved problem for $458.
Definitely I agree, however that is moving away from the original topic at hand of personally removing and replacing the ac compressor. This isn’t about other shops and my personal experiences I had with them on my brand new cars, race cars, to older cars like this. Simply asking for some insight from this great group of people that have done this job specifically and had a pointer or two from recently completing
in this forum here are a few very great and good specialists. you get answers for free that help you to fix nearly every problem. and if you are a good mechanic you can fix all at the none electronic cars
100% agree with you. I love working on these cars, it’s my therapy and brings me tons of enjoyment over the past 25 years! I was simply looking for a little help on this item specifically that I haven’t tackled before, that’s all.
I left the fittings on and the bracket on. I couldn't get the bolts out for the bracket because the pulley was in the way Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk
Well, for those who want to do this on their own, you do not have to touch the adjusting bracket to remove the compressor. Something I wasn't aware of, but after feeling around blindly, there are four bolts and washers under the grille tray (be careful to not let those fall into the abyss), and you can simply remove those and pull the tray out which gives you a few more inches of room to work with. I had no idea that body panel tray was even removable, and I couldn't find any info or posts about it. Remove the four bolts, carefully pull the tray out, shimmy the rear of the compressor out of the larger space above the right/passenger side of the intake manifold and then turn the compressor slightly and clear the pully and clutch side out. I slide it back in the same way and back out again to ensure it will be easy with the new shiny compressor. I also did not have to remove the valve fittings on the compressor or the compressor bracket. It all came out together with no problem. So there you have it, remove the whole grille & the painted tray it sits on to get the proper room to slide the compressor right out. Hopefully someone looking to tackle this in the future has a few more tips at their disposal to make it easier
Deuce, Testarossa Workshop Manual page M10, "Remove the front grill between engine lid and passenger compartment." Doesn't your post #5 picture show that you already removed the front grill, or are you describing something else "pull the tray out" in post #18? EDoug
The actual body trim piece can easily be removed in addition to the grille itself. It gives you a lot of extra room to work with. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Fwiw, I had a slightly shorter bolt made to allow removal without hitting the coolant pipe. But yes, removing that bit of trim is necessary.
Well I didn't know that part came out. **** that would have helped a lot. Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk
