Hi, Has anyone figured out how to get the cap off the distributor? There seem to be 3 bolts holding the cap to the distributor body. Two are easily reached but the third is way in the back. How and with what can this bolt be loosened so the cap will come off? Greg
On my '83 I just use a short-ish, flat blade screwdriver. You have to line it up blind with the slot in the hold-down screw, and you want to be careful not to drop it.
I use am 8mm 1/4 drive socket, a short extension and a ratchet. The short extension clears the wires coming out of the cap and the socket positively locates on the bolt .( A short screwdriver works too, but for me tends to slip out of the slot too easily ) Once the bolt is loose, I take of the ratchet and turn the extension bar by by hand. M
Thanks! I had gotten past the box wrench and the long handled screw driver (both failures) when something Ferrari knocked a hole in the back of my hand. So I quit fooling with it and posted this thread. I'll try the next step after I heal up. At least the engine doesn't have to come out to get at this bolt. Greg
That very area is a huge repository of my DNA, also. Those sharp metal edges are murderous..My solution..is to cut the finger-tips off some Mechanics' gloves (not the nitrile ones). I just hate fingerless gloves, but you need to feel in this area with your fingers, or you will never get it done. Next time I go into that area, I'm also going to duct tape and foam those metal edges. Jq.
next time the engine is pulled!!! Other than Brett I don't imagine anyone has done it more than once on this forumbut I may be wrong. Ken
Obviously you haven't actually ever worked on your 400. Look in your service manual. The first step in any procedure says, "Place car on jackstands" and step number 2 always says, "Remove engine, complete drivetrain, and all other parts not welded to the frame."
In reference to the slotted screws that secure the dist. cap..on mine... these are round headed staight slot machine screws, and not hex-head, which makes removing the last screw on the backside murderously difficult (for me) to remove.. Is is possible that there are some hex-head or phillips head ones available? Thank you. Jacques.
Somewhere in FerrariChat I spotted a link to a Jag place wherein the shutting down of the passenger side bank of cylenders is discussed. This was the genisis of my wanting the cap off. Today I recieved one of "The Last of the Mohecans" Marelli distributer roters. This little jewel is common to the 400i and 512BB and similar in design to the V-12 Jags having the Marelli ignition system. Now I can report that there is .290 inches (maximum) of rotor plastic between the coil contact and the distributer shaft. Since there seems to be a bolt through the roter to keep it secure on the shaft with rapid RPM increases, it seems reasonable that cracks would develop. Such cracks would ground the rotor before the spark gets to the lower contact thereby shutting down a whole bank. I'll report back in a few months if this cures my intermiitent and heat related problem with the passenger side bank shutting down. In the meantime, can any of you materials or electrical engineer guys comment? Greg
Hey, I like to inject humor whenever I can LOL Good one Dave! Even for simple things like rebuilding H2O pumps
