Quattroporte III catch-all thread

Just finished changing front control arms/ bushings/ ball joints/ shocks. Also replaced starter, valve cover gaskets, reset carbs, replaced fuel filters/ lines, replaced vacuum lines, other misc underhood tasks. Please message me if you are stuck because I lost my job, the silver lining of which was enough time to do everything properly (took plenty of photos).

General tips-

-Have an M12 x 1.75 tap & die to clean threads.
-Resist the temptation to use an impact wrench, torque everything to spec.
-If you sacrifice a bolt, replace with good grade 8.
-I found it much easier to settle the suspension then reconnect the sway bar end links.
-I could not position the fuel line to carbs at the turkey pan without kinking. A couple of 5/16 brass fittings to create a 90 bend solved it.
-Nuts which secure ball joints to control arms have steel inserts; they are not nyloks.
-I found it easiest when I followed this order of operation: install lower control arm & ball joint > mount upper control arm to frame > raise upper control arm > install lower shock mount > install upper shock mount > connect upper ball joint

PS - If anyone with a show car needs a set of the old anti-tamper sleeves for the carb mixture screws, I have all 8.

Thanks all, happy motoring.

 

This is an excellent assessment of these cars and it's like an XJS (opinion), better in the metal than in a photo. Lowered rear floors add to the 'cozy' feeling inside and my favorite part of the design is the rear. The rear glass is short because of the location of the trunk lid and the C pillar but rear visibility is still good. The trunk is deep but the rear face does not have much vertical area because of the kick-up behind the fenders. It's a packaging miracle.

 

Nice to see another wrench with a penchant for these chariots. Welcome aboard.

 

Is there someone here that can tell me if both cooling fans on de radiator should go on if the thermoswitch in the radiator switches on? Or is just one of them supposed to go on and the other one is for when the AC is switched on?
I have a wiring diagram here from which this specific diagram is unreadable... I can see in the diagram that they both have there own fuse in the front fuse box but other than that my diagram is unreadable. A picture/scan of a good wiring diagram for the cooling fans would also be a huge help.
Thanks in advance!

 

The cooling fans on my Quattroporte and Biturbo always come on together, regardless of whether the a/c is on.

 

PM sent

 

Good to hear, than at least I know that there is a problem somewhere with one of the fans or electrical system around it.
Thanks!

 

Thanks to MrMark who was kind enough to send me a good wiring diagram I have been able to fix the cooling fan issue.
There has been apparently a problem with the front fuse box at some point, this has been repaired in a poor way. The connectors inside the box had been melted and they put some wires in there with 2 separate relays. The connectors were all loose and randomly they made some contact.
I took the fuse box out and re-routed the wiring for the fan relays to the outside of the box, than I installed 2 new relay and fuse holders, crimped new proper connectors on it (instead of these inferior blue things) installed everything and it's working like a champ!
Now the other wires also have some more room inside of the fuse box, this thing is loaded with spaghetti.....
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Nice work Stefan... Keep us informed of any work you do on the car!!
I know I am always interested...

Mike

 

Well, I've done quite some work to it already. Valves adjusted, carburetors overhauled, repaired some more electrical gremlins, rebuilt the waterpump, rebuild the brakes, actually I can't really remember half of it anymore but it's close to being finished.

One of the only things left is the front suspension. I have all the bushings but I expect some issues with the shocks/springs as well but i'll remove it first before I can do a good checkup. The problem right now is that in the inbound stroke of the suspension it feels like it hits a/the 'bumpstop' if you take a speedbump with over 30km/h. Don't know if the shock absorber jams at this point or that the spring is all the way compressed which means it might got weak over time. Anyone ever experienced something similar?

 

Hello Stefan..

Please post lots of pictures of your front suspension work when you get to
it.. There are many of us who might benefit from it... Keep up the good work...
Also, please post some pictures of the whole car!

Mike

 

Hello Stefan, my '84 does the same , I am waiting until the weather turns before I dig into the front end. I am assuming that after 32 years the shocks and springs are at their end, bushings as well. And while I am in there, tie-rod ends, ball joints, front brakes..........

I rebuilt the rear end, brakes, spings/shocks, and universals last fall, it was good therapy from the day to day grind.

Good to see that you have resolved the radiator fan issue. I was able to charge my A/C compressor this spring, and the fans would not turn on when the a/c lever was set inside the car. Fans would turn on when car reached appropriate engine temperature, so I knew they worked, so after some frustration, I found a disconnected wire on the back of the temperature control unit inside the car. Voila, problem solved.

Nick

 

I've had to recently change the both the sealed-beam headlights on my USA-spec QPiii and a broken Carello glass headlamp enclosure on my Euro car. The assemblies are not especially intuitive to work on and things can get complicated by rusted screws and brittle old plastic parts on the Carello 614 light assembly used on the euro.

The flat plate over the bezel is attached with 3 screws hidden under the diamond matting.

You begin by removing the piece of vinyl edging glued onto the ridge above the lights, then you have to carefully peel back the glued-down diamond matting. I used a tools from a Capri nylon auto trim panel removal set and worked slowly to not tear the matting.

With the diamond matting pulled back, you will see the three small Phillips head screws. They may be covered in glue and remnants of the matting. There is a good chance they will be quite rusted. About half of mine came out after soaking with penetrating oil, the Phillips heads on the rest failed due to corrosion and had to be drilled out.

With the screws out, the chrome plate can be pulled forward and out. You can then unscrew (using the smallest hands and tools you can find!) the fiberglass bezel from behind and remove it. While the fiberglass bezels were off, I restored them with a respray of metallic paint to match original and waxed them.

The Carello lamps (part #1 on diagram) have little white plastic socket pieces that mate to studs on part #2 on the car (see red arrow in photo). These apparently get brittle with age and become fragile. To get part #1 to separate from part #2, you have to pull pretty hard on it to unseat the plastic parts, and they can easily break when you do this.

I hope to 3d scan these offending plastic bits at some point and 3d print some replacements as the Carello 614 is pretty scarce and can be costly to find nowadays. I'm also looking at putting an applied sheet protective film over the lights so I can avoid ever having to do this particular repair again.
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Please get me in touch with this company building these Ohlins replacement shocks.
The car is unfortunately not mine but a friends/customers car. Other than the front suspension the car is more or less flawless so I think he would be willing to do such an investment.
I will post it here when I start on the front suspension bushings and i'll make some pictures.

 

Has anyone out there used the lean best idle technique to set up 42 DCNFs? My car's emissions gear was discarded before I got it so I'm not sure how much of the shop manual's instruction to follow. Idle stop screws are set at 1 turn after touching the lever, mixture screws are 1.5 turns. Car sounds awesome and pulls like a train but won't idle without some choke or throttle.

I'm also unclear as to why the manual wants the bypass screws closed; Mike at Pierce suggested opening them 1 turn and adjusting them to balance the venturis- not the magic bullet but it helped. Thanks everyone.

 

For rough idle:
Have you tried backing out the idle micro switch screw to never close the circuit at idle?
The microswitch system applies vacuum to the distributor while idling.
I had to do that after I tuned the carbs.

Heres a link describing what I did when tuning the carbs. The car has been running great since.
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/maserati/328560-quattroporte-iii-catch-all-thread-36.html#post142846133

Hope this helps!
Tony

 

I feel your pain. I have been there and do not have a one size fits all answer. Its in the angle. A lot of patience, I suggest. Use the Force. Prevail, you will.