Viva Mexico - bringing #854 back to life

Thank you Mark, i had the opportunity to check out the very original Mexico of a friend of mine today. We measured his steering arms in situ, they are indeed identical in size to each other, but they are significantly shorter than the red steering arms pictured above and probably your steering arm. We measured the long part of it from the middle of the holes to approx. 13 cm, the short part was approx. 7 cm. The short part is identical, but the long part is approx. 17 cm on my steering arms, which is significantly longer.....
I am a bit puzzled about this, to be honest. Can you tell me the part number and measurements of your Ghibli steering arm?

 

Hi Mark, thank you for taking measurements. It seems that your steering arm is exactly like the red ones i have, judging by the numbers you found. On my friends Mexico with power steering these arms are 4 cm shorter between the hole centres - i have to find the shorter ones then - anybody out there who wants to swap?

 

Again long time no see, but progress is hard to come by these days...
But one major step has been achieved: #854 is back on her wheels again, you can turn the wheel and something happens at the front, brakes are there including brake lines.

A big big thank you has to go to Vienna to Bernhard, he remanufactured the missing power steering arm for me by using one with different teething from a manual box. Great job and that made it possible to put her on wheels. There are a lot of great people around in the Maserati scene, Bernhard is definitely one of them!

Another nice lad came by in September to visit the "Modena of the North" how he called it after we showed him around. I would like to say hi to Frank (Portenos) via this post too. Great chap and very knowledgeable in all things Maserati.

What are the next steps? Right now we are fitting doors, trunk and hood together with new rubber seals. This will be the preparation for the next big step: The paint shop! I received the formula for the original silver metallic of the car, this was adapted manually by a paint company (Spiess Hecker) to match a sample piece of metal painted with the original colour (another thank you goes to Wolfgang down south, he provided the sample).

We need a hint how to set up the trunk springs correctly. The trunk is supposed to stay open by the power of these massive springs, we put it all back together but now these springs provide no stopping power for the trunk at all. What did we do wrong? Any ideas or is it probably a common known mistake? Help is appreciated like always....

The car will be painted over the winter, while the car is in the paint shop the engine, the gearbox and the steering pump will be rebuilt. I will try to find the little pieces of trim missing here and there to get the car complete while this happens.

BTW: Does anybody know where to get proper seal kits or rebuilding sets for the ZF5/20 transmission that will go into my car? It seems to be working fine, but at least we will open it, check it for problems and then put new seals in.

So, lots of work ahead. But the car can be hauled around with a trailer now without problems, and i can turn the wheel and pretend to drive something like a car!
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Hi Mike,

thank you for your advice, will try to contact the guy in england regarding the trunk issue.
Unfortunately MIE has only a set for the ZF S5/325 transmission, mine is the original ZF S5/20 which came with the 4.2 engine.....

lbird

 

Hi Carlo, just saw your question. When i remember it correctly, the vents were only connected by two black plastic tubes underneath the tunnel going to the airbox. Nothing in between. I will try to find these tubes and post a picture. Sorry for missing your question...
CU lbird

 

Hello Carlo, these are the two tubes which connect to the tunnel vents. They look a bit like the end of a vacuum cleaner. Hope that helps.

CU lbird
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Oh, im a very happy man today. Just came back from the car and we made real progress on the car. Lots of little things done and solved. The hood stays open now thanks to pictures from Pauls restoration over at Pistonheads. The electrics are getting sorted big time, the loom is located where it should and connections are made one by one. The radiator got completely recored and received a complete new three piece matrix. The servo pump got overhauled.
Fuel line is installed completely from front to back. It is a hell of a job to fiddle a fuel line through the sill and connect everything.
And something really nice: The original Bendix fuel pumps still work after a good clean like a charm. These suckers pump like crazy, they are really powerful. Everything is connected to the original fuel regulator and filter under the hood. Even the original Fiam horns still work, we try to revive the compressor too.
A tank was trial fitted today.
And contrary to what i wrote in a different post all of my 6 fuel tanks still have the tank sender units installed, i was just too stupid to check properly. We will be able to get something working from them. Unfortunately only one of the tanks has the unit screwed with 4 bolts, the others are of the turning variety.

And now onto the questions, i need more and more information to get the car together:
- Does somebody has a better wiring diagram than that contained in the Mexico manual available on the carnut site? The plan there differs in many parts from the loom actually installed in my 1970 car.
- How is the loom located in the trunk? It splits into two very long parts. I assume one of them goes to the right to the right tank sender, rear light and fuel pump. Does the other go straight to the left around the left fuel tank? I have no idea how it is properly situated.
- Where is the connector panel in the trunk screwed on correctly? On the right wheelarch or where does it go?
- We installed the brakes and everything already. But how on earth do you fit the venting panel in the left wing when the big servo cover is installed? By the way: I have only one of these grills in the wings. Does somebody know a good way to remanufacture them?

- And the most pressing question at the moment: We installed the trunk springs and everything like the parts manual suggested. But the trunk does not stay open on its own. How is this mechanism adjusted or what did we probably wrong? I know it worked before, but i have no idea how we could put it together differently. But it just doesn't want to stay in position. We are really puzzled about that.

Questions over questions -but it looks more and more like a car. And a real beauty it will be....

CU lbird
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Hi Paul, a very warm welcome to this thread - i followed your thread on pistonheads very closely and admired your completed car. What a beauty she is!
Mike also helped me a lot and i think he contacted you already about some things which may help me. Especially wiring is my theme right now. Any wiring diagram i can get my hands on will help a great deal. On my loom most of the colours and some wires are very different from the ones mentioned in the manual on the carnut site.
I would be very grateful if you could post pictures from your restoration here. Especially two situations are very unclear to me:
- How are the horns and the compressor attached to the frame in the front?
- How is the loom in the trunk located exactly on the right and on the left. Where are which cables attached?

If you can provide any details helping to solve these problems it would be great.
I would love to have my car as detailed as yours!

CU lbird

 

Hello Paul,

tank sender problem should be solved, i have now 6 fuel tanks with senders at my disposal. Should get two working ones out of them.
The mounting of the compressor is solved right at the moment, we tried the fitting like on your car and the mounting holes and brackets match. One more problem ticked off. Seems like this is different on series 2 cars.
Do you have any pictures of the trunk wiring before dismantling? We are still unsure about the wire distribution in the trunk...

CU lbird