What’s the cost to do a clutch job on 456/550

The other issue that I have noticed when doing 456/550/575 clutches is that the bearing in the bellhousing that supports the input shaft loosens up and starts to spin in the housing, damaging the housing. The wear in the bearing bore is so great that it has to be welded up and re-machined.

 

That sucks! How often have you seen this? No good way to take a look without removing the torque tube shaft?

 

Clutch and associated bits replaced at 100k miles about six years ago, at a dealership was, IIRC, $6k. It was part of belts, engine/transax mounts, two fuel pumps and other misc. stuff. At 100k miles, no slippage but by inspection was a limit of adjustment.

 

$4709 on my 1998 550 in April 2020. This included the clutch, PP, TOB, pilot bearing, fluid and labor ($2160).

 

When I bought my 308 Dino in the late 70's the salesman told me to budget for a clutch every year..

 

Just to give you guys an idea of what has happened to prices the parts alone now for the bare minimum is almost $4000. and labor rates are all up.

 

Now that sounds like fun. I guess I was lucky. Do you need to tilt the engine to pull the torque tube around the shaft down and out?

 

Yes, some. Plus you have the drive shaft bearings dragging all the torque tube parts out with it.

 

95 456 year ago by a very competent shop in charlotte. i actually supplied the new clutch as i had contemplated replacing it myself. anyway, the labor and "associated bits" was over $8K. seemed to me a bit expensive at the time.

 

I have never had to do this job in 550. Can the entire driveline be dropped like in 3 series of corvettes?

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Not without a sawzall. Frame prevents it.

One very important factor to always be remembered. Detroit, Germany and Japan go to great lengths during the design phase to streamline assembly because ir accounts for a large percentage of the over all car cost. Use of subframes is very common allowing an entire drivetrain and sometimes the suspension to be installed from the bottom after the car is mostly assembled. Labor at Ferrari is the cheap part. They pay no attention to avoiding intricate, laborious assembly. It is reflected in repair costs. It has been said many times and quite accurately that Ferraris are built in layers. One needs to be removed in its entirety to access the next etc. A day never passes when I do not marvel at some assembly when I did not shake my head and think "Jesus Christ this had to take a lot of time at the factory". You just do not encounter that in US, Japanese or other western European makes.

They did do it for a brief period in the TR,348, 355 period but handling suffered and they knew it and in the intervening years there is a new corporate attitude where small increments in performance or luxury systems have become more important that production costs or down the road customer costs. They have embraced an attitude that is very different than earlier years. One of the reasons I have completely tuned out of the modern product line. It is no longer their interest to just build great drivers sports cars. They want high performance compact Rolls Royces packed with just as much crap.

 

I can only refer to my 550 and F355 but as far as assembly design is concerned and compared with 80s european cars where everyting is bolted up from below on high volume output assembly chains, I have found my two Ferraris to be a breath of fresh air in the way they are put together. I have lost count of how many times I cut myself on said european cars reaching fasteners I could barely just see. I would say that the layer concept is far worse on industrialised cars supposed to be better made because engineers usually try to pack as many things as they can in small volumes and that makes repetitive disassembly/assembly far more time-consuming or at least more frustrating than what I have experienced so far on the Ferraris. Ok, the engine out job on the F355 is a relatvely long sequence of dis/assembly tasks but at least every single fastener is reachable without too much effort. I replaced the belts again on the 550 in the last two evenings after work and it was a walk in the park. I have to do that soon on another car where there is far less room between the belt covers and the fans and I really do not feel like digging in there as everything is packed and just the thought of having to do it irks me already. So at this stage I would say that some Ferraris are probably more collaborative than others when it comes to wrenching on them, in my short experience at least.

 

I pulled my transaxle/ torque tube back with two floor jacks (one with a transmission attachment). It wasn't much trouble. This was with the rear suspension disassembled to replace shocks and bushings and I do not recall if it could be done without suspension disassembly.

 

Yikes