We rarely have to repair rear axles and usually just clean and inspect the bearings and install new oil seals. Be it a Jaguar, Chevrolet or Alfa Romeo, it is rare that we see a ring and pinion that is damaged or bearings that are worn out. I hate to disturb the factory relationship between the ring and pinion gears so if the bearings check out ok, I keep the thing together.

Additionally, most car companies have figured out how to make the final drive robust and problem free because they are aware of the forces involved with the ring and pinion bevel gears – except for Ferrari. They used a deep groove ball bearing and sliding inner race roller bearing that cannot handle the axial loads on the pinion shaft. Other companies used tapered roller bearings that can handle a tremendous amount of this fore-and-aft thrust while spinning with ease but the Ferrari style comes apart and destroys the gears.

My solution is to replace the sliding inner race roller bearing and the deep groove ball bearing with a pair of tapered roller bearings. This photo is a 250 GT Lusso center section with the “chicklet” style limited slip differential. On some axles I’ve install tapered roller bearings to support the differential but on the later axles there isn’t much room to install this type of bearing and I have found the original ball bearing set up to be adequate. I have done this conversion to many cars that have gone many thousands of miles with no issues.

Final drive Ferrari

GT Ferrari 250 Axle Center section

Ferrari 330

The power of the internet and the reason I do these blog posts became apparent on this particular project.

Similar to almost all of the other Ferrari shops in the country, we were having a hard time getting the head gaskets to seal on the V-12 engines. The gaskets that come in the gasket kits are ELRING brand that are very fancy looking and fit nicely but are too hard and do not compress and seal like they should. I am sure they work well on a BMW with a cast iron block and head bolts that torque to probably 100 lb/ft, but on a Ferrari engine you only go to 65 lb/ft and are working with a very flexible cast aluminum block.

The leaks we had experienced was not water getting into the combustion chamber but it allowed water to leak between the block and head and often times leaked water into the oil. Considering that replacing the head gaskets on one of these engines is a $4-5000 job, we had to come up with a solution which we now have.

2 years ago a man called me to talk about head gasket leaks on his 330, I explained that we had the same problems and that he should get the car to me to be repaired. The car was tied up at another shop and I didn’t hear from him again. Fast forward to February 2010, the mystery man rings me again and asks me to help him sell the car! He told me that the shop fixed the leaking gaskets again and the car is sorted and ready to go.

I had 3-4 immediate buyers for the car but upon close inspection I found that the gaskets were still leaking! We could have been the shop to repair the gsakets, get them right, and get on with it, but it turned out fine when I sold the car to a local man who asked that we overhaul the engine and set things right.

The car was described as having an overhauled engine and in need of nothing, but we found that wasn’t the case. With the wrist pin bushings wiped out, the pistons worn and overall sloppiness in workmanship from the multiple attempts at remedying the head gasket leaks, we were disappointed in the prior repair, but will set things straight. These photos show the water mixed with oil inside the cam covers.

330 head gasket leak V-12 Ferrari

V-12 Ferrari head gasket and overhaul

Bill took a few pictures from around the shop today that show both the range and the beauty of some of the cars that we are working on. Sometimes I fear that there is too much “range” and not enough beauty! Bill takes outstanding photos that look super pro. Have I written a post on Bill yet? Bill, can you write a post on yourself, introduce yourself?

Upstairs: the Osca, Whitehead Special, and a silver Ferrari

Downstairs: The rare green 330 GTC and a deep inventory of stored classics, projects, and restorations.

Ferrari 750 Monza at Restoration and Performance Motorcars in Vermont

We have made jigs for re-producing the often rusted and leaking water pipes for Ferrari 250’s. These are not  perfect reproductions but now that we have the tooling we can easily make an exact copy if anyone is interested. We are using Stainless Steel so they won’t rust away like the originals.

Ferrari tubing

250 water pipe

These are 80mm Carello Tail lights, where can I get the identical ones but 100mm in diameter? These were on a Vignale Ferrari 225 Berlinetta at Cavallino and I need the 100mm ones for the 166 Berlinetta that we are restoring.

Tail light

Here are some more images of sheet metal work to get the 1950 Ferrari 166 Touring Coupe closer to finished. So much of the aluminum is work hardened and cannot be repaired, so it has to be replaced.