Embarrasing 348 moment

Don't feel bad....same thing happened to me a few years ago with my first 308. Had it delivered late at night(in the winter) on a covered transport. The guys pulled it into the driveway and left. I went to back it up.......I ended up out there with a flashlight trying to figure it out.

 

I did the same exact thing when I bought mine!!! I kept trying and trying to put it in reverse...Mine was shipped so I was at the shipping office for 1/2 hour sitting in the car trying to put it in reverse while someone was waiting for me...I finally couldn't get it to go and called the dealership I bought it from....They say "Are you popping the knob down when you trying to do?"...i thinking..omg...im a retard...

 

I was thinking, "Joe, why didn't you just look in the Owners Handbook for instructions on shifting into reverse?" But then I checked my own 348 Owners Handbook, and it doesn't say a word about shifting! It doesn't say you have to push down on the lever to get reverse. No diagram, no nothing. Glad you got it figured out.

Just for giggles, you might want to check and make sure that your chrome shift gate isn't mounted backwards. If this happens, then the little "jog" in the reverse slot is instead in the 5th gear slot, and it can make shifting a bit difficult.

 

I never thought of that either....When I get home tonight, I'm going to check my shift gate to make sure I remounted it correctly! Actually, maybe I can tell by some of the pics I put up here on Fchat.

 

yeap, i put it on correctly....good thing I put up the pics!

 

funny i dont have that on mine. i just had a problem opening the gas tank .

 

Haha, same thing happened to me. I went to pull a 360 out of a garage and was sitting there for 2 minutes trying to put it in reverse, before I finally asked someone nearby how to do it. Same problem with Maseratis too, had no clue you have to pull the boot up.

I guess its a good deterant to dumb thieves.

 

It happened to me the first time I was test driving a 308 to buy. I'm thinking, what is wrong with this car. Then the owner showed me the correct procedure. Boy, did I want to slid under the seat.

 

In my Spitfire (Triumph) you have to pull up. Meh, the British do everything the other way

 

Let put it this way...
Who DID NOT have problems trying to open (from the inside) for the first time the door of their early 328?
I ended up opening the window....
Ciao
Eugenio

 

first 360 I had, (f1 shifting) pulled up to the stop light, had it in gear didnt havbe the break pressed hard enough, so it went into Nuetrual , and a few minutes later it shut the car off..

I couldnt get it restarted as when the car does this, you have to arm and disarm the "starter disable - alarm) so here I was at the intersection blocking the cars behind me, and not even able to get the car started.

after 10 minutes and a few pissed off drivers, I callled a friend who explained this to me.

Thanks Ferrari !! and of course no mention of this safty feature in the manual either...

 

me + gas tank release + first day = humiliation at the filling station

no worries mate! we've all been there.

 

I've never even heard of that. My 348 spider goes directly into reverse (OK, there is a little "jog" in the chrome gate). I've got a '94 model. Do you have a '93 or '95 perchance??

 

Something is wrong with your car then. All 348 shifters must be popped down toward the ground to engage into reverse. Only possible exception I could think of would be Andy's car because he installed a 6 speed in his 348...not sure how that system works.

 

That needs to go on the 348 tips page. Thanks.


ANYONE ELSE...does your year model 348 need a special trick to go into Reverse gear??

 

Oh gee, great...

My inspection did show that the tranny had been opened. The clue was that there was a small amount of gasket/seal that hadn't been trimmed properly.

 

BTW, I didn't see anything about that fact in the Owner's Manual.

Surely I don't have the only 348 that matches the Owner's Manual...


Ahhh, looking at post #7 above, I don't appear to be the only 348 with direct shifting (into Reverse).

 

My 348's shift lever does not have to be pushed down to engage reverse. I've always assumed that something was wrong at the base of the lever, if everyone else's needs to be pushed down, and mine doesn't. But I never cared enough to investigate, since it shifts just fine.

 

That makes 3 of us so far on this thread that don't have to push down the gear shift to go into Reverse.

What year model is your 348/tranny?

 

As far as I know this has been a feature on all the cars at least since the 308's. Mine didn't need to be pushed down when I first drove my 308. Once I put a new gate on it did though. I couldn't figure it out. I sent a note to Paul Hill asking why my new gate wouldn't allow me to shift into reverse. He politely informed me that I was not really an idiot (although I did feel like one!) and I needed to push the lever down.

The detent is on the bottom of the shift gate itself. My old one was nearly completely worn off allowing me to shift directly into reverse. I suspect that if you don't have to push down, your gate is worn also.

It's kind of a nice safety feature to have, especially if you drive more than one type of manual transmission. I've tried to downshift to reverse in the 308 more than once. Now that would be really embarrasing!!!

 

Maybe there is a spring mechanism that can be broken also? or get stuck? For those that do not have to push down, maybe its in a permanent push down position? Can you pull it up? If you can pull it up, will it engage into reverse if you do pull it up....this thread has become very interesting!

 

OK, having never tried it before, I just went into my garage and pressed down on the gearshift lever. It went down 1/2 inch and then wanted to pop back up (strongly). It went into all gears with the stickshift either down and/or up. Made no difference.

So it sounds as though it is fairly common for the detent to be worn (or dremmeled) off of the underside of the shift gate. No detent apparently means that you don't have to push down to get the gearshift to go into Reverse.

Yet another day that I've learned something new on F-chat...


(but it still should have been mentioned in the Owner's Manual)

 

Don't you have a Hill shift gate lying around? If you look at the bottom, you will see a "nipple" sticking down off the gate. Maybe detent wasn't the best term though. This nipple should line up with the square block on the shift lever. If both are in good shape you can't shift into reverse without pushing the lever straight down to clear the nipple

The up and down movement of the shift lever doesn't affect shifting at all. The only reason it's there is so you can push the lever down to clear the "nipple" to get into reverse.