A gearstick where once there was none... | Page 3 | FerrariChat

A gearstick where once there was none...

Discussion in '612/599' started by brogenville, Jan 16, 2020.

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  1. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    Part now trimmed.
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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  3. G. Pepper

    G. Pepper Three Time F1 World Champ
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    This is fantastic. Thanks!
     
  4. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    So we're back under the car again, this time to replace the rear main seal. I used a special tool to make sure the old ones comes out without scratching the crank. To install the new seal, I saw in the workshop manual that there is a specific Ferrari tool for pressing in the seal without snagging an edge. Naturally I wasn't for buying the special tool, not when I realised how simple it would be to design my own version and print out. Its basically just conical frustrum with a center hole matched to the outer diameter of the pilot bearing. I printed it out to size and it worked beautifully. Well... no leaks fro the seal so far!
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  5. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    This photo shows the paddles removed and the little bracket installed in their place. Now, I actually ended up putting the paddle frame back in and not using this bracket. With the actual paddles removed, you really cant see the rest of the paddle assembly. What I found though is that without the proper cowling intended for manual cars (which wasn't available any more from ferrari), the steering wheel would rub on the upper cowling. There may be a way to rectify this, but it seemed like the most sensible thing was just to leave the paddle frame in place.
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  6. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    Decided to replace the bearing on the small connecting shaft inside the bellhousing. SKF part number shown in the photo- as with the pilot bearing, you dont need to order these things from Ferrari, just by good quality bearings of the same spec from any bearing specialist. Note to anyone doing this... these little ring nuts are on 'effing tight!
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  7. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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  8. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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  9. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    This photo will need a bit of explaining...

    So remember I said that the 456 gear turret replacement part uses the current 612 part? Well, it turns out that the old 456 part isn't 100% compatible with 612, and the reason for that is the position of the mounting point for the reverse light switch. The photo below shows that the little try that sits in front of the turret is right where the reverse light wants to be. It seems like the replacement part uses a lower mounting point on the turret, which in the 456, it doesn't care either way. So, I had to remove the turret again and drill and tap a new hole for the reverse switch. Think it was an M12x1 "extra fine" thread- not one you'll find in many standard tap kits.

    Anyway, was a PITA to have to take the turret out again, but it was fixed fairly easily in the end.
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  10. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    Clutch back from CG Motorsports in England- looking very fine. Got stuck straight into getting it reinstalled. I had an alignment tool that I made up from when I changed the clutch on my old 360- happily it was the same fitment as on 612.

    Annoyingly Ferrari dont give you a dowel on the crank to set the position of the flywheel. Instead, they drill one of the bolt holes a tiny, tiny bit closer to the crank centre line. The upshot is that if you dont know this is the case, you'll spend ages wondering why you can get "almost" all of the crank bolts in! I eventually took the flywheel off after struggling for 15 minutes- it took a digital calliper to work out what was going on!
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  11. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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  12. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    Now getting into installing the clutch master cylinder. This was another knuckle shredding experience- especially trying to do the nuts up on the master cylinder. I recommend practicing your Jedi Force skills before attempting.

    Really wish I'd worked out what cars the master cylinder is shared with. This cost me £200 from Ferrari, but I'm sure it could be had for £20 if you knew which Fiat/Lancia/Alfa it comes from.

    Remember to order up all the spacers/gaskets/etc.
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  13. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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  14. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    For info, this is the pin out for a 430 ecu plug. Important thing is that power, ground and K-line are all in the same place on 612, as they are on 599 and 575 and even some Maserati's.
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  15. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    So initially the car didn't start after the ecu re-flashing. This was especially sad seeing as how Trev had stayed up till about 2am to see how I got on.

    Was a bit of a noodle scratching moment this, as everything seemed to be in place, but the starter just did not want to spin. I decided to go away and do some more homework, and found myself browsing through Alfa Romeo forums, as loads of guys with the Alfa Selespeed have converted to manual too. The Alfa's invariably use a more crude setup than in 612 (god forbid they would be the same!), but there was a consistent reference to removing the starter relay and bridging out with some wiring. This got me onto scrutinizing the pin-out for the gearbox ecu, whereupon I noticed there was a connection labeled "starter motor". Bingo! After a bit more pouring over of wiring diagrams, Trev and I worked out that whilst the ignition key switch sends the 12V signal to the starter relay, the starter circuit signal is completed via a grounding that goes through the gearbox ecu. All this means is that the starter wont spin unless the gearbox ecu allows it. The fix however is tremendously simple- just connect the gearbox connector to ground all the time.

    I did that, and the old girl fired up perfectly. :)
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  16. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    By the way- the jumper above was just a temporary measure! The finished wiring was soldered and sealed up with heat shrink.
     
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  17. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    So the engine runs now, and in fact the car drives fine, but the gauge cluster isn't looking too happy.

    The car is still looking for the gearbox ecu, and the gauge cluster is setup for F1 operation. Now, without doubt, this was the hardest part to overcome. Again, like all things, in hindsight the fix is easy, but it took a lot of effort to work all the details out.

    All of the other configuration was done using FiCom, which is a Fiat based diagnostic system. I basically went looking for a system that could do proxy alignment, and since I knew that many of the ecus were shared with Fiat group cars, then a Fiat tool might just work. I emailed various companies, and Ficom were the only ones that thought that "it should be possible". They couldn't promise anything, as they simply hadn't tried it out before on a Ferrari. They did list some extremely basic coverage for some Ferrari models, but essentially just the generic engine code reading. I decided to give them a go though, and the way it went is that after getting the tool, I connected to the various modules using loads of different modes from other Alfa's and Lancia's, and took these "ecu snapshot" files. The ecu snapshots give Ficom information on what data is found when they probe different parts of the ecu. Ficom is pretty small company based out of Prague, but they were super responsive, and pretty much uploaded new versions of their software daily whilst we worked out the functionality.

    The irony of all this is that even if I'd had access to a Leonardo or an SD3, I wouldn't have been able to get everything working. Its down to the way that Ficom does the proxy alignment process that is technically less clever than on those much, much more expensive tools. The fancy tools do the proxy alignment in one step, whereas Ficom required two programming steps. This minor inconvenience actually turned out to be critical in allowing all of the systems to work seamlessly.
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  18. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    So this is the last little electronic trick that was needed- this time to get the reverse lights working again. On F1 cars, because reverse is sensed via the gearbox actuator, the gearbox ecu itself is what sends the 12V signal to the reverse lights relay. The car is already wired for the reverse switch- the plug was already there, but due to the rear wiring harness on F1 and manual cars being slightly different, the plug does nothing when you try to hook it up. It does have the 12V supply going to it that you need, so all I did was wire up one side of the reverse switch to the reverse signal wire already there for the F1 control panel. I then installed a jumper from this wire where it comes out at the gearbox ecu plug, to the reverse light relay. So rather then putting in a big run of wiring in across the length of the car, the whole job is achieved in just two small jumpers.

    The best part, which I wasn't actually expecting, is that the rear parking sensors started working again after the reverse lights were reactivated!

    Please note again that these jumpers were just temporary- was all soldered in and tidied up with fabric Tesa tape so you'd never know it was there.
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  19. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Robin- Great stuff, thanks.
     
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  20. mark210

    mark210 Rookie

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    Please continue, great job!
     
  21. superdoug

    superdoug Rookie

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    Really enjoyed reading this. I am also in Scotland and hope to see you around. I would love a closer look.
     
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  22. arizonaitalian

    arizonaitalian F1 World Champ
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    Brilliant!

    What an undertaking. Color me beyond impressed.

    Congrats!

    (and another thank you to Trev from the members here!)
     
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  23. uhn2000

    uhn2000 Formula 3

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    Wow what a project! I really want to convert my 575 to 6spd..
     
  24. brogenville

    brogenville Formula 3
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    I'm looking into a 575 conversion now. Its quite a bit easier, both from the perspective of parts and electronic coding.

    For the parts, I've found that Ferrari are out of the following at present:
    - Brake pedal- simple mod to an F1 pedal gets round this
    - Steering column cowlings- guess you can live with this, or you could fill the holes left by the paddles
    - Gearbox control plates - you'll need to go salvage for this - 456/550 are the same part save for two internal pieces you can extract from your F1 assembly)
    - Gear-stick gates - I have taken a 3d scan of my gate and producing a replica
    - Gear-stick turrets- salvage required here again, though I believe Art at EAG has one and is looking to copy it.

    Possibly more tomorrow.... so get on it! ;)

    For the ECU coding, its a "simple" matter of getting a 360trev correction done to your Me7 engine ecu's, and getting a Leonardo to code the dash from F1 to manual (this is a confirmed solution- not my "estimation of what might work").

    Installation is a bolt in diy job if you have a moderate level of skill and sufficient time.
     
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  25. 360trev

    360trev F1 Rookie
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    You guys are most welcome!

    I've now done ecu gated conversions for :

    430 Scuderia, For EAG without any credit ever mentioned :(
    F430 Coupe & Spider
    430 Challenge
    360 Modena & Spider
    360 Challenge
    Challenge Stradale
    575M
    612
    Other models by request

    All tested and working. Pm me for more information if you need my help. I actually wrote custom software tools specifically for the job and use your original firmware and modify it exactly like Bosch did for Ferrari. So you can guarantee it will work as it did in the factory without any side effects.
     

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