[DeTomaso] NPC: Fun day of fixing a Ferrari

[Mikael]

Yes, I admit it, I have a friend that owns no Panteras and one F-car (348). We go back together 30 years, so I've forgiven his mistake. Sometimes I pity him a bit, because when his car needs a repair, he has to drive it to the local dealer, and usually gets ripped off. I've never really helped him when he had engine trouble, because I have to give up when looking at Motronic boxes, multiple sensors etc. Then I look forward to getting home and tuning on my Holley...

Well 3 weeks ago he told me the F-car ran terribly, just moving it around the garage. And today he called, said it now didn't run at all, and that he needed my help pushing it out of the garage, turning it, and pushing it back in the garage (uphill) backwards. That would clear for him so he could get down in the pit below the car and look at some sensors on the flywheel. So we did, he climbed down, unscrewed a plate (nice flat bottom F-cars have), sprayed the sensors. Then he tried to start it, no improvement. $s leaving his wallet was in the future...

Being a simple guy, I asked if he'd looked at the plugs. Yes, but he couldn't conclude anything (he knows about www.tuningmadeeasy.com). Can I see them? He took one out, and I must admit, I couldn’t conclude either whether it was lack of fuel or spark. But it was easy to test with the plug held on the chassis and him trying to start. Plenty of spark. So it had to be lack of fuel. Faulty pumps? Clogged filters? Some sensor saying something strange, so no fuel? Then I popped the question of the day: "Is there fuel in the tank?" "Yes, the needle moves a bit when ignition is on." Hhhmmm... I convinced him that since we had no other ideas to try out, why not drive down to the 99 octane gasstation and get some fuel and put it in the tank? So we did. And it started after 2 seconds :-)

He was happy of course, but also a bit embarrassed. He said, that he was worried that keeping me quiet about this would cost him a lot. I said not to worry about the financial impact, because no amount of money could keep me from telling this story. :-) And he doesn't mind, really. He's not the first to do this, for sure.

Sometimes it's the simple things, try them first!

Mikael