A Friend Indeed - And a GT3!!

Brad Boxberger, the fellow who offered to trade me the Kingdom of Scottsdale for my Ferrari, sent me a note about A Friend Indeed. Given our last names I would hazard to guess that Brad and I are related in some way. I have no stake in this offer other than to help a good cause and hopefully win a GT3.

Below is the note from Brad.

Cheers.

David

















My name is Brad Boxberger and I established A Friend Indeed in 2003. A Friend Indeed is a non profit organization which serves individuals, families, and entities in low to moderate economic communities through repair and construction assistance. As much as feasibly possible, A Friend Indeed utilizes volunteers and contractors who contribute their time, products, and services to those less fortunate. Many projects require funding beyond what is donated to the cause. Our organization helps secure the funding and work force to help complete these tasks. A Friend Indeed at times will partner with other relief organizations to accomplish these goals.

Roger Penske, CEO of Penske Automotive Group, has kindly helped secure a 2010 Porsche GT3 for raffle to aid in our organization’s funding. This car is being built in Germany especially for A Friend Indeed. Raffle tickets are being sold for $85 each. This is a great car for a great cause!

Please visit our web site at http://www.afriendindeed.cc/

Here you can see examples of our how our organization has lent a helping hand making lives more livable with home repair and construction services to many around the country. The current economy is a challenge for all of us, however, those in crisis are in dire need of our help. On our web site you can obtain the rules and regulations for the raffle as well as purchase your tickets through a secure site. You may also access our contact information with any questions or to donate your time, financial support, or services to aid in continuing this wonderful outreach to those in need of our help.

Please pass this information along to friends, family, and colleagues you feel would find our organization, as well as this raffle opportunity, of interest.

With great appreciation,

Brad BoxbergerPresident & CEO

Triple Seals Installed

Ok,

Received the parts from Ricambi on Wednesday. At first I thought the new pressure plate was damaged. The edges of the housing were beat up. I looked at the old pressure plate and saw exactly the same treatment. Maybe something during the balancing process roughs up the edges.

I pulled out the drive shaft and wrapped plastic wrap secured with rubber bands around the shaft where it enters the splined tube which will hold the clutch disk. Only one drop of oil escaped during this process.

An inspection of the triple seals revealed nothing. I am not sure what I would be looking for. They had obviously leaked, looked a bit loose but fine otherwise. I gently pried the up and used a razor knife to remove them.

I pushed one of the new seals on by hand. Not easy. The seal stretched a bit in the process. Next I tried wrapping the shaft in a flexible plastic sheet and using it as a sleeve to install the seal. This technique was recommended by a fellow on Ferrarichat. Much easier but the seal still stretched. The same fellow recommended using the plastic sleeve and some rubber bands to apply pressure to the seals and squash them back into shape. That’s the state the car is in now.

Total time to install the triple seals. About 15 minutes.

Still no word on the flywheel. Hopefully ATD will have it resurfaced and back to me early next week so I can get the car back on the road.

Clutch is out

Saturday morning at 5:00AM it was the perfect temperature for wrenching on a Ferrari. I avoided doing any serious effort during the week due to the 100+ degree temperatures but Saturday at five it was nice and cool.

I lifted the car to remove the rear bumper, took off the muffler and started on the pumpkin. The pumpkin is the housing which holds the flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate. The pumpkin is the thing in the lower left quarter of the picture below.

All in all it took me about 4 hours to get the whole thing taken apart.















The clutch disc was saturated with oil.

The triple seals had failed and allowed oil to leak into the clutch housing. Before opening up the car I was worried the throwout bearing had failed. Luckily that was not the case. The throwout bearing costs more than 10 times the amount of the triple seals.















I was not sure if I needed to replace the pressure plate and have the flywheel resurfaced. I decided to call ATD and see if they would give me an opinion on what to do and pull the flywheel from the housing if necessary. I dont have the tool needed to remove it.















The folks at ATD recommended buying a new pressure plate and replacing the flywheel. So today I put in an order with Ricambi for a new pressure plate, triple seals, clutch alignment tool, and the two bolts I broke when I took the muffler off.

Will let you know how it goes putting it back together.