Ghibli suspension overhaul

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
It turned out that the factory finish was powder coat, but in the end went with a industrial wet paint, Jotun Jotamastic 87 Alu primer and Hardtop Flexi topcoat. The finish is of course not like automotive chassis panels paint, but for suspension parts the properties sounded perfect. Will see how it turns out in the long run. Also the painter told me that today's powders are far from the toughness of the '90s because of all the EU regulations.

Some parts:

P1060544.jpg

P1060548.jpg

Also blasted the diff housing, the steel part was painted too, the alu parts got a clear coat for protection:

P1060530.jpg

P1060531.jpg
 

chad5k1

New Member
Messages
167
Right, I've read about those earlier. Are you satisfied with the setup?

Very. The car performs very well indeed. We were doing high speed passenger rides last week for charity (Forever Friends Bath hospital cancer care unit) at Castle Combe. I don't think we had to move over once, yet had Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Ford GT40 and even Caterhams having to moving aside for us.
The underlying character of the car remains essentially the same :)
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
Very. The car performs very well indeed. We were doing high speed passenger rides last week for charity (Forever Friends Bath hospital cancer care unit) at Castle Combe. I don't think we had to move over once, yet had Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Ford GT40 and even Caterhams having to moving aside for us.
The underlying character of the car remains essentially the same :)

Nice to hear!
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
look at the nick of THAT stuff!

concours time, soon...

I hope so, the weather finally is so nice, really want to bring her out for a drive finally. But it's also time to replace the timing belt after 3 years... I won't be doing that though, to have that done as quickly as possible, my tempo is awful.

I'm still waiting for the following:
- rear wheel hubs are at the aqua blaster; a gentle method for those
- rear brake calipers were blasted waiting to be replated; realized that end result would look bad with all that corrosion on them, so disassembled while waiting for the diff
- anodize parking brake holder discs to the original finish
- waiting for new brake lines from Goodridge; sent the original ones, so I guess they will be able to provide these from now on
- waiting for the CV boots; I've received wrong ones (there was an error in the GKN catalogue) so had to send them back to the UK

Today I've got the shims, still have 1-2 sets to give away, PM me about it

IMG_2478.jpg

And just received this picture from the diff builder :D

IMG_2476.jpg
 

Wally

Member
Messages
244
Pretty! Hope they put loctite at the right spot before fastening the extension. Necessary to prve t from the clunck-clunck sound. Nevertheless: very neat!!
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
Pretty! Hope they put loctite at the right spot before fastening the extension. Necessary to prve t from the clunck-clunck sound. Nevertheless: very neat!!

Hmm, I don't know anything about this, and I guess they neither. Could you please elaborate? Is it related to the metal cling I do hear when changing gears? I couldn't yet find out where that comes from.
 

Wally

Member
Messages
244
The Ghibli ABS features the "old" ranger-diff. It is coupled to the (aluminium) extension to which the driveshaft is attached. Before fastening the bolts of the extension, the 2 parts called "coupling" and "union" 316220347 in the ES partslist have to be "glued" together. Then leave it untouched for 24hrs. To "bond". The clunck-clunck sound I am referring to can be heard when you accellerate or decellerate abruptly. It means that coupling and union are no longer glued together. These parts have been unavailable for Some time, so if worn: you had a problem. 2-3 years ago Maserati re-produced a quantity of these parts and updated them.(!) they altered the design to reduce wear. (Greater dimensions) so: old and new parts ca NOT be combined. I do not knew if the 2 parts are still available.
 

chad5k1

New Member
Messages
167
Ha, Maserati always told us the clunk was a "they all do that sir" feature.
Also, isn't the diff in the pictures of this thread they pre - Ranger with rad diff and so does this info still apply?
 

Wally

Member
Messages
244
No, and it has the same problem. The instruction for joining diff. And extension can be found in the workshop manual.
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
Got it, and found mentioning this in the Biturbo workshop manual. Although on the parts diagrams it looks like this area was constantly redesigned. 2.24v has the separate coupling and union, on Ghibli II the coupling is attached to the input shaft, and on Ghibli II ABS there is a threaded ring on the union, I guess to press the two parts together? I have to find out which configuration I have, bought it second hand after mine was giving a droning sound.

I was only hearing the metal sound when changing gears and not during acceleration / deceleration. Could it be the prop shaft then?

2.24v

099_031.jpg

Ghibli II

072_011.jpg

Ghibli II ABS

037_030_1.jpg
 

del mar

Junior Member
Messages
257
Very impressive work !

I learnt the hard way that you need to cover up all internal parts as the powder coating reduced everything down by 1 - 2mm and the bolts no longer fitted !!
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
Thanks. Yeah, that's tedious to clean up afterwards. This was the first time I've sent parts to be blasted, painted, without any experience with them I masked everything myself to be sure.
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
CV boots finally arrived, originally I ordered GKN MS6N003 which has the correct dimensions, but they sent the ordinary convoluted version and said that's the correct version for the part number. Suggested to use MS6N001 which a smaller inner diameter, which could be still stretched to the bigger shaft.

GKN.jpg

Despite cleaning and plating the old boots one was ripped so I had to use these new ones.

01.jpg

The new ones are pretty much identical to the factory version, no surprise since the whole rear driveline is from GKN (they also manufactured the diff based on Quaife design), the same as used in some BMW M5 from that time.

02.jpg
 

spacecadet

Member
Messages
378
To assemble the drive shafts I've used
- new circlips (size A28)
- Tutela MRM2 grease (factory recommendation)
- anti-seize paste on the splines
- Hylomar for sealing the caps, boots

01.jpg

First come the boots, they needed some persuasion because of the smaller inside diameter, but they do fit.

08.jpg

Cleaned the joint as much as I could, the outer surfaces were wire wheeled
When assembling the joint the orientation of the parts are not symmetrical

Inner race, flat side goes to the outside

02.jpg

03.jpg

Cage, less detailed side goes to the outside

04.jpg

Outer race

05.jpg

Alignment of the inner and outer races, line up the wide and thin parts. If they are aligned the other way, the joint binds.

07.jpg

Pushing on the joints, they didn't needed to much force, but couldn't fit them by hand. To be sure also lightly coated the splines with anti-seize

10.jpg

Lined up the boots, it becomes much harder later when everything is covered in grease

12.jpg

Installing circlip

11.jpg

Packed with grease, for the 4 joints I've used around the half of the jar, ~400g

13.jpg

Sealing with some Hylomar to keep the grease in for sure

15.jpg

Pushing together the sides

16.jpg

Finished product

18.jpg

Should have also taken the caps for replating but I was in a hurry back then and forgot to remove them from the joints.
 

ZAM400209

Member
Messages
585
Good Heaven's!

The quality of this documentation is exceptional!

good effort- thank you for taking the time to assemble this post.

Of benefit to us all for many years, I am sure...