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Maserati project started


lanciamatt

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Biturbo era cars get some bad press, yes they have issues, some parts prices can be high . But they are special, and alot of the issues are due to poor maintenance. When I drive mine it does put a smile on my face, just raw power, no driver aids etc. Its got to be one of last performance cars with out ABS etc on a J plate 

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They made them better as time went on, the later ones, which are rarer come with bigger brakes and bigger wheels etc, all are quick cars, early ones are scary in anything other than dry weather. My old 420 could do a 180 very easily and did many times. I can remember some young lads at side of me at traffic lights in a old escort estate diesel. Lights changed and they pulled away but as soon as it stopped spinning and turbos kicked in I shot passed them, they loved it. Miss that old 420. This 4.24v feels more refined and power delivery is better. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Maser passed mot this morning, also I adjusted tracking as new track rod end fitted, air-conditioning hasn't worked since I've had it, so I thought I'd have a go and charging the system, no gas in system so I fitted modified ports to take newer gas. Vac system, it held a vacuum. Put new gas and oil in system. Pressed button nothing happened, after couple seconds click, compressor kicked in and cooling fans came on. Bonus I'll monitor it now. Also replaced oil and filter as well. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Last November I decided because Maserati's are such a pain I would MOT and prepare ours ready for the spring! MOT done, the drivers electric window cog started riding over the window rack so we had to send to Italy for a replacement and finally every thing fixed 5th March ready for the first bit of good weather! It is now locked in a shed 6 miles from home in fully working order.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been off work on furlough I'm same as everyone else and got alot more time on my hands. When I did Cambelt on biturbo the air-conditioning belt was a twat to get on, even when adjusted it still squeeked when turning wheel as power steering belt runs off air con pump. I got the correct belt and fitted that today, only ball ache is having to remove PAS pump to get to second adjuster bolt on air con pump. Only took 1hr and half. Now it dosnt squeek and A/c is ice cold, not bad as old Italian cars, air-conditioning is usually crap. 

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Todays task was to look into the electronic adjustable suspension. The fronts were fine but one rear was leaking when I got the car so I sent them away to be refurbished. Inside the car there is a switch with 4 settings which firms up the shockers. Well it didn't seem to make any difference when the button was pressed. There is a simple test you can do to see if there working. Hold you hand on shocker and get someone to press the button. 3 were working but nsr wasn't doing anything. I removed rear seats to gain access to the wiring plug. All powers and earth's were fine, so I cut protective cover off wiring and eventually found all 3 wires broke. Managed to rejoin them, so auto suspension working again now. 

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On 2/9/2020 at 4:01 PM, Mrs6C said:

I have bought s/h parts from Emiliano DiGirolamo in Italy. His prices are reasonable and he can ship things over quickly.  His website is: www.biturboparts.com and his email address is:  ricambibiturbo@gmail.com

I have just had an electric window mechanism sent over from him, as the plastic cogwheel on the motor of one of mine has disintegrated. The motor works fine and the flexible screw thread is OK, so when the old one gets swapped out, l will have a look at the disintegrated cogwheel and see if it's possible to replace it with something more durable.

Masermoneypits, glad I can't afford one, do I still want one, yup 

Could the cogs not be remanufactured on one of these new fangled plastic printer things ?

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1 hour ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Could the cogs not be remanufactured on one of these new fangled plastic printer things ?

I am rather hoping they can! When the old and replacement units are swapped, I will see if the cog can be removed and replaced.

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On ‎3‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 4:43 PM, Six-cylinder said:

Last November I decided because Maserati's are such a pain I would MOT and prepare ours ready for the spring! MOT done, the drivers electric window cog started riding over the window rack so we had to send to Italy for a replacement and finally every thing fixed 5th March ready for the first bit of good weather! It is now locked in a shed 6 miles from home in fully working order.

Depending on the age, I'm sure Lancia Beta ones are almost identical. Good luck with finding one of those either though.:roll:

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18 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

I'm reasonably sure in the lockup I have three Beta window motors and mechs

Well if they're not suitable, I may be after a couple to refurbish the slow ones on my VX.

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On 4/25/2020 at 3:52 PM, Wack said:

When I had my 4200 one of the door rubber seals was ripped so I thought I'll buy a new one

 

Maybe not then

Fluffing hell, and I thought some of the parts prices for the Jag were bad.  That's mental for a door seal... that's Ferrari or Roller territory!

They're bloody lovely cars though.  While there are many quantifiable ways in which they're really pretty awful, there is just something about them which is hugely alluring.  Similar in a lot of ways to be honest to the Jag... horrifically heavy on fuel, vastly overcomplicated, fiddly beyond all reason to work on massively prone to going wrong in very interesting and expensive ways with zero warning, yet do any of those things actually stop you loving the thing if you own one or stop you wanting one?  Not a chance.

I'd forgotten how much I wanted one until meeting Six-Cylinder's one...now I remember how glorious things they are again!

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You summed it up just right. There is something special about them, but they are let down in silly ways. Things like hand stitched leather dash boards, proper wood, then let down with using dated fuseboxes, brittle switches etc. Google helps finding second hand parts etc. The bi turbo range is basically same car, so alot of parts are inter changeable, some parts are model specific especially for later 24v engines like this one. 

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You're not wrong. I had a 430 4v for around 6 years, 12 years or so ago and ran it as a company car for 4 of them and 15000m. Whilst it never actually went wrong, it always felt like a £45000 car with £44500 mechanicals. The rest of it was a pile of shite! It had something like Sherpa column stalks FFS; real quality there. :roll: Long gone now.

IMG_0374.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well the maser is currently broken. Its got a conventional steering rack, then it changes to a sort of box steering system. So there is 3 track rod ends to each side. 2 are right hand thread and one left. The outer one on the steering link has a split boot so I checked parts catalogues and come to conclusion that one was the lh thread. So I ordered it, we'll it's the wrong one. Turns out that the inner one. Well I also saw the steering gator had a small split in it. I had one in my stock so attempted to remove the track rod end so I coukd remove the boot. Well I caught the thread whilst shock hitting the track rod surround. Fitted new boot, this is where it all went wrong, I saw the damage to the thread, I cleaned it up best I could but when tightening the nut it just stripped the thread, so it's now waiting for 3 new track rod ends to come. Might as well change them all. 

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