July 2003 Archives

I moved my pantera log to new software. This is one of my excuses for not creating a new entry in awhile. So much to talk about ...

I signed up for the Concorso Italiano. As you all know this event is on August 15th. I hope to have the car in somewhat presentable form but that is looking unlinkely. However, I have gotten to the state where THE CAR MOVED UNDER IT'S OWN POWER! Yes thats right, it moved without anybody pushing it. Matter of fact two weeks ago I drove the car about 10 miles from where I was working on it to my house. The car now sits in my garage.

I installed the driveshafts w/o incident however one of them will rub on the exhaust if the car is on the lift. I'm not very happy about this but the only fix is to heat up the exhaust and bend the pipes to fit correctly. I managed to get the clutch slave installed and adjusted and the brake pedal adjusted properly. I also had to hook up the new brake switch to the brake pedal because the new brake kit doesn't use a pressure sensor.

At this point I should mention that Ken Green from Monterey helped me out for a couple of weekends. He was able to help me diagnose some hazard switch issues and some brake light issues. We found out that the bulbs where not making good contact because of wearing on the solder tips of the bulb. Also the ground at the rear of the car was not that good until we hooked up the ground wire there. We were able to get the automatic cooling fan working but not the manual fan. I have since got the manual fan working as well.

We had to use zip ties to get the throttle cable hooked to the carb because I do not have one of the clips necessary to fit it properly. However I do have a new throttle cable coming from JB. I managed to bolt in the seat belts and the drivers seat. I still had quite abit of wiring hanging about when I took it for the first test drive around the block. The car handled fine. It didn't pull or jump or any wierd stuff, and as far as I know nothing fell off of it. The carb still needs some tuning and probably need to fiddle with the ignition system a bit. But overall we were shocked that everything went so well.

Since then ( two weeks ago ) I have driven maybe 40 miles or so. I have both fans working, and the brake lights, but there is a short in the blinker system that I am having trouble finding. When I put power to the blinker harness the fuse blows. I am also having a body shop look at the scratch in the door to fix that so it is presentable for concorso. At this rate I don't think I will make it. Ther is no trim on the car and I don't have the headlights up yet. Also there are no side windows or door panels, or even carpet. I will just keep working on it and see how far we get for Concorso.

In any case it's been more then three years since I have driven this car. I am still in shock that it is drivable ( I can't believe it ). I am just going to have to keep driving it to get it to sink in!

I just finished installing an Honda S2000 start button in my Pantera. The
car has a carbon fiber dash so the modern start button looks appropriate. I
think they are tasteful if given the circumstances.

As it turns out the Honda S2000 start button is the same size as our
existing hazard button! This makes installation easy. To install one you
will also need an automotive relay ( 40 amp ). Here is the basic steps;

1) Either lower or remove steering column so you can get to the wiring
2) There will be a black 4 into 4 connector which holds the wires from the
ignition switch
3) Run the red wire on the end of that connector to the output side of the
relay
4) Run the input side of the relay to the connector where the pink and red
wire are ( I think 2nd position )
5) Run the ground of the relay to ground
6) Run the switch to the switch side of the relay
7) Remove hazard switch and install start button there
8) relocate hazard switch

Of course this won't remove the start switch entirely because you still need
to turn the switch to the "run" position to turn on the ignition before you
can hit the start button. I also added a rocker switch ( you can see in the
picture ) just to the left of the start button. This is my run switch. The
same process applies to the run switch, you will need a relay for the run
switch as well. The heavy pink wire is your 12 volts in for both the "run"
mode and the "start" mode of your ignition switch.

These modifications will remove the ignition switch entirely and remove all
heavy current loads from the new switches.