August 2003 Archives

Not a good pantera day. It looks like my Electromotve ignition failed. I
have power to the unit and even tried installing a new trigger sensor. I
guess I'm gonna have to send it back for repair. Thats gonna cause seom
serious down time! However I did install the front grill and the side
scoops to replace the gills.

With the help of Kurt Byrnes I was able to adjust my carb properly. I was
running way to high of a power valve which was causing the car to run rich
at all times. This in turn was preventing me from running the right jets.
After a re-jet and power valve change I took the car out for a spin. The
difference is like night and day. I can really tell now that the car has
some serious power. I also gathered the parts for the powder coaters and
did some more wiring in the car. However after a weekend of fun with the
car last night I went to move it into the garage and it failed to start.
The ignition was not working. I will have to check the Electromotive sensor
to see if there are any issues.

 

Concorso Italiano! We had a great time at this years concorso. The
pantera made it to the event and back. We got a little hot waiting to get
into the event but made it home with out any problems. We parked right next
to Purple Passion from Gary Hall. I was honored to talk Gary and get some
tips from him on the Pantera. He loved the color that was on my car. We
spent a good 20 minutes discussing the different things I done to the car.

I took thursday off to prepare car for the event. There was still quite a
bit of stuff missing. I enlisted my wife to help out. We installed the
carpet and center console as well as the headlight buckets, passenger seat,
and seat belts. I modified the carb settings and put the rear emblems on
the car as well. The car had just come back from the paint shop the day
before, where the scratch on the drivers side was fixed.

The car still had no door trim, no grill, or no windows. We saw lots of
great cars and had a great time.

Work continues. John Bentley came over to help with the blinker system
shorting out. It turned out to be the screw which holds the cover on to the
steering column was hitting the connection on the blinker switch,
causing an instant short. Many thanks to John Bentley and his family for
taking time out of their weekend.

I installed the new throttle cable assembly that JB made for me. This is a
great system. It took me awhile to get it adjusted properly. After hooking
up the new cable the motor wouldn't turn over anymore. I first thought it
was a bad connection so I used jumper cables to directly connect the
battery to the starter. I had to pull the start out to do that and even
though some pantera folks have to remove the headers to get the start out,
I am lucky. It comes out nicely after rotating it in various ways. Anyway
it turned out that the positive battery lead had a bad connector on it.
When I soldered it the first time I didn't do a good job.

I also hooked up the headlight bar motor and the switches that stop it from
moving too far. So the headlights and headlight buckets are next. I
installed the rear view mirror and the rear upper body brace as well.

I ordered a new tie rod end for one side of my car. It turns out one side
has about a good 3/4 to an inch of movement. I want the new tie rod end
before I have the car aligned. I think next weekend we will be ready for
carpet, passenger seat, roll bar padding, and headlights. I finished off
the day by going for an extended run around town and out in the suburbs a
bit. Everything ran well, nothing fell off, and everything still worked
when I got back. I'm gaining more confidence in the car.