Recently in Electrical Category

Electromotive Ignition System

Quite a bit of action since the car show. I took the car to autox the
weekend after. I did pretty well considering the car had not been aligned
and the steering rack was loose. Last weekend a friend of mine help me
build a new braket for my ignition system. It's overkill beefy but looks
great. This week I went to the Cruse In ( Dream Lot ) in our area with 3
other panteras, and the Pantera northern california club meeting. So the
car has seen quite a bit of action in the last two weeks. I was able to get
the steering rack fixed, I had just forgot to tighten the connecting rod
ends properly. I also had the car aligned and it drives very well now. This
weekend there is a Ford car show in half moon bay I plan on attending.

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.

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.

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.

 

I have done more wiring and installed the shifter and linkage. I still have the emergency brake and foot pedals to install. Also we have to install the drive shafts. It seems and endless amount of wiring. I found out that a new blinker control mechanism that goes on the steering column will set you back about $525! So turn on your blinkers carefully.

I did some more wiring today. I wired the fans, the oil sender, and the alternator. We ran the motor for about 15 minutes before it overheated. It turned out no coolant was making it's way up to the radiator. We believe it was "air-locked", once we bled it some more things seemed to work ok. Also we couldn't get the fans to work properly with the Mosely relay kit. I'm pretty sure we installed it incorrectly. And the guages stopped working all of a sudden, so I have to look into that. Looks like tomorrow is a big wiring day.

Post weekend update. My father came out from Sacramento to help with my wiring harness project. We started by using 409 and a stiff brush all the complete harness. Then rinsing in a warm bucket of water. Then towel drying followed by blow dry with the air hose. Then we let the harness bake out in the sun for a good 2 hours. Then we installed the individual pieces of the harness and finished with the main trunk under the dash and through the fender area, into the front grill section. This amount of work took us all day. I also installed my rear wheels with 335x35x17 Pilot Sport tires.

The second day we worked on the guage panel. It took us quite awhile to sand and grind the carbon fiber guage panel to accept my stock guages and new switches. Wilkinson must make the panel holes purposfully small to accept newer style guages and switches. We also had to narrow the guage panel so it fit properly into the carbon fiber center console piece. We had to drill holes in the dash to bolt on the center console, and drill holes in the guage panel to screw onto the center console. We also installed the steering wheel, and I installed the new fuel inlet into the gas tank.

We also installed one of Rick Mosely's relay kits. Rick does great work and we were impressed with the easy of installation. I would of rather have installed the relay kit under the dash but couldn't find enough space for it. Also my particular car seems to have a different fuse layout then his instructions indicated. The cooling fan wires were installed at fuse number 7, not fuse number 11. We had two large pink wires at number 7. I am also pretty sure somebody changed out my turn signal switch on the steering column. The wires do not color match the wires at the plug under the dash.

I hope to eliminate most of the engine compartment wiring. I will use the Electromotive direct ignition system, which will remove the coil and distributor and the ignition resistor. I will use a single wire, self regulated alternator, and a silenoid starter. This should remove most of the wiring in the engine compartment.

I took out the wiring today with and the last of the break lines. I was able to remove the entire harness from the car. I dont know if I will remember where everything went when I put it back in. I also removed the  last of the door mechanism and window mechanism.

I started on the door trim around the frame of the door. This trim is really hard to remove. I know that I have mangled some pieces getting it off. And if it goes back on I may have trouble keeping it on. I hope you can purchase the trim.

I have found a media blasting place with the help of some members. The will chemically strip the car of paint then lightly media blast the car with plastic media. Afterwards the will paint the car with primer, all for around $1000. Not a bad deal.

I also sent my new A3 heads out to have them ported and plolished by a friend. I still need to find valves and a manifold for the motor. I have a guy who wants to sell me an SVO manifold that fits the heads with the block but I don't know which manifold it is yet. I have a machine shop setup that will sonic test my block for $55 and also flow test the heads for me for $50. I will be able to get a good idea of how much horsepower and torque the motor will put out when I know the head flow numbers.

Hopefully I can finish the trim work tomorrow and deliver the car to the media blaster this week.