I have a problem I dont know how to resolve. Car cranks but no spark at the coil AND the ammeter pegs full negative and crakle and melting wire ensues. Pink wire from the ignition switch is melting, may have melted other wires too. This happened all of the sudden after a 40 minute street drive with no other hint of problems. Thanks for your reply.

Charlie,

Welcome to the forum! Sorry this problem has to be the motivation for your first posting.

First off.... DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY!!!!!!

NOW!

Done? Okay, lets talk about what is going on.

You have a Pantera. They do have common electrical issues.

At this point, you may have already fried the ignition electrical portion of the ignition switch or one of your dash switches - lights most likely. Switch is easily replaced for reasonable $$, ignition switch (not as likely, though) is not so reasonable. You should probably check these areas first.

As factory wired, De Tomaso put the full amperage load through the console switches and the ignition switch, none of which were designed for such loads.

If you have not done any of the common, well-known wiring upgrades, you should be planning to do them now. Just finding the one little problem area that is giving you today's problems is not enough.

For starters, visit www.panteraplace.

Under 'technical information' there is the electrical section. You'll see it is rather large.

Look for the Mike Drew headlight relay modification. I know of two Pantera owners who sell a ready-made kit with the relay solution: Rick Moseley and Rich Boschert and they are both in the POCA membership roster. Or you can easily source the parts on your own.

For more elegant solutions that solve this issue and add some nice upgrade features, see what fellow Pantera owner Jon Haas has come up with
at: www.pantera-electronics.com

Next you need to address the often loose connections on the back of the ammeter. See the article titled.....Pantera ammeter.

Panteraplace also has full, localized electrical diagrams under....Electrical Diagrams... that will assist in troubleshooting your wiring.

As an early? car, you may have a ballast resistor. Read up on THAT issue under the section...Pantera Starting Problems.

Check these areas, do some reading, and get back to us. I'm just one guy here, and my wisdom is mostly time-learned book knowledge. Others on the forum will be able to more accurately troubleshoot things once you discover more symptoms.

Larry

You did disconnect the battery, right?

Thanks Larry, yes the battery is disconnected (right after the cabin filled with smoke of burned insulation!). This happened as I used a remote starter to crank the engine to see there was no spark. The car appears to be mostly stock, although I can see a Pantera Performance headlight motor and brass widow motor gears have been installed (I acquired the car early 2008). No other electrical mods are evident, the stock fuse block is in place for example. I will check the electrical tech section now...

Follow the burned/melted wire downstream. Where the burning/melting stops is the source of your initial problem.

Your problem may have also damaged the ammeter. This would be a good time to check the ammeter terminals per the tech article that Larry referenced.

John

Hello Larry, John. Just to follow up, found that I got the hot lead to the electric choke caught under the valve cover after setting valve adjustment. Repairs to the melted wires made. Also added multi relay unit to handle load of the lights and fans after reading the tech articles you directed me to.

Thanks!

quote:

I got the hot lead to the electric choke caught under the valve cover

Well, that sure was a easy and cheap problem to solve.

quote:

added multi relay unit to handle load of the lights and fans

Excellent. Now you should be able to save the ignition switch and console switches.

Have you checked the connections on the back of the ammeter? Another spot that often demands attention.

Larry