The emergency front hood cable TSB (Nov 1973) is one of two mods EVERY Pantera ever build should have. The washer on the free end is necessary because as one poster noted, it takes a stout pull to activate the hood latch without the leverage of the normal hood release lever.
Mod #2 should be to SAFETY-WIRE THE RING GEAR BOLTS IN YOUR ZF! The hardened OEM bolts loosen regardless of the patented teeth under the bolt head, since the ring gear, against which the bolt head presses, is too hard to be indented by the teeth. Then after the bolt backs off a turn or two, it starts to rub the inside of the ZF case and being brittle, snaps off. This of course forces the remaining bolts to pick up the full load, overworking them and leading to more bolts loosening & breaking.
I've heard of NINE of the ten ring gear bolts being broken and collected at the bottom of the ZF case around the magnetic drain plug, The car was still being driven. This was first found back in the early '70s when the Pantera was still being built & sold, and has destroyed many transaxle covers. Broken bolts are sometimes accidentally found during ZF lube changes (Note service interval: change ZF lube every 8000 miles per your Owners Manual, pg 35).
A loose bolt-part is eventually picked up by the spinning ring gear teeth, gets caught in the ring & pinion gear-mesh and for reasons I do not know, are almost always spit out towards the bottom. Propelled by 300+ bhp, the bolt-projectile cracks the ZF's cast aluminum bottom cover and you lose all the gear lube within a minute. The car is completely undriveable.
Today, FIFTY-SOME YEARS LATER, I heard of this happening. And while this problem has been well known for over 4 decades, it somehow never attained TSB status with Ford and new owners are often unaware. Low mileage 'survivor' cars may be especially vulnerable. OEM bolts are too hard for the average owner to drill at home for the required holes. The fix is to replace the OEM bolts with U.S-made bolts whose heads are pre-drilled for 0.032" stainless steel aircraft safety wire, then wired in pairs. All the vendors are well aware of this problem and kits are available. Cracked covers may be TIG-weld-repaired after thorough cleaning.
Sadly, verifying safety wire is present requires the ZF to be drained, removed from the Pantera and the cover pulled for a visual inspection. With great difficulty, a few brands of illuminated remote inspection tools may be inserted in the ZF while its still in the car. Trying to do this thru the drain plug is usually unsuccessful due to clearance issues. And if you DO somehow manage to see the bolt heads and they do NOT have wire, you still need to pull the ZF to fix it.