Hello all,
New to the forum as I have recently become a Pantera owner through family. In my possession is a mostly stock '72 Pantera 351C 4V. The car has run reasonably well for the 20 years it has been in the family, however it sat in a hangar for several years while my father was ill.
I was driving it the other day and it just quit! After coasting into the CVS parking lot I figured I'd get a couple gallons of gas, figuring the gauge might be shot. no help, wouldn't even kick even with starting fluid.
At some point in this process I noticed a little smoke from the dash. Pulled the gauges and noticed that with ignition on, the two big power wires to the ammeter were hot and the protective boots were smoking. troubleshooting ended, towed on a flatbed...
In garage decided to trouble shoot the ammeter for a short and disconnected the power wires and attach together. When I turned the ignition on more smoke, and noticed that it was mainly coming from engine compartment...
puled battery cable off and upon inspection noticed the 4-cable spur off the wiring harness to the ballast resistor was what was smoking, with one of the wires burned to bare...
any ideas? looks like it's going to be a big job..
thanks, Jason
Original Post