#06927 Downunder

Another:

One more:

The rebuilt ANSA's:

And with her younger, distant cousin:

Hard to say which one has the best ass?

quote:

Originally posted by OzGT5:
Hard to say which one has the best ass?

Not hard for me!

Ron

Small issue!!

Somebody in the past had painted my tranny black, and twice now I've used paint stripped to remove it. It's coming up prety good with about 95% of the black enamel now gone.

I've been brushing it down, then pressure washing it off, then hitting it with all sorts of aluminium cleaners.

Today I noticed a hole in the top of the trans that I've never seen before. About 5/16" hole with a mild oil residue around it.

Searching through my Pantera engine bay pictures I see a lot of breather tubes off this hole.

Seems like I've had a bung or something that I missed and now maybe it's popped out.

Anyway, these pictures tend to show numerous ways of dealing with this breather. Is there something specific?

Should the tube go higher, lower, which way should it route etc?

Also, given that I may have gotten some moisture in the trans, it's not a bad idea to flush and fill it anyway as I don't know when this was last done.

What type of oil for the transmission, and is there a procedure to drain and fill it?

Here is a page that will take you through the gear lube change http://www.panteraplace.com/page10.htm (scroll to the bottom of the page). The ZF should have a small metal tube in the top vent hole. You can just put a rubber hose on it and stuff it in one of the holes in the wheel house or they make a shinny bling thingy that vents it to the back of the ZF.

Can you tell me how much ground clearance you have from the bottom edge of the rocker pinch weld edge on the front and back?

Mike

Testa is on the hoist today Mike. I'll do it tomorrow once I understand exactly where you would like me to measure.

Rob.

Robert,

The car looks great. Good to hear your Pantera is back on the road again. Congrats!

BTW - Do you have any interior photos you could post? Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by OzGT5:
Testa is on the hoist today Mike. I'll do it tomorrow once I understand exactly where you would like me to measure.

Rob.

From the two points shown in the pic. From the bottom edge of the rocker pinch weld. The pinch weld is the area where the outer, middle and inner rocker panels are joined along the lower edge of the rockers. You measure from the bottom edge of the pinched part to the ground.

Mike

Mike,

At the rear most point of the pinchweld forward of the rear wheel: 7 1/8 inches

At the very front edge of the same line.: 6 3/4"

Looks like I attained that 10mm down angle that you spoke of by fluke!

Thanks very much for taking time to measure those points for me. I’ve often wondered why many GT clones seem to sit a little higher than factory cars but I’ve never measured one to know the exact measurements. In the case of your car, the owner that had the GT conversion done spent a lot of extra time to get it as perfect as possible including cutting the back flares off and re-welding them because they were too low on the body. A GT conversion is harder than many think. My car is a good inch lower than your car but it is also about an inch plus lower than the euro height.

Mike

You can tell all of that from the measured height?

IMO GT5 cars generally appear higher due to the running board which hides the lowest part of the rocker. That combined with larger aftermarket wheels raising the car slightly.

Wilkinson's GT5 clone was at the 2010 Fun Rally and many commented it looked like a 4x4 with the 19" wheels it was wearing.

Factory GT5 cars are all fiberglass flares and I keep my ride height as low as possible, so low my front flares are constantly cracked from tire rub.

Julian

Mike, I went out on the weekend to get the right fluid for the tranny after reading the link you posted.

SAE 80w-90 that is suitable for a hypoid setup is easy to get, but do our cars have an inbuild LSD as this compounds the issue a bit. Apparently the fluid that suits an LSD isn't too good for a hypoid gearset.

I always thought that the transaxle had an inbuild LSD?

quote:

Originally posted by OzGT5:
Mike, I went out on the weekend to get the right fluid for the tranny after reading the link you posted.

SAE 80w-90 that is suitable for a hypoid setup is easy to get, but do our cars have an inbuild LSD as this compounds the issue a bit. Apparently the fluid that suits an LSD isn't too good for a hypoid gearset.

I always thought that the transaxle had an inbuild LSD?

You’ll want to find Castrol Hypoy C SAE 80W-90 limited slip gear oil http://www.panteraplace.com/Te.../ZF%20102902%201.JPG Note that the container has “limited slip” printed on the top left corner for use in our ZFs that are limited slip. It is a bit complicated that the limited slip differential is in the same case with the gear train. Some owner use synthetic but there can be weeping problems. There are a lot of different opinions on the best lube to use, but Castrol Hypoy C SAE 80W-90 limited slip gear oil has been used many owners with good results.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Joules5:
You can tell all of that from the measured height?

IMO GT5 cars generally appear higher due to the running board which hides the lowest part of the rocker. That combined with larger aftermarket wheels raising the car slightly.

Wilkinson's GT5 clone was at the 2010 Fun Rally and many commented it looked like a 4x4 with the 19" wheels it was wearing.

Factory GT5 cars are all fiberglass flares and I keep my ride height as low as possible, so low my front flares are constantly cracked from tire rub.

Julian

I knew the owner that had the GT conversion done to Robert’s car and the owner after him. Then I lost track of it for awhile after that. The conversion was quite a process.

When you look at some GT conversions you will notice that the lower back A arms are at a pretty extreme angle compared to my car. The angle gives you an idea of the height independent of ruining boards, etc. So looking at the angle of Robert’s A arms and knowing his measured height is interesting to me.

Mike

Mike, I called Castrol but Hypoy isn't sold here.

I located a local product produced by Penrite which is an 80 - 90w oil for hypoid transmissions with LSD.

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/p...gear-oils/limslip_90

And here's the product data sheet.

Reckon it will do?

OZ, what does the front underside of the nose section look like on your car? Reason I'm curious is, I recently worked on a GT-5 clone that had a low speed overheating problem even with three fans mounted. Turns out that whoever added the GT-5 air dam & fender parts, had not added a lower section to the new body panels. So there was a 2 ft open area between the GT-5 air dam/grille and the radiator. Air could choose to go either under the car or through the radiator- hence overheating. I added a sealed sheet metal undertray between the air dam bottom and the original body to force all the air from the grille to the radiator and now, no overheating.

Next time it's on the hoist I'll take a picture of the front area and see what you think. Given the temps we get down here and that we are heading into a long hot summer, any help I can give this old girl will be great.

Here you go Jack.

The fibreglass front spoiler pretty much extends right in to the radiator. Here's some pictures.

And another:

Strange, my pictures won't post anymore? Any ideas guys?

I have no problems uploading pictures

Kristian

Robert, until PI's provider gets their act together, just post the photos on your website and I/we can access them there. No troubles, mate!

Jack, you should join my forum just for the hell of it. Easy for me to post pictures there as large as you like.

http://panteraaustralia.com/forum

User self registration is enabled, but check your junk mail for the login details as on some servers it goes there due to the login hyperlink.

This goes for any of the Pantera USA guys. If you need to share info / large files / large pictures, feel free to use my forum. It's on my server and I pay for it, so you guys are welcome.

I'll start a couple of new threads regarding rebuilding your carby's and also the pics for Jack of the front spoiler to radiator area.

Jack, go here after you register:

http://panteraaustralia.com/fo.../921.html?1287309452

Decided to take the good lady wife out for a drive this afternoon. Still getting used to the car, and hating the suspension, but all in all it's a barrel of fun.

But........we were driving along late in the evening on a quiet mountain road and heard a metalic clicking and then nothing. Stopped at the nearest layby and the wheel centre (sob!!) from my nice wheels was gone, and also the dustcap from the front wheel bearings.

We walked a mile back down the road on each side, hunting in the grass and found nothing. Bugger!!

So now I have to hunt down three things.

1. A new blue / white centre cap
2. The stainless clip that holds it in
3. A bearing cap.

With the bearing cap, does anybody know what size that is. There are a million of these at every trailer store in the country, but obviously the hub diameter has to be specific.

When I got home and took a good look, there was a 12" length of some type of 1/4" tape al greaasy and inside the wheel, caught around the hub nut and split pin. Seems like some bright spark has had a loose bearing cap, taped it up and hammered it home. As I haven't had the front hubs apart yet, I obviously haven't noticed this little bit of craftsmanship!

Anybody know what diameter bearing / hub cap I need?

Expect it was the wrong bearing cap because the stock ones fit very tightly. Can’t help you on the cap size but the de Tomaso logo disk came with the wheels from Pantera East. The disk is held in place with a spring wire that fits in a groove in the wheel hub. You will most likely want to order a disk for all four wheels because the production runs are not all the same color blue. I know that because I had the early Pantera East Campy wheels and then upgraded to the newer Campy wheels. Pantera East (MAP Enterprises) can be contacted at 727-381-1151 As I recall the logos are not very expensive.

Dang, hope Bob doesn’t visit this forum anymore! But on the other hand the car went through some other owners after Bob. I guess one of the problems with Panteras is they sell too cheaply and because of that some owners don’t give them the respect and quality maintenance they deserve.

When I reflect back on the twelve years plus of wrenching on my car and how it was when I bought it and how it is now, it is in completely different league now. But it is a labor of love and a healthy respect for my own safety. You would think that most people driving around in a 39 year old super performance car would be intensely interested in their own safety!

Mike

Thanks Mike.

I have to get a few bits from Bob at Precision Profomance this week, and I wonder if his logos are the same?

WT 2000 and WT2010 on this page:

http://precisionproformance.com/wheelsaccess.php

What's your thoughts?

quote:

Dang, hope Bob doesn’t visit this forum anymore! But on the other hand the car went through some other owners after Bob. I guess one of the problems with Panteras is they sell too cheaply and because of that some owners don’t give them the respect and quality maintenance they deserve.

Mike

I reckon Bob would be pretty pleased to see his old car now Mike. She's in pretty good shape.

When I first climbed under the car I was really impressed with the underbody condition. Someone had been from one end of the car to the other and refinished it with a really good coat of underbody bitumen sealer. It was a first class job.

Then I had to pull the seats and carpet out to change the seatbelt mounts to suit Ozzie conditions. In doing this I found a 6" hole under the clutch pedal. Someone in the past had cut a section out of an old tin and cold soldered it into the floor, and then painted under the floor so it couldn't be seen.

Amazing the lengths people go to. A little extra effort and it could have been fixed properly. In the end the culprit is a leaking windscreen, trickling down the pedals, pooling on the floor and soaking the carpet underlay. Then running down the nice tight crease at the base of the sills where the sill meets the floor.

Three months of fabrication and welding and now the car is perfect. New floor, new sills, both inner and outer, new inner wheel arch, two new crossmembers and repairs to the main rail. Not a skerrick of rust left in it.

It would be interesting if the cars could talk, but sometimes we might not want to hear!!

Whilst on the subject, the other interesting discovery were acorns!! Yes, acorns, like from Oak trees! Something we don't have too many of down here.

Before the new carpets were fitted, I stripped and repainted all of the floors in the car. In doing so I also got to inspect the pass side sill through the large inspection holes. I was also clearing the drain points and visually checking for any other rust.

Thankfully I found the pass side sill to be perfect, but took nearly half a bucket of debris out of the upper and lower halves of the sill.

Most of the debris was fibreglass insulation as you would find in the roof of a house or garage, and the rest were acorn husks and caps!

Yep, something had been living inside the sills, made a nice warm little nest for winter and stocked up on nuts.

It took some hours of work to clean the sills out and then with a 3' long spray tube with a rotary head attached, I rust treated and then coated the inside of the left sill.

Given that the car was only in Boston for 18 months, I'd love to know where those critters originated?

I’m sure Bob would be pleased with your work too, and you are having too much fun! But I’m sure people are disappointed when they sell a car and the new owner unexpectedly finds all kinds of stuff that needs fixing. I expect many cars have Mickey Mouse repairs that their owners never notice.

My Pantera East Campy wheels have stock sized logo disks and wire keepers so any set that would fit a stock wheel should work. But again the color match could be a problem so I would get four.

Mike