2nd Gear Grind

How does the Trunion Bearing look? It's down by the left header on the 'frame' and is supposed to keep play out of the Shift Linkage. You can see it from the driver's rear wheel well, see it even better if you take the wheel off.

A guy I was gonna buy a Pantera from was telling me he was gonna fix this same problem with a Trunion Bearing. The original is a rubber bushing, I'm gonna replace mine later, before problems (I hope) with a Hall Pantera (G8-#30, $74.00) or maybe they can be rebuilt, but I want the Polyurethane. Hope it's something minor like this...

The trunion bearing was replaced with the shift rod.

I took out the detent spring a while ago. Which rod did you cut down and why. I always like to understand what I'm doing.

The only answer I found for your question of "Freeplay at the Clutch Lever" is not measured at the clutch lever. I reviewed Pantera Technical Service Bulletin No. 10, Articles No. 88 and 89, 1/25/74. Clutch Adjustment: measured at the push rod to the to the slave cylinder, there should be 0.102" - 0.106" gap clearance. Clutch Pedal Height can be varied by adjusting the clutch master cylinder push rod length, Optimun assembeled length 2.9" with a range of 2.91" - 2.95", the Figures with Illustrations are Fig. 15, 16, and 17., pp. 8, 9.

But you said there are only 3,000 miles on the rebuilt ZF and you just got it. So, you should know if this problem happened before or after your acquisition, I presume. Presuming it was working OK when you got it, and you didn't take it to the drag strip, it may be a similar situation to mine. My ZF would hardly shift, it was really stiff. As I drove it, and didn't mistreat it, it just got smoother and easier all by itself. I think it sat around for many, many years and the fluids settled, possibly leaving some deposits behind inside the ZF, but as things have been circulating nicely and regularly, it has really loosened up and is almost like my 2001 Toyota, really easy to shift.

Have you been driving it a little on a regular basis, letting things wear in nicely on the new rebuild? Maybe it's still tight and needs to break in a little....

Best of luck.

Technical Service Bulletin No. 2, 5/26/72, Article No.14 addresses Shift Linkage Adjustments. By process of elimination... as you said.

I bought the car with the grind. The rest of the car was straight and all there. It was too good of a deal to pass up. I will look up these TSBs. Thanks for the help. Pantera owners are great. I had a brand X for 20 years. Those guys are no fun.

Cap'n, quite a few ZF treansaxles will grind during shifts if the clutch master or slave cylinder (or both) are internally bypassing.
Test: with the engine off and a friend in the drivers seat, have him push the clutch pedal to the floor and hold it. At the bellhousing access hole on the top-left side, you should be able to get a 0.040" feeler gauge between the clutch plate and the flywheel. If not, there's a hydraulic or mechanical problem preventing full disengagement.
Under these circumstances, all ZFs will grind, especially into 2nd gear. If it turns out to be the slave cylinder, I recommend a long-throw stainless steel style replacement to maximize the disengaement distance & reduce corrosion damage. After everthing's fixed, when shifting remember to mat the clutch pedal before pulling on the gearshift. Your expensive ZF synchros will live longer.