Cooling and charging systems.

George,

Yes, your radiator should have two thermo switches that turn the fans on at "XXX" tempature depending on what "XXX" tempature switches you have installed. A site with plenty of get-to-know-your-Pantera can be found here

Any thoughts on the charging system?

Congrats on getting involved in the "Pantera Relocation Program".. When I got my car I changed all the console gauges accept the fuel gauge (sending unit/resistor issue). I also upgraded to a one wire 100 amp altinator. This car ran about 190/195 degrees (Central Florida ) with jumps over 200 if the speedo reads over 90 mph or so... I would love to see temps in the 160/175 range...

This afternoon, it wasn't raining or did I have any accessories on. She ran well and the Amp meter stayed steady. I got home and had to leave shortly after to pick my daughter up from feild hockey pratice and the motor turned over slowly, but did finally start. After getting home, I checked the battery terminals and the were corroided and loose. I cleaned them and tightened them, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone for all your help!

If your not a "Factory Correct" guy, I would consider the electrical and cooling upgrades that are commonly done. It made a world of difference w/my car. I was putting 1K miles a month on mine, until I started to clean up the engine bay and ended up taking the car apart..lol.. $10K later, I'm almost ready to reassemble...

quote:

Originally posted by geoshanna:
Any thoughts on the charging system?

All of the voltage that goes back to the battery goes through the amp gauge. It is hard to get an accurate reading on that gauge and many owners have installed a shunt across the back of the gauge to get it to stop jumping around. Changing over to an electronic voltage regulator is an improvement over the original mechanical regulator. These cars have grounding problems that can be repaired by just cleaning all of the grounding points. One of the main offenders is the qround that is attached under the dash on the drivers side. It seems that the grounding attachment is bolted to a stud that is painted. Cleaning the paint off of the contact point is a big help. The fuse box is a major weak link in the electrical system and the old ceramic fuses don't seem to allow enough voltage to pass through them. The fuse holders don't seem to make good contact either and that can cause many problems.

quote:

Originally posted by geoshanna:
I'm a new owner of a 72 Pantera (Yesterday).

Right on! Welcome aboard, George! I bought my cat in March and have had an awesome summer of driving ... and bugging everyone on this list with my Hot-Rod'ist-novice questions! You will find this to be an excellent forum.

quote:

My two questions are; What is the "Normal" water temp on these cars? I was driving her today and the temp got over 160. I noticed the switch for the fans an turned that on and it seemed to help. Do those fan kick on automatically when needed?

Water temp depends on what thermostat was installed. I believe a lot of the early cars were initially spec'd with a 160F thermostat, but it's very common to run a 190F thermo today. My fans come on automatically, but - driving in the cool Canadian mountain air - I find they only come on when I'm in crawling traffic.

quote:

What is the "Normal" water temp on these cars?

Very difficult to answer. Is your car still using stock gauges? If so, the readings are most likely not correct. Is your sending unit still in the surge tank fitting, or has the proper action been taken to move it to the engine block? Stock cars had such 'high' readings and so many owners - used to just idiot gauges - complaining to Ford, that they had dealers install a shunt resistor to bring the needle down into calmer territory. Still ran the same temp, but the gauge looked 'ok'.

Surge tank and block temp should be about the same; a good kitchen thermometer placed in the tank can be used to calibrate the gauge readings so you at least know real temps.

Many cars run in the 170-190 range. My car used to do that, but a slight leak followed with Bar's Leak has compromised the cooling and I now see 170-180 at cruise, but up to 220-225 in slow traffic. But no boil-over, no boiling sounds from the surge tank = no real problems.

The cooling system is probably the most discussed topic with our cars. A million different problems and solutions.

Whatever temps you are seeing, bottom line is this - If the car does not boil over, especially after shut off, you really have no problems.

Larry