interior lights

Try using long needle nose pliers.

John

No Patience, an voltmeter and a wiring diagram that you methodically follow(or SOBill's diagrams on Pantera Place)is all you need. The wiring portion that matters is all visible with the instrument gauge console pulled out and looking up from the driver's footwell. The diagram takes a little initiative to digest at first, yet, once in the zone, you will be good to go. It is not that complicated.

quote:

Originally posted by slojoe:
happy thanksgiving fellow pantera lovers

have finally got the mechanicals sorted out but no interior guage lights and no horn. thre is a black and yellow wire in the guage pod pluggled into nothing. there is a bulb hanging from a wire up by the tach. seems like a mess. do i have to pull the dash to get at this/ size 7 1/2 hands

No, you don't have too...but...

Look for the yellow/black stripe wire near the fuse panel. Maybe it got unplugged?

Also, the dimmer switch has the habit of oxidizing after 40 years and as a result you won't get any current through it at all for the instrument lights.

You could consider bypassing it if you trace current into it but not out?

It just so happens that mine died just recently also. However, I am told, they may be rebuildable?

Stock instrument panel rheostats are indeed rebuildable if they are branded 'Benedetto'. With Panteras, odd parts abound in many cars. My '72 rheostat is a very well-built device with an unaccountably hair-fine (0.006"OD) connector wire inside maybe 1/2" long that can break from vibration or otherwise malfunction over 40+ years of service, cutting all current flow. Note the rheostat power wire only is ON if the parking or headlights are also ON. The rheostat affects all dash lights (except the speedo & tach bulbs), the light inside the e-flasher and the 'fasten seatbelts' warning light- 8 lights total.

On the back of the device are a couple of copper lugs (marked 'C' and 'D') that barely penetrate the case. These very short contacts are opposite the power-in and power-out spade-lugs and were apparently intended only as test points. A large soldering iron will be needed to put enough heat into them to hold solder. A short (1/2") 16-gauge u-shaped jumper wire soldered between the lugs restores power and one need not even disassemble the switch, only remove it from the dash for access.

An alternative is to simply connect the power-in and power-out wires with a double-female spade connector and completely bypass the rheostat function. This is one of my few successful almost-no-cost electrical mods, illustrated in the May 2006 POCA Newsletter.