Lights go up but will not go down

Hi Toby,

Congrats on your Pantera purchase and welcome to the forum!!! There are a lot of great people here that are more than willing to help solve Pantera issues!

Your headlight problem is most likely the down limit switch, located between the front trunk bulkhead and the headlight bucket torque bar (the round tube that connects to both light buckets). The key needs to be on for the buckets to lower.

With the key on and the headlight switch off, try tapping on the down limit switch. If that doesn't work, use a jumper wire to connect the two switch wires together. That should make the light buckets go down.

The limit switch that is located next to the radiator is the up limit switch.

John

Thank you John
I will try that tomorrow and let you know if that is the cause.
Glad to be a part of this group.
Toby

John
Good evening. Tapping on the limit switch did not work, but jumping it out made the lights go down. I guess need new limit switch. Any source for the switch, might as well replace both.
Thanks for the information.Toby

Toby,

Try the Pantera vendors, although I have heard that those limit switches are out of stock. I haven't heard of anyone finding an exact replacement outside of the vendor circle.

You could try taking it apart and cleaning the contacts.

John

I tried to get one from Wilkinsons about 2 weeks ago, he said at that time that they should be in stock in 5 weeks.
So, maybe check back with him in a couple of weeks.
Hall is also out of stock

Trum,Try taking them apart and cleaning them. The two nuts that hold them on are easy to get out and you have to remove them to change them any way. After they are off they just split in the middle with a small screw driver. The insides look like a set of points and are a simple open/close contactor. Just clean them and the connections at the wires real good and re-install. Mine did the same thing when I first bought it and cranking them down by hand sucks. That was 5 years ago and they have worked perfectly ever since. You have nothing to lose, it take about an hour and no parts require.

Hey Trum, as 1715 said, these are some of the simplest switches in the world. If you take them apart and clean them up there is a very good chance they will work properly for you.
If not, I had one that was broken to pieces, so I replaced mine with a generic switch found at a computer supply store like Altex. They had an assortment of them.
As you can see in the picture, I lengthened the bolt that operates the "up" switch because I have the low profile lights from Kirk Evans that don't have to open as far. You can bend the tab and make them just like stock if you want to. I put these on when factory ones were not available just to get me through inspection, etc. It's been 12 years now and they still work fine.
I did have to do some bending of the lever on the other limit switch, but don't have a good picture of it.
I think the switches cost something like $7.50 each. I haven't seen a reason to go back to the expensive ones as these have worked so good for so long.
Good luck,
Mike

p.s. Forgive the dust, I've just been for a drive

Thank you for all the help.
Going to try to remove and clean this evening.
will let all know if works. Toby

This is a very good seller.
They stand behind the product.
Two headlight switches, now $49/pair,
4 days left on the auction.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PANTER...em2c747ad89b&vxp=mtr

I had one Pantera that did the same thing. After chasing power with a VOM, I found that on this '73, the power wire for the raise/lower motor is sourced off a side-lug on the headlight switch.... and someone had plugged onto the wrong lug. Simply moving the power wire from the normally-unused side-lug to the correct one right next to it fixed this cars headlight-raise problem. Good thing I had a working Pantera sitting next to it for comparison.

Thank you all for the help.
Got the old one off and cleaning the contacts and switch to see if that works, also eyeing the ebay switches.