Pantera 06927

And finally after months of downtime, the rear stablizer bar and lower control arms go back in.

Front and rear bumpers have been removed to make way for a set of the special short versions produced by Kirk Evans.

I ordered them before I took the car off the road back in April, but they haven't arrived yet. So looking forward to putting the car on the road minus the steel rear bumper and the 'shark' nose.

Fully rebuilt Alden shockers are here to go on along with full billet axles.

More pics over the next few days.

I'm a bit held up by the exhaust. I stripped everything back and recoated the system with a ceramic exhaust paint, but I wan't happy with the tips. The ANSA sticker had trapped moisture and dirt underneath and this damaged the chrome plating. Also there were some abrasions there that wouldn't polish out.

I had a local exhaust tech roll some 0.8mm stainless into a 70mm ID tube. He welded this over the original tips and then shaped the tube to perfectly match the original ANSA shape. I have the exhaust at a metal polisher today to highly polish the stainless tip covers. This should look perfect and allow me to look after them without the issues associated with chrome.

Yes, the ANSA sicker is a well known problem. I took them off mine when I first got the system years ago.

Mike

And here's where she's been sitting for the last few months. And now her stable mate is playing up too. Dropped a heap of power on the right bank of the engine.

Bloody Italians...........always something, and just when we are finally coming into some decent weather again!

Today I built the rear hubs with my new billet axles. Lovely fit, just the right feel on the press when fitting the bearings. Right side may have been about a half of one poofteenth tighter, but both felt about right. These were Bob's axles from Proformance.

Hubs are now ready to fit to the lower arms, but still waiting on the exhaust as I'd like to fit this first and get it out of the way.

Whilst I'm waiting I thought I'd change that horrible rubber bush that the shifter linkage passes through. The one on the left rail under the headers. Bugger of a spot to get to!

I'm wondering if anyone has replaced this that could explain any tricks to getting the linkage off, gaining access to the two big nuts and then re-asembling without having to fully setup the shifter linkages again?

Any tricks to make this job a little easier?

No tricks really, just a busted knuckle or two. I replaced mine with a Quella unit which gets rid of the rubber bushing.

I'm more wondering which linkages need to be loosened (removed) so I don't lose the shift adjustment as aparently that can be a bit of a PITA to reset.

I managed to get the 24mm nut off the base, so the unit is loose, now need to seperate the linkage and get it out.

Since you'll be taking off knuckle(s) I don't think there's anyway around not having to readjust the linkage. It is a bit of a PITA, easier with 2 people. The major issue I had was getting the splines cleaned up enough the knuckle could freely slide all the way in and out, much easier to do with all the parts out of the car.

Robert, are you angling the new exhaust tips up more than stock? Those tips run over 500 degrees- hot enough to melt solder- in a hard- driven Pantera. So the decals are usually short lived anyway. And the exhaust seems to get caught in the upward air blast around the rear of the car. One U.S GT-5 with short upturned tailpipe tips melted both his taillight lenses in a single 90 mile wide-open blast some years ago. There's also enough rear lift from that aero to spin the tires in 5th if you have the horsepower to run to 175 or beyond....

I've actually trimmed the sleeve to suit the exact shape of the original ANSA exhaust. If you look really closely you can just see the inner original, but it looks like a double laminate of steel tip. Maybe having no rear bumper to protect the lights could be an issue, but I'm stuck waiting on Kirk for that one.

I always wondered about the 'wing'. Does it provide downforce or lift? In my experience it's made wrong. It should have a cap or blade on each end of it to trap the air and force the car down. Not having ends on the wing makes it virtually cosmetic.

Another thing on my list for when I do up the bodywork is to modify the rear wing.

There is a July 1985 Fast Lane GT5 review article where they tested the car with and without the wing. They found no loss of performance without the wing and picked up some MPH on top end.

They recommended ordering the car without the wing.

Mike

quote:

I'm wondering if anyone has replaced this that could explain any tricks to getting the linkage off, gaining access to the two big nuts and then re-asembling without having to fully setup the shifter linkages again?

I did mine without loosening the large adjusting nuts. I was able to separate the u-joint from the splines. But, as Husker pointed out, this can be difficult unless the splines are clean.

If you can separate at the splines, then the only adjustment that you will have to make is the fore/aft position of the shifter. This can be done by loosening the "pinch" bolt on the shift shaft u-joint. Just make sure that the splines are returned to their original "location".

If any of the shifter u-joints feel rough, the ones from Flaming River are a less expensive replacement than the originals.

http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/...=890103126#890103126

John

Thanks John,

I undid both of those pinch bolts close to the bush and as you said I was able to tap them forwards and release the long linkage, and then slide the bush off. I marked the knuckle and spline with a bit of tippex before I removed it so the splines went back on the same. I've now done both bolts up and went to check, but neutral is now too far forward and I cant shift into r/1 because of this.

I take it that by pinch bolt, you mean the one closest to the new bush, release that and maybe get someone to hold the stick in the centre and then do it up?

Robert,

The pinch bolt is the bolt and nut that clamps the u-joint to the splined shaft. If you loosen the pinch bolt, you should be able to slide the splines to get the fore/aft adjustment that you need.

John

Regarding your Aldan shocks.

There was some conversation about Aldans and seal leaks on the email forum a little while back.

The culprit seems to be over tightened mounting bolts and/or a slightly too short steel bushing causing the urethane bushings to bind on the shock body that in turn stresses the shaft seal.

Hmm... that's interesting as three out of four of my shocks came back with shafts replaced because they were bent and this is what had caused the gas to escape.

When I put the new ones in I'll check them for swing top and bottom before I final fix them.

Basically, if they dont pivot freely from both top and bottom mounts without binding at all, then they are too tight and I may need to space the central tube?

Yes.

I just figured out that 420 ft/lbs is horribly bloody tight!!

But.......my home made tool stood up to the test and all looks good.

Well I hope you guys had a better day than me.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I had built the hubs and were ready to fit them to the car. When pressing the new axles into the captive outer bearing (installed into the hub) I did notice that the RHS bearing took a little more pressure on the press than the left but it didn't feel too bad and when the spacer tube, inner bearing and the flange went on, it rotated nicely and didnt seem to be a problem.

This morning I tightented the nuts. 250 / 300 / 350 ft lbs. Left side, all went perfect, but right side, the tension wrench wouldn't click at 350, it seemed to want to keep tightening.

I stopped to check things out and found that the hub had siezed up and I couldn't rotate the disc anymore.

I can't explain why, it's exactly the same as the other side, but something is amiss.

So I removerd the nut and the flange and then removed the hub from the lower control arm, knowing that I'd need to press it all apart and take a look. Strangely enough, my press wouldn't shift it.

I ended up having to take it to a local workshop with a serious 100 tonne press and have them do it. Obviously the fact that t was late on a Friday afternoon and the operator wanted to go home and attend to some serious weekend drinking, I don't think he took the care that he should have, and he ended up smashing my rotor!!

Can anyone imagine what that felt like. Here I am on the other side of the World, three days away from driving my car which has been on the hoist for 6 months, and I need a new rear rotor.

Pantera rotor in Australia is about as rare as golden rocking horse sh!t, and no local brake places were able to come up with a solution.

When I got home and got the rest of the bits cleaned up, I noticed really heavy scoring in my nice new axle shaft. inside the larger (outer) bearing there is also really bad scoring, yet this was a brand new bearing onto a brand new axle. Fitted up with a liberal smearing of grease to help the fit, but it's really quite bad.

So here's a couple of interesting questions?

1. Bob's axles are beautifully finished to a very exacting tollerance. The bearing was a new USA manufactured bearing yet somehow I ended up with serious scroing on the axle shaft. How can this be?

2. Why couldn't I get the tension wrench to 'click' at 350lbs like I could on the other side?

3. When first fitted, the rotor turned fine, but when the tesnion of 300 lbs went onto the hub nut I was not able to rotate the disc anymore. I don't get this as you have the axle, then the spacer cup, then the bearing, spacer tube, inner bearing, flange, washer and nut. There isn't anything else and both sides are the same, yet one has 350ft/lbs on it and rotates freely and the other bound up!


Now, for standard rear solid rotors, who is best to get these from?

I see Wilkinsons lists three rotors. One solid, one vented, and one vented GT5.

Will both of the first two fit my car, or do I stick with the solid that it had?