Reliable, safe, trick headlight pop-up controller

This past weekend I got a lot of work done on the ol Pantera. I've had one of Pantera Electronic's Headlight Motor Controllers sitting in a box for months, so I was happy to finally have the time to install it. My factory unit was still functioning o.k. but I've heard stories of the factory controllers developing a mind of their own and going bonkers as you drive down the street. Besides modernizing the Pantera (something I've been getting into lately), this new one won't fail you. Plus it has a lot of other nice advantages such as removing the heavy electrical load from the light, dimmer and headlight lift limit switches and it turns off the lights when you turn off your ignition switch (no matter what position the headlight switch is in).

I've installed other Pantera Electronics products and have never been disappointed, so I was expecting a lot from this unit. Despite all the connections (looks daunting), installation is pretty simple. You unplug one wire from each headlight limit switch and connect them to ground. Then you unplug the factory headlight motor controller, and plug the wires into the new HMC. A couple wires go in-line to the headlight switch, and a few more go in-line to the fuse block. Whola! Your Pantera gets a little 2008 in it.

Here are a couple pics I shot during the weekend. Besides lighting up the floorboards and making the interior look cool as hell at night, the LED's let you know what signals the HMC is or isn't getting. These can be really helpful when trying to diagnose problems. When I installed the controller, my low beams weren't working and the LED on the HMC wasn't lighting up. This was a clear indication that the problem wasn't my headlights or the wiring to the headlights (I recently installed dual quad headlights so at first I thought I might have mucked something up there.) The problem was that the HMC wasn't getting a signal to turn on the low beams. Turns out that the low beam wires going to the fuse block have been in the wrong place for ages, so consequently, I wired up the HMC incorrectly. After a quick e-mail to Pantera Electronics, Jon set me straight and all was good. Thanks to Jon for making a great product and having awesome Labor Day Weekend customer service!