shall i shaii i not ?

Depends on the budget if you have at least an extra $2,000 laying around. Have it pulled apart safety wired and inspected. If not reinstall as planned they come in and out rather easy.

The safety wire prevents the ring bolts from coming lose and doing lots of damage to the case, ring, and pinion

This is common on the non wired trans. I just took one to RBT ring bolts came loose sheared off the heads on all but 1 ring bolt, luckly only very minor damage to bottom cover of case

I would definitely pull the bottom cover and check for safety wired bolts. This also will give you a good idea of any rust issues for only the cost of a couple of gaskets.
Forest

gt5-9189,

If I were going as far as you are, I wouldn't think twice about sending the ZF for a freshening. You are basically going over the whole car and making everthing new. Why stop at the transaxle, one of the most important components of the Pantera?

Michael

basicly in saudi arabia there are garages where the answer will always be yes to get work dispite haveing no idear about working on a zf so in reality im on my own with this, there is nowhere to send it to here. i agree it is a good idear to drop the pan and have a look so this is what i shall do, should be easy to make up new gaskets. i have a workshop manual comming so i shall wait until i have read that befor i go ahead.

Yes, wait for the manual. It's better to have it in hand and read through it so you have an understanding of how, what and why before tearing into it. There's a lot going on inside the ZF, no point in doing something that you shouldn't do and finding out when it's back in the car.

If all your going to do is pull the bottom cover and check to see if it's safetly wired, no big deal..Easily done. If it's not done, it's a must do.

quote:

Originally posted by gt5-9189:
basicly in saudi arabia there are garages where the answer will always be yes to get work dispite haveing no idear about working on a zf so in reality im on my own with this, there is nowhere to send it to here. i agree it is a good idear to drop the pan and have a look so this is what i shall do, should be easy to make up new gaskets. i have a workshop manual comming so i shall wait until i have read that befor i go ahead.

If you do decide that your ZF needs attention, do NOT bring it to anyone in Saudi. Nothing personal, but it is a fairly specialized box that requires either someone with a WHOLE lot of patience and talent, or you will never get it back together in one piece.

In the end, it is just a transmission, but it is not a common one (a mechanic will not have seen one before) and it has a lot of little tricks that could bite you. I would be deathly afraid that someone would start to take it apart, realize they are in way over their heads, and you are screwed. If it were my money, which I don't spend unless I think I have to, I'd send it via boat to the US to have checked out if I thought it was suspect.

It won't be cheap, but every article and every webpage you read about the Pantera repeats that the ZF is very stout, but very expensive. I don't think there are many shortcuts...

thanks guys i have decided to drop the pan and check for the obvious misderminers then fill it with new oil and see what happens, it is after all easy enough to remove again as i shall modify it to stud out the two allen bolts so there will be no need to remove the bell housing.