[DeTomaso] Sat, July 26 Tech Session

[Asa Jay Laughton]

It was a beautiful day, interuppted just before mid-day by a thundering 
Pantera coming down my driveway.  A little over an hour later we had the 
transmission all unbolted and ready to slide out.  So we broke for some 
barbecue hamburgers then headed over to my dad's place to pick up his 
engine hoist.

A couple of straps on the transmission to hold it up, a bottle jack and 
2x6 under the engine oil pan and in about five minutes we had the trans 
out and on the floor.  What a pleasure.

We talked Pantera tech for a while, ball-joints, a-arms, brakes, 
transmission, etc.  We perused the POCA Inventory and I gave away a 
plastic Pantera model kit to the biggest helper of the day, Ken 
MacArthur.  Afterward, we pulled Ken's car into the shade of the garage 
and did a quick check of his front end.

Looks like Ken already has a bushing in his steering rack and it felt 
great.  The tie-rod ends seemed a bit loose at the ball joint so I 
recommended he replace those.  Rocking the wheels we believe we found 
his ball joints could be replaced as well.  I showed him my 30 year old 
joints pulled from my Pantera recently and he understood where the 
clunking might be coming from.  We then did a little carb adjustment to 
make sure the choke lockout on the carb secondaries released properly to 
let him have some quality "Holy Shit" moments with the pedal pressed to 
the floor.  We quickly looked at his rear sway bar mounts, as he has one 
stud broken, but we'll have to tackle that another day.

Overall it was a great day, a really good visit and some quality Pantera 
work got done.  I'll be advertising another day when I get ready to put 
the transaxle back in.  I hope to see more of you here.

Please take care,
Asa Jay

PS.  I know some of you have sold your Pantera in the recent year.  If 
you would like to be removed from my address book, please just let me 
know.   Thanks.

-- 
Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired

& Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA

1973 Pantera L 5533
[ASASCAT]
    
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http://www.asajay.com
http://www.351c.info