[DeTomaso] "Houston, we have a problem"

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/27/10 11 56 22, cengles at cox.net writes:


>               How to proceed?   This is a known Pantera failure mode.
> Repair by welding the two pieces?   Repair by replacing with a new pedal?
> 

>>>It depends on your budget and your desires.   The factory upgraded the 
pedal assembly with a steel pedal with a roller bearing pivot.   It is very 
nice and VERY expensive.   It's not listed on Wilkinson's site, but Larry 
Stock had one, and it was almost $300 I think???

The simple solution is to buy a replacement aftermarket cast aluminum 
throttle pedal, from Hall Pantera or Precision Proformance:

http://hallpantera.com/cgi-bin/p/awtp-product.cgi?d=hallpantera-inc&
item=21477

http://precisionproformance.com/in1061.htm

It's only $50/49, and I've never heard of one breaking.   It also has a bit 
of bling to make you feel better about spending your money.

Alternately, you could celebrate your Oklahoma heritage and fix it with 
some proper Okie engineering.   In my spare parts stash, I keep a spare gas 
pedal, because there are only two types of stock Pantera pedals--those that 
have snapped at the weak point, and those that will.   I got it from Relay Rick 
Moseley, whose sensibilities were offended by it, so he replaced it shortly 
after he bought his Pantera.

Photo here:

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=18310

It's really quite ingenious.   Appropriately sized bolts had the heads cut 
off, then then were bent to follow the curve of the pedal body, and had 
flats ground into two sides.   One was placed on either side of the pedal in the 
cavity formed by the casting, holes drilled through the sides of both bolts 
and the pedal halves, and then it was all bolted together with small grade 
8 bolts; then the ends of the small bolts were ground off.

The pedal is not welded at all, but I'm here to tell you that it is 
hell-for-strong.   It seems a long way to go to save the $50 that an aftermarket 
pedal costs, but it's probably a good trackside solution if your pedal breaks 
far from home and need to get the car back on the road pronto.

I have a stock, yet-to-be-broken pedal in my car, and I carry my Okie spare 
with me to track events, just in case.

>Replace the throttle cable at the same time??      I understand that the
throttle cable replacement is a PITA job. 

>>>It's a great job for kids.   It sucks for super-tall fellows such as 
yourself.   Do you have a stock, or aftermarket cable now?   Does it have undue 
drag?   If it ain't broke, I wouldn't fix it.   Replacing the cable isn't 
overly difficult; you just have to remove the back panel, and loosen (but not 
remove) the center console, and remove the kick panel.   It's a job of an 
hour or more.

> Is the pedal removal/repair
equally difficult?

>>>It's a bit awkward, especially with the driver's seat installed.   
There's a pivot shaft pressed into the big aluminum pedal mount casting, secured 
with a roll pin.   (Early cars have the pin exiting on only one side; the 
later cars have a two-sided pin, with the second side supporting the clutch 
effort-reduction linkage).   It's secured with a tiny snap ring, and has 
washers on either side.   90-degree small snap-ring pliers are the only tool 
required for removal--and of course you'll have to remove the cable from the 
ball which is threaded into the side of the pedal.   You'll then have to 
transfer that ball over to your new pedal.

Here's the parts diagram which shows the relationship of all the parts:

http://www.panterasbywilkinson.com/webpages/catalog/ill8a.html

The early cars like ours have the pedal simply rotating on the shaft; it's m
etal-on-metal and thus it's a good idea to thoroughly lubricate it.   The 
later pedals had a roller bearing setup (the bearing is shown as part #12 in 
the diagram).   Since you've got upgrade fever, the ultimate solution might 
be to buy a Hall/Byars aftermarket pedal (which I believe does NOT come with 
this bearing), and buy the bearing, then have a machine shop open up the 
hole in the pedal and press the bearing in.   

Smooth as buttah! :>)

Mike