[DeTomaso] FW: "Houston, we have a problem"

[Charles Engles]

From: Charles Engles [mailto:cengles at cox.net] 
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 3:06 PM
To: 'MikeLDrew at aol.com'
Subject: RE: [DeTomaso] "Houston, we have a problem"

 

Dear Mike,

 

 

            Thanks for the comprehensive information.

 

            Recall that I have a late '74.   Does that mean it should have
the roller bearing fix already?

 

             Isn't the stock pedal aluminum and, therefore, subject to a
satisfactory welded repair of the fracture and reinforcement of the weak
spot?

 

              For what it is worth the Wilkinson stock pedal is $150.   The
aftermarket piece is $50 plus the bonus of stealth bling in the footwell.
For some reason, I think I would prefer a welded repair, if it would be
structurally sound.   I do appreciate the Okie repair ingenuity, but it does
lack, well, aesthetic appeal.....

 

 

                         Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles

 

 

 

 

From: MikeLDrew at aol.com [mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com] 
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:41 PM
To: cengles at cox.net; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Houston, we have a problem"

 


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=214
77

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
metal-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





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