[DeTomaso] 4 bolt ZF's?

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/7/11 16 29 8, michaelsavga at gmail.com writes:


> i have to ask the obvious ...
> 
> If the dash 1 was so great....
> why was there a dash 2 and why were so many dash 2 units retrofitted to 
> cars
> originally equipped with dash 1 units?
> 
> 

>>>The Dash-2 represented an improvement over the Dash-1; don't let anybody 
else convince you otherwise.   However, the improvement wasn't great enough 
to justify changing just for the sake of changing.

Some early Panteras were delivered with misadjusted clutches, and all of 
them had a rather high clutch effort.   This caused some owners to fail to 
release the clutch fully when shifting gears, leading to premature synchro wear 
and gearbox noise.

Ford acknowledged that some small number of gearboxes were getting noisy 
and/or becoming difficult to shift (this was also caused by the fact that 
early gearboxes were filled with the wrong gearbox oil!)   Dealers were issued a 
service bulletin in which it was stated that customers presenting with such 
complaints should be offered a new, improved Dash-2 gearbox at no cost; 
Ford would provide the parts and reimburse the dealer for the hours of labor 
required to do the job.

This was akin to writing a blank check to unscrupulous dealers.   Anybody 
who drove into the service bay for something as simple as an oil change, 
would be offered a FREE, NEW, IMPROVED gearbox.   Who's going to say no to that?

So as a result of this scam, many perfectly good gearboxes were removed and 
replaced, and the dealers racked up the profits at Ford's expense.   Major 
Pantera dealerships wound up with big piles of Dash-1 gearboxes, which Ford 
had no interest in.   Eventually, most of them were hauled away for scrap!

I published an interview in the PCNC newsletter about 15 years ago, with a 
former Lincoln-Mercury technician from one of LA's largest dealerships, and 
that is where much of this information came from.   Some of it is buried 
within the Ford TSBs, and some lies within hundreds of pages of internal Ford 
memos I have in my collection.

Mike