Hello all, I have a few questions about my recently resurrected Tiger.
First, a brief background: The car is an MK1 (B9471573) in "original"
condition with 85K and most of it's original parts (including AC air
filter housing, tool kit, etc). It has been is my wife's family since
1970. Anyway, It was used daily by my father-in-law until the mid-70's
when it went into storage. Sometime around 1983 it was pulled out of
storage and he got it running again, with plans to sell it, and it ended
up with my grandfather-in-law. They used it on occasion and took it to a
few shows (they have several other show-cars, including 2 Model A's and
a T pickup) through 1990 when it broke down at a show, and they had it
towed back to their house. With all of his other projects it got
ignored; then he got cancer and evetually died. In late 1997, I set out
to get it running again. I did all the tune-up stuff (plugs, wires, cap,
rotor, points, condensor, fuel filter), rebuilt the carb, changed the
oil & filter, and topped off all the fluids. It started & ran great but
the brakes were in sad shape, so I removed the booster and rebuilt all
the calipers & cylinders and replaced all the pads, shoes, and rubber
lines. After that we put about 600 miles on it. In early '98 we moved
from PA to MI, and it went back into storage, although grandma started
it every 2 weeks and drove it around on occasion. 2 weeks ago we brought
(towed) it back to Michigan, where it propmtly puked all of it's clutch
fluid. So I rebuilt the clutch master & slave. So now it's running
again. I plan on changing out the trans and axle fluid next. It also has
a leaky heater hose, so I'm going to replace the heater hoses (radiator
hoses look good), and if the radiator looks gunked up I'll have it
flushed out.
So here are a few questions:
1. What else should be changed/checked on this car? The suspension seems
solid (tie rods, ball joints, bearings, etc), but is there anything on
Tigers in particular that is prone to failure? It looks like the gas
tanks have been recently redone (fresh paint on the outside; chances are
he had then professionally redone), and the frame has been reinforced
around the exhaust cutouts.
2. I'm going to replace the 10-year-old tires asap; right now it has
6.5x13 reproduction bias-plies (grandpa was a restoration nut). What
"metric" size radial is close to the original, or what size will fit on
the original rims without rubbing or looking oversized? I'm not
concerned about maximum grip (I have a track-prepped Mustang for that),
just a tire that will fit without any problems. It seems like 175/70 or
185/70 would be about right?
I'm a digest subcriber, so please .cc me on the response.
Thanks!
Jeff Feit
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