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inquiry 110199d (#22)

To: "National Corporation (E-mail)" <tigers@autox.team.net>
Subject: inquiry 110199d (#22)
From: "Wright, Larry" <larry.wright@usop.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 10:03:05 -0500
        "Underneath", installment 22

        Homeowners all over Seabrook, MD, looked up from their
lawn-mowing and leaf-gathering activities this weekend, startled by a
sound they hadn't heard all year and a brilliant white-n-red flash
passing by. Yes, the Garage Queen made a brief appearance on public
roads.
        Friday evening I stopped by the truck-accessory shop and,
contrary to my expectations, the 1/4" wheel spacers had arrived. The Mr.
Gasket part # is 2375, in case anybody needs 'em. The fellow at the shop
suggested that, as they are soft aluminum, I should recheck the lug nuts
after a while as they tend to compress.
        Boy, do they. I put one on each hub, centering them and then
applying some duct tape to _keep_ them aligned, them slid on the wheels.
Then I torqued them down to 75 ft-lbs in stages. It's more than recent
List discussions refer to, but the # got stuck in my head, I was sure
that's the right setting. The process felt like I was torqing down
Play-Doh, actually; I guess the spacers deformed a bit, not sure. I
still have clearance around the calipers, it seems, but not a lot. You
can actually see a little bit of them peeking out from behind the
Revolutions, but it's hardly noticeable.
        I had been charging up the battery, so I stuck it in and turned
the key to engage the new fuel pump. It does _not_ act like the old one,
starting and stopping, it "whirs" all the time. Not too loud, but
disconcerting for some reason. No leaks, either.
        I had run out of reasons to have the car up on stands, so I
brought it down. This took quite some time, this is one of my least
favorite activities -- by now you all know how I feel about jack stands,
eh? To prevent trapping the hydraulic jack under either end due to a
too-steep angle of the car, I brought down each end to the minimum
still-on-the-stand level first, then lowered the car to the ground. BTW,
I still raise the rear via placing the jack's saddle under the
'pumpkin', and with my recent leaks, and the drain plug sticking down a
wee bit, I'm not sure I'm happy with the load I'm probably putting on
the threads of the drain plug (holding up 1/2 of a car?). Are there
alternatives? Also, I regret not getting those plastic covers for the
jack saddles and jackstands tips(?) to protect the finish of the
chassis. I used rags instead.
         Once down, I breather a sigh of relief, for a couple of
reasons. On the stands, once partway down, It looked to me like the
front clearance between tire and fender was too great, giving a
potential nose-up attitude to the car. I recall discussions on whether
to use SS or CAT rubber isolators atop the springs depending on whose
springs one uses, but I swapped in a set of Dale's for the CAT springs
partway through the project, and I didn't remember whose isolators I
had. Well, once down, the car sat beautifully, a bit higher than before,
about level, actually an improvement to the nose down rake I had before.
        About all that was left was to tighten the front bolts for the
traction bars, as the instructions mentioned to doing so until the car
was back on the ground. Easy enough, but I remember a List discussion
about how tight, "tight but not too tight", and I had no idea what that
actually means so I had to guess.
        With a fire extinguisher on the passenger seat, I rolled the car
out onto the driveway, and sat down behind the wheel. Susan came out to
watch, and pronounced that starting the car would take a while. Yeah,
about 2.5 seconds; it caught almost immediately. Love that manual choke,
guys!
        Then I took it around the block a couple of times. With the Spax
shocks set halfway (7 clicks from full-soft) it feels taut but not
jarring. And _way_ fewer rattles and such. At the first stop sign, I hit
the brakes, and while the retardation/effort ratio wasn't optimal (I
expect that I had forgotten what it was like to drive a servoless car),
the firm pedal was a pleasant surprise. For the 1st time in the 8 years
I've owned the car, I am not pumping the brake pedal!
        I've since had it out 3 more times, all short, perhaps 5-7 miles
total. I'm thrilled. However, I'll need to work on it a bit. First, I'm
hearing a lot more brake noise than I like, something isn't quite right.
Some of it is that hissing "white noise" of pads against rotors, but not
all of it. It seems to come more from the right side than the left.
Sorry, I cannot be more specific, but my hearing is rotten. There's also
a bit of general metal-to-metal noise, perhaps something isn't quite
tight, from (I think) the rear suspension. Furthermore, didn't I read
that the Powr-Lok will make some more noise during it's break-in?
Between running conventional oil in the diff with the Ford additive and
using synthetic without, I chose the latter. Comments?
        I bolted the suspension together with the alignment shims in the
same place I found them, and I didn't touch the tie-rod ends, so the
alignment should be close to what it was when I started the project. It
feels pretty good, the only thing glaringly different being the steering
wheel being about 90 degrees off, which I think had more to do with the
reconnection of the steering u-joints. I still think I need to get it
aligned. For a Personalized Tiger, what do y'all recommend as alignment
specs? I recall one post (Ramon?) suggesting a little more negative
camber than stock. Also, I set the tire pressure -- at a guess -- at
30psi. I tend to overinflate tires on any car, I cannot tell you why.
For a street Tiger with 205/60-13's I'm curious what others might use,
and particularly if there's any front/rear pressure bias.
        I'm effectively at the end of the rebuild, and my "underneath"
story, if I have any further questions/comments I figure they're not
part of this story. With a few exceptions, this was a long spring and
summer, stuck in the garage and basement by myself. But I was not alone;
every step of the way I have received encouragement and advice from the
Tiger Folk. I think that for sheer volume, Bob Palmer narrowly beat out
Tom Hall and Steve Laifman for biggest contributor, but I'd have to
spend time searching the list archives to find someone who _didn't_ send
a message at some point. A big THANK YOU to you all. In addition, this
project took:
        - Larry Paulick, for tool loans, advice and help on removing the
front and rear suspensions
        - My neighbor Sam, who had to listen to my story even more
frequently than you guys did
        - My wife Susan, for accepting the expenditure of time and money
with nary a peep.
        - Sunbeam Specialties, for various parts
        - Classic Sunbeam for more parts
        - Barry Schonburger, for the 3.07 gears and Powr-Lok
        - Dale's All-British, for rear brake kit, fulcrum pins,
front/rear springs, vented front rotors.
        - Tiger Tom Earhart, for brake lines and a hefty chunk of his
long-distance bill giving me advice
        - AFI Powder coating for making so many parts look so good
        - Redi-Strip of Forestville, whose chemical dipping saved me
many hours cleaning up the parts
        - S&M Supplies for undercoating -- plus the Canadian supplier
whose name I've lost.
        - Traction Master, for remaking the Tiger's traction bars, and
an extra-special thanks to Larry Atkisson for putting the Tiger
community in touch with them
        - The Seabrook Garage, for various pressing in and out of parts
        - Henry's Service of Southern Md, for custom braided brake lines
for the conversion
        - My "helper" for assembling the rear axle
        - Trick Trucks for the alloy diff cover and the wheel spacers
        - Thonpson & Cooke, for Grade 8 bolts and quality tools like the
dial indicator.
        - Bill's Hardware, the old-time hardware store that still sells
bolts be the each!
        - Speed Unlimited, for having the fuel pump in stock, plus minor
parts
        - The tech hotlines at both Dana and Holley
        - The makers of POR-15, truly cool stuff
        - And I'm sure I'm forgetting more than one indiviual or group;
I'm thankful even if my memory fails to remind me of you. Thanks again!

Lawrence R. Wright, Purchasing Analyst
U S Office Products, Mid-Atlantic District
Formerly Andrews Office Products
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923  Fx. 301.386.5333


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