[Tigers] This isn't fun anymore...

[wseay]

Stu,

Sorry to hear about your crappy day.  I had a day like that many years ago.  Had rebuilt the carb and had forgotten to tighten the float valve seats into the carb body.  Gas came out of the carb overflow.  In my infinite wisdom I had decided to turn the key on and wait for the pump to stop.  When the pump didn’t stop, instead of realizing that there was something wrong, I cranked the engine.  There was a great Whoosh! and a large black blister began growing on the hood.  Was fortunate to get the car to a neighbor’s hose and douse the flames.  Aside from the obvious repaint, had to do harness repairs, replace ignition wires and some other stuff.  Just a word of caution, when you rebuild the carb, make sure that the float valve seats are tight or you may be in for another crappy day.

Will - wseay at embarqmail.com
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"I think not therefore I am not" (anon)

From: Stu via Tigers 
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2015 9:37 PM
To: Tiger Net 
Subject: [Tigers] This isn't fun anymore...

I took the Tiger out today for a little cruise with my son driving (don’t panic, Hagerty, he’s over 25).  When we got home I noticed that the trunk was a little out of alignment.  The nut on the fixed part of the right side hinge was loose.  No problem, tighten it up.  Only it wouldn’t tighten.  It feels like the stud is pulling out of the hinge body.  OK, I may have a spare hinge, if not, I can probably turn one up.



No big deal, right?  But wait, the fun was just starting.



I was going to drive it back into the garage.  The key was on a few seconds while I readjusted the seat from my son’s position.  Then it took longer than normal to start, then smoke came out from under the hood.  Key off.  There’s a lot of heat coming out…  I pulled the hood release and could see flames…   Opening the hood, flames were coming up from the front of the carb area.  The garden hose was right there, so I gave it a squirt, cooling everything off, and the flames went out.



The front of the air cleaner is sort or singed, the element needs an inspection, the bottom of the hood is black and bubbled right over there, and there is one huge bubble on the outside of the hood.  Wiring looks OK, if a bit singed, and the plastic section that joins the choke heater down pipe to the air cleaner is melted.



After things cooled off, we powered it up again, with the air cleaner off.  The pump was on, but everything was perfect, no fuel coming out anywhere.   It started and ran fine.



So I’m guessing that something is going on in the float bowl, the valve occasionally sticking open or something.  There had been a couple instances of brief loss of power, and rough running this summer, so I suspect this is related.



I cleaned and replaced a lot of stuff in the carb maybe a decade back.  Anybody have any part numbers for rebuild kits that are available today?  What Ford should I tell them I have to get the kit for a stock 260 Tiger carb?



The fun is going out of this real quick.  Now I’m faced with matching the paint on the hood ( Imron from 1977), or a whole strip and repaint to get things to match, since there are too many layers of paint on it now.



How was your day?



Stu



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