Tiger Tales

Summer is almost here, which means the Tiger has been brought out of hibernation. The most important job was to get the car running properly. First attempts resulted in serious backfiring and a great reluctance to start. I went through the usual checks and I confirmed I had fuel and a spark, so the most likely cause was timing. Attention then started to focus on the new trigger wheel which had been installed to enable the Megajolt to run. On close examination, it turned out that the welds holding it to the crank pulley had failed, allowing the trigger wheel to rotate from it's fixed position on the crank. This was also the source of the expensive sounding rattle I had developed on the last track day of last year (not so expensive after all then), and was also almost certainly the reason the car wouldn't start. Jon from 7-Indulgence took the offending part away and re-welded it more securely. On its return, the car still wouldn't run on all four cylinders (there was no spark at the fourth cylinder), so after much head scratching the diagnosis was that the coil pack was faulty. The Ford Mondeo (the donor for these parts) uses a wasted spark system and there are only two positive leads to the coil pack, each supplying power to two cylinders. This meant that, if one of the pair of plugs was firing, then the coil pack was getting power, therefore the problem is from the coil pack onwards - and that can only mean the coil pack, the ignition leads or the spark plugs. Ignition leads and spark plugs were easy to test, and the conclusion was the coil pack had given up. A quick trip to the local motor factors had it sorted and the car then duly started, and I've had no problem since.

The only other problem I had to fix was a strange knocking noise, particularly when powering through a left had corner. This didn't seem to vary with speed, therefore probably not the drive train and very much sounded like something fouling the chassis somewhere. Close examination with the nose cone off showed that the slightly longer fan belt recently installed was allowing the alternator to bang against the right hand chassis rail as the engine was forced right in left hand turns. A test fit of various length belts from Halfords soon came up with one of the right length and the problem was solved.

Final job was a good clean, and the car was ready.

I attended the first track day of the year at Brands Hatch - a sessioned evening run by Focused Events. It was a terrific evening. The weather was perfect, there were few cars/drivers so it became an open pit lane session, and even then the track was clear for much of the evening. And the Tiger behaved impeccably. Apart from the rear fog light disintegrating and having to be 'modified' part way through the evening that is. I think this is probably due to its position immediately below the petrol filler cap and if a little fuel gets split it runs down the car onto the fog light, making the plastic brittle. Easy and cheap fix though.

So, all set for summer and probably another 4 or 5 track days.