First road report with the Tiger and its new Pertonix Ignitor II
ignition and Flamethrower coil and air conditioning (I should get the
replacement magnet ring for it next week that Pertonix says should cure
my one cylinder no fire at idle condition...but one off idle, the car
runs perfectly).
Jane, Carrie and I drove the Tiger from Woodland Hills to Palm Springs
over the weekend (about 140 miles each way). We of course made our usual
pilgrimage to Dale Akusewski's Tiger restoration shop in San Bernardino
and saw a couple of Tigers there near completion. He also currently has
a Jensen Interceptor and a Cobra in the shop that he's working on.
Pretty cool. Temperature in Woodland Hills (los Angeles area) wasn't so
cool.... about 80 when we left at 8:30 A.M and between 105 and 110
degrees when we got to Palm Springs. As to the ignition, I had been
having a hot start problem with my old dual point ignition. The Ignitor
II seems to have completely cured this. Even in 110 degree weather, the
car re-started instantly numerous times. Worth the price right there.
I've also noticed (this is subjective as I haven't actually timed the
car for this) that, once off its stumbly take off (hopefully soon to be
cured with that new magnet ring), the Tiger pulls much more smoothly and
strongly all the way up, even in very hot weather, with one exception,
and that is that the occassional pinging I've had on hard acceleration
has now increased a bit with the new ignition..
I'll preface this by saying I have not touched the timing yet. When I
converted to the Ignitor and had the original points plate off in the
distributor, I noticed that there is only one advance spring down below.
Looks like there would normally be two there (one on each side of the
advance plate). (The distributor seems to be an original option Ford
dual point unit). Being a novice at this, am I right? I wonder if I'm
getting too much advance too soon, causing the pinging. Also, the
advance plate, with the single spring (which seems pretty light) moves,
by hand, very easily. I want to be able to really stand on that gas
pedal (not that I would ever try to break the speed limit or beat that
sissy Porsche next to me) but when the pinging starts, I feel I'd better
back off the gas. Should I add a second spring and see what happens, or
change the single spring there now to a single stiffer spring?
I'll do an A/C report later this week for anyone interested (but it did
keep us pretty cool, even in the hottest weather).
Steve Sage
1967 MK1A
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