by George Roberts in the January 1982 RootesReview:
Several short tech tips come to mind from my experience rebuilding my own Tiger Mark IA and a Tiger Mark II for another chap. Hopefully, this information will spare you some of the aggravation and frustration I’ve been through!
Check your flasher unit
Before ripping out wires to find out why your taillight/flasher assembly doesn’t work properly, try replacing the flasher unit. It doesn’t cost much and is the easiest trouble-shooting step , next to making sure you’ve got all the wires connected properly.
Also make sure there is no shorting between the two wires connected to your taillight/brake light assembly.
On both the Tigers I worked on last summer, I ran into these problems. On the front flasher/parking light assembly check the ground contact on the parking light side. Corrosion seems to like to settle in there and “Boom, BOOM, out go the lights. . .”
Rotten Door panels?
Remove the panel and material, grind off the rivets that hold the metal strips to the old panel and use the old panel to trace a pattern for a new piece on masonite. Cut out your new panel, place the metal strips from the old panel in place and drill holes accordingly.
Use rivets or spreader pins to attach the strips in place and voila! one panel ready for whatever material you want. You must reuse the metal strips around the edges, as if you use only the masonite and a material with backing, you’re going to find the door won’t close properly around the front of the door pillar.
Even with the metal strips you should remove all backing around the edges and glue your material directly to the strips.
Installing the fan and pulley to the water pump
Ever curse when you try to install the fan and pulley to the water pump hub? Well, offend your Sunbeam’s ears no longer!
Take two studs that fit into the hub and screw them into diagonal holes, slip the pulley and fan over the studs and screw in two fan bolts in the remaining holes.
Remove the studs, install the other two fan bolts. There, that was easy, wasn’t it???
The virtue of air ratchet
If you plan on doing a lot of work on your Sunbeam yourself, one of the most useful tools that you could have would be an air ratchet. Due to the limited space in the engine compartment, an air ratchet makes quick work of those hard-to-reach bolts, like the bottom fan shroud bolts in the Tiger.