What happened, and when?
Firstly, Rootes made a habit, as do most Manufacturer's, of getting rid
of discontinued production stock before using the replacements. Note
the sudden change in the Alpine S-V in 1967. They changed the lip less
headlamp bezels part way through the model run. The MK II version was
introduced as a real model change.
Engine colors were yet yet another, change to "Ford Blue", although
these may have been "owners" changes. My '65 Mk I 4 bolt transmission
bell housing was the same color black as the engine. I did, however,
replace it with a much better "8" bolt transmission housing (dual 4),
which fits either earlier 5 bolt, or newer Mk II 6 bolt bell housings.
Without a differential change, the performance difference was
astounding. It was directly from a Mk II, and was painted the original
black, with low mileage. ( a strongly recommend change, and suitable for
289/302 6 bolt bell housings). Check with Bob Hokanson's article in
TigersUnited.com for a great online speed / ratio / rpm automatic spread
sheet and calculator.
http://www.tigersunited.com/techtips/HokansonGearSpeedXL/pt-HokansonGearSpeedXL.asp
___
Steve Laifman
Editor - TigersUnited.com
Theodore Brown wrote:
> Harry:
>
> I think what happened was that after Rootes ran out of the first
> allocation of engines they had ordered from Ford, they must have
> ordered more. My guess is that the first batch were painted black and
> the second, blue. It's been my observation that cars with earlier
> numbers have black engines and trannies and the later ones, blue. I
> don't know when the changeover took place or if it was abrupt or a
> phased-in change. Maybe Norm has some insight? Of course, I could be
> totally off the wall with this. For the record, my Tiger,
> B382002384LRXFE (a late MkIA), born on August 25, 1966, had its engine
> and gearbox painted blue.
>
> Tod
>
>
> At 06:55 PM 11/13/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> Tod,
>> My first Tiger, B382002021, came original with both transmission and
>> engine painted blue. My current Tiger, B382000471, came original with
>> both transmission and engine painted black.
>> Harry Elam
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