Manual brakes

D

dgraway

Guest
I am looking to purchase a Tiger and have come across quite a few bad ones so far so I thought I would ask a question about one I just looked at. Were there Tigers that may have been manufactured without a vacuum brake booster? The one I looked at today had manual brakes only, there was no vacuum servo unit? Everything else looked to be hooked up and functioning just no vacuum servo / booster. :confused:
 
All Tigers came with a brake booster. Some people get tired of rebuilding boosters and/or the price of rebuilding boosters and just bypass them. CAT sells a braided steel bypass line that I have used while I was rebuilding my brake booster- the pedal pressure required to stop the car without a booster is reasonable, but I still run with the brake booster.
 
LOTS of alpines and Tigers ditch the brake boosters, the original ones dont give great pedal feel IMHO.. and they are quite expensive to have sorted. Aftermarket ones seem to do better.. but many just leave them off.

If you remove the booster you should switch to the early SI/II Alpine brake M/C setup for the model without the servo.. makes for a better pedal without vac assist.
 
Tigerblue

Our blue Tiger aka Tigerblue had the booster eliminated and the plumbing (brake-lines) were renewed so that no bypass line was needed. It had the standard master cylinder but I have since modified that with the smaller piston master cylinder sold by cat parts. The pedal moves a little further but the effort is less for stopping.

Check the car to see if it has the flexible bypass or the stock brake lines are replaced. If you will are planning to restore it stock or want power brakes? you may want to install the original style vacuum power brakes. If it has the original plumbing it will be easier to install.

Our black Tiger has the original booster. I rebuilt it myself back in about 1991? (And it worked after a couple tries) and had a shop rebuild last year. Pedal effort is much less of course but not over boosted like a 60's Cadillac.

Rick
 
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4 of my 5 Tigers had no boster and all stopped just fine. I never did the master cylinder swap but may look into it.
 
The Servo Boost

Depending upon the Serial #, Tigers came with either a 5" or 7" brake servo assist. It certainly helps but does not improve the basic marginal design of the small rotors & calipers. For normal cruising, the design is good. If you test the cars limits, brake fade will haunt you. One of our MK II customers uses both the servo assist and the .70 master cyl for additional pedal advantage. Good luck with your Tiger purchase.
 
brakes

if you don't use the booster and you switch to the .700 master used on series 1 & 2 alpines,you should also switch to the wheel cylinders used with the .700 master.
 
I have the lockheed booster sold by SS or VB, works great and is much less expensive that the Girling.
 
Thanks for all the answers everyone, I kind of thought that the vacuum booster was just removed but it helps to hear it from current tiger owners. I will update everyone if the offer and purchase of the tiger I am looking at works out.
 
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