The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

[Magic Beans]

Now the Westy is back in the garage I can crack on with some of the outstanding jobs I've been wanting to do for a while. Although to be honest there's currently not that many. Last night's job was fitting the rear diffuser which came with the car, although I didn't get chance to fit before recent events.

It was cleaned after this, before it was fitted



Time to break out the trusty, albeit a little weathered, ramps and get it's bum up.



How things currently stood. As you can see, there's no floor at the back so the air gets in there and acts as a massive parachute. The diffuser should help reduce that, whilst still allowing some air to circulate and cool the diff, via gaps at the side.



So what should have been a simple matter of using the existing bolt holes to mount to, turns out to be a discovery that it wasn't mounted as the holes were rounded off There's always a solution though, so an hour or so later the rear part was test fitted.



The front is held in place on top of a plate which was already fitted, then attached to the diffuser using rivets. Here's a nice photo of some rivets, of assorted sizes too, along with a rivet gun. No idea why I took a shot of this?!



Cut to later, after a little swearing, a couple of bits of missing skin and some choice words to myself about why people can't just do things properly the first time around... and it's done.





There's a couple of other bits to do before tuning on Tuesday, nothing major though. Just want to get it dialled in and driven, as I want to see how it runs

**Edit** 2000 replies, oh my

[craig]

Nice one mate. Bet you're glad to be garage tinkering again!

[Nickp]

I presume you checked the diff oil before covering it up?

[Magic Beans]

Nice one mate. Bet you're glad to be garage tinkering again!

I am and I'm not to be honest

I presume you checked the diff oil before covering it up?

Nope. Comes on and off easily enough now though, so no dramas to remove it in the future.

[GeorgeL]

i bet you are anxious now for Tuesday

Love that diffuser on the car! Id imagine it will make some difference at speed

[Magic Beans]

I'm a little conscious that the engine hasn't really been run in properly yet. The tuner knows it's a freshly rebuilt unit so we'll see how it goes. I'd be happy just getting the fuelling pretty much sorted and then running it in and going back again afterwards to get it properly dialled in.

There's no rush as far as I'm concerned.

[synXero]

There's no rush as far as I'm concerned.

How long are you foreseeing having this? I suppose your patience is already well tested, with engine failure and winter arriving as soon as it runs again! Maybe it's getting easier from now on

I only ever imagine having these as three month flings. 'Life styler'

[Magic Beans]

Not sure at the moment. For now it's going to be with me for the foreseeable future and I'm not planning on replacing it with anything as/when it does get re-homed.

It will get used over the winter, so long as it's dry and we're wrapped up warm

[Nickp]

Forecast's dry for tomorrow mate, but is a tad nippy (hovering around zero!!) On the plus side, engines always go better with some cold / dense air in their 'lungs'

[Magic Beans]

Three pairs of pants on tomorrow then

[Nickp]

Three pairs of pants on tomorrow then

On your head I reckon!!

[Magic Beans]

I might not bother shaving tomorrow. Every little counts

The forecast is showing full suns for the whole day though, so hopefully I'll be just cold and not wet and cold.

[Nickp]

Fear induced adrenalin will help on the way back if you give her 'the beans'

[Magic Beans]

I'm hoping to be able to have at least a small serving of 'beans' tomorrow.

[Magic Beans]

Paid a visit to Torque Tune, a local bike carb tuning specialist, earlier today.

Rocked up, had a chat then strapped her down



Fuelling above 4k was good, so focus was on lower revs as it was MASSIVELY overfuelling! The jets fitted were 195s, which were way too big and swapped out for a 160 and ran again. The lower revs were much better and the top end (we only went up to 6k for this session, until it's run in) remained spot on. A few more tweaks and a couple more low end runs and low revs were much closer to where they needed to be.

Left it at that as I'll run it in and go back again after that. Final numbers (well, early numbers but never really tried it again as the top end was ok) were 150bhp at 5.5k. He reckons that there's plenty left in it, so probably looking at 170-180bhp dialled in

Driving wise it's a much happier little car. Bit of a monster when it hits cam (around 4k)! Pops and bangs like crazy on overrun

Good times

[Nickp]

Rocked up, had a chat then strapped her down

Sounds like a successful night out in Wombwell

[Magic Beans]

Rocked up, had a chat then strapped her down

Sounds like a successful night out in Wombwell

[craig]

Good stuff Phil, car's getting better all the time.

[Magic Beans]

Ten sleeps until Santa! Where has the time gone though?!

It's been a few weeks since I made put down some ramblings about car meddling, so as I've got some free time today here it is

I'd not done a massive amount on the Westy recently, as work's pretty busy, as are evenings, as are weekends. I've been sorting a few bits which were outstanding, but nothing too exciting so couldn't be bothered to take the camera out with me Things such as sorting the choke, setting the idle, along with a raft of other little jobs.

I'd been having issues firing it up, which after some investigation seem to be down to a combination of a battery which needed some TLC and some dodgy grounding. The grounding was caused by it being attached to the gearbox. That seems pretty normal, right? The key issues was the gearbox is painted, as is the grounding point, as is the ground.... After a bit of filing, wire tidying and cleaning it's much better. Now the battery has had a really good soak charge it now fires up straight away, whereas before it would turn over a couple of times and die Here's a video (shot using a potato! ) of the end result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHJkQH3Y9JM

I've ordered a proper air filter solution now, after an excessive amount of research (as always ). I've opted for a Pipercross PX600 (the tallest dome filter they do) filter and a base plate suited to R1 carbs. They should hopefully be here in the next few days, meaning it should be able to breath freely again. The deliberation was due to trying to find something which fit properly, allowed maximum airflow and transparency (with what I have to work with at least) and wouldn't catch fire if there was an extreme carb burp and something terrible causing it to spark.

I've also just bought this little lot, for what appears to be an absolute steal of a price! Thanks for the heads-up, Nick

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141141939413? ... 1439.l2649

We should be able to harvest the bits we need, to sort any outstanding niggles on the cars and then shift the rest of the bits. I've got a crunchy 5th gear, so hopefully the new gearbox will be better than the one I have.

Oh, driving a car with no doors, windows, roof, any form of protection in the dark, when it's about 3 degrees outside, is definitely something everybody needs to try at some point in their life...!

Reading some of the builds on here recently does make me miss Mule 2 sometimes. From what I can tell it's now sold and going to a new home. I wonder if it'll appear on here again at some point?

Seasons greetings one and all

[slipping clutch]

Nice little addition to the story there Phil, I was starting to worry your thread may have dropped to page two due to a winter forced lack of interest in the westy but all's well
Seasons greetings Back at you