The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

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Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Given that people are reading this (which is a refreshing surprise :D ), I guess I should crack on with these updates. Now there's three to update it's feeling like a mountain to climb, or type at least. Let's get up-to-date with Mule X first, before I go down the other rabbit holes...

Since we last spoke I've been busy working on the other projects. Yes, I know I keep dangling them like carrots and I will get round to them next :wink: Being at somewhat of an impasse with the Mk2 I'd been reluctant/unmotivated to crack on with the turbo swap. One thing I did do, which was triggered by some work I was doing on one of the others (there's that carrot again :lol: ), was to freshen up the bracket/holder for the injector resistor and friends. It'd been sat in the open for some time, back before I bought the car, meaning the weather had taken its toll.

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First up was to flap wheel it and get the rust off.

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Then treated and painted and installed back onto the car. Making the resistor pack etc look especially bad :lol:

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Next up was a visit from Pete, for a weekend focused on getting on car finally on the road and fitting the CT20B etc to Mule X (the Mk2). Well, the latter was the plan, which we then changed :whistle:

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After a lot of pondering over recent months, I had decided to swap the GT2860RS out for the stock CT20B I'd bought. That remained the plan right up to the point where I picked up car no.3. After whih it didn't make sense to have two cars running stock turbos (clues...! :wink: ), especially as Mule X has a forged build. So.... what I decided right at the time we were about to do the thing, was that I'd keep the GT2860RS and go with the aftermarket ECU and remap route. I'm sticking with the standard 540cc injectors and just shooting for the 300-320bhp mark. I don't need it to be huge power, I really enjoy an SW around that power level.

Given the car was in bits, along with the fact I'd bought a full turbo gasket set etc (which I no longer need #-o ), we swapped out the exhaust manifold gasket. After removing the old one it was clear it was definitely ready.

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Once swapped we put everything back together, in the process finding and tightening several loose nuts/bolts on and around the turbo/DP. Definitely not helping the performance of the car, along with fuelling/emissions, both of which seemed way off. We then tested the car, which seems really quite happy now.

The last thing I wantd to do before going any further, was to check the compression of the engine. I'd not done it since getting the car and while it felt happy, I wanted peace of mind in knowing the compression was good etc. In typical Mule fashion, after checking cylinders 1 and 2 the car stopped turning over #-o I spent a little bit of time chasing ghosts (again) and eventually got it sorted. I cleaned a removed the connectors on the starter relay, the starter itself and other linked wiring elements. Once doneit was happy again (for now at least) and I could redo the compression test. The results being 160 PSI or thereabouts across the board. I'm not sure what compression the forged pistons are but I'm happy with the results.

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Next up: MOT time, tomorow! Wish me (it) luck! :pray:

Right, now to finish the write-ups about the other two. Sore fingers incoming! :lol:
pistol pete
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by pistol pete »

well.... i think its time you stopped dangling the carrot!! :D
Ben
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Ben »

I've seen enough of his dangly carrot thankyouverymuch
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

But you both love my carrot :mrgreen:
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Right, onto the next one! I appreciate I kinda left everyone hanging with this, with just a single teaser photo and then months of silence... Let me spend some time going over what it is, why it is, what it is now and what comes next.

Those of you who've been following my little journey for a while will need to cast their minds back to 2014 and the time of Mule V. For those that weren't around then or have brain smoothing (myself included) due to 2 years locked in your homes, Mule V was a certain Mk1 Super Edition that was owned by Ben. Ben and I did a little swap, with keys (if you can call them that :lol:) for Mule III (the Westfield) being exchanged for those of Ben's lovely little Mk1.

The Super Edition was a fabulous car. I should have kept it and feel my decision to sell it was the wrong one. The motivation for doing so was due to a lack of garage space at the time, because Mule IV (The Busa) was hogging the garage. Having such a rare old car living outside, exposed to the weather and slowly perishing, never sat well with me. When I was approached by an interested collector in Germany, it seemed the right time to let it go. Knowing that it would be well cared for, for a long tme to come. It's also probbly worth a small fortune now, but that's how these things go sometimes...

Since selling the SE I'd always had it in mind that one day I'd buy another. Now we have a lot more space for cars (soon to be even more, but that's a story for the future...) and a free space in the garage due to the Mini going back to Mason Manor, it felt the right time to buy another Mk1. I'd been monitoring prices and availability for some time, with the situation being that prices are way up and average car condition being way down. Basically, in-line with the used car market as a whole these days, but more so with older Japanese stuff. I went to see a few cars and was generally unimpressed with what was on offer. Then I stumbled onto an eBay ad for a 1988 Mk1 Supercharger with a tintop, and a lot of rust!

It was owned by a guy who had a garage and had bought it as a side project during those wonderful months when we were confined to our homes (good times...). He'd done a chunk of work on it, such as replacing the sills, rear rears, driver's side floor (not quite finished), sourcing new parts and repair pieces etc. The world had then returned to whatever normal is now and the time he'd intended to spend working on it had evaporated.

At this point, the sensible thing to have done would have been to walk away and keep looking, so I bought it! :clown: . A few days later a lowloader turned up and dropped off this.

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A little side-by-side of the two cars that were/are to give me hours of work and very little reward. For now at least :lol:

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At this point you're probably wondering why the hell I've bought a rotten old Mk1 in that condition?! Well, you'll be pleased to know that's arguably the best it's going to look for the rest of this post 8-[ Well, technically that's not correct, as in the folders that came with the car was a copy of retro Rides from 2012. In that magazine was an article about a white '88 Mk1 SC. Which if you squint, or just focus on the reg plate, you'll see was this car in a former life! :o

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It was an absolute stunner! The list of mods is also pretty impressive, especially the engine! It was clearly cherished, so to know it had been loved and then left to go to absolute ruin is a crime! :( From what I can gather, it had been sold by the guy in the article (anyone know him?), passing through the hands of two more people, before ending up with the guy I'd bought it from. A sad decline but I can mark the start of its return to glory.

Now we know something about what it was and how it came to be, let's take a look at what I'm going to be working wth over the coming months/years. First up I delved into the cabin, boot, engine bay and the pile of parts it came with. I found a Unichip piggyback ECU and an HKS ignition thing (yet to read up on it), which according to the article, were combined with a smaller SC pulley to yield 200bhp. Whether or not that's true and whether or not it can still do that remains to be seen of course...

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A lot of parts! Including a brand new, still in bubble wrap, front crash bar. I believe the former owner paid somewhere between £500-£1000 for this!

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I decided to catalogue what I had and then store it away. I did the same for all the other bits I removed as I progressed. Well, until I put it somewhat all back together, but we'll get to that :lol:

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I then started the lovely process of checking over the actual condition of the car, detailing the good bits and the much longer list of things that needed rectifying. Each panel removed revealing endless treats and reminders of how people can neglect cars :(

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The NS headlight and the chassis area it mounts to were toast!

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Not pleasant viewing and as you can imagine, not one of those nuts, bolts and parts came off without a massive fight! Also, look at the state of the crash bar! It's completely disolved in some places!

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Now the bar is off I could see what lies underneath. That being more rust and some pretty rotten box section :(

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This extended into the Frunk area too. Which I discovered after pulling the very clean liner, spare wheel and tool kit out of the way.

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Cut to some time and several buckets of rust of removed rust later and we'd got to what you'd consider the low point in a build. The car was in hundreds of pieces, looked much worse than when it arrived and was that dawning of realisation of the size of the task I'd taken on. I continued to move forwards in bits, treating the rust areas I found and at least halting its attack on the car. Progress was slow though, I'd lost that initial momentum :( Having it sat there, representing a mountain of work I still need to do, alongside the Mk2 which continued to fight me every step of the way, became somewhat of a mental burden :( I'd lost all motivation to work on either of them, whilst spending every moment longing for the day they were finished (driveable at least).

I didn't really know what to do to fire up my own engine of willingness to work on them. My goal was to have something I could drive this summer, which neither of the cars were currently looking likely of doing. So I decided to do another sensible thing and buy yet another car :lol: The idea being that using it would then drive the desire to progress, while satisfying the need to actually be able to use one of them and ot just spend my time at the grindstone (we'll see how that went...). The SC could go and be dry stored at the family farm, until a point in the future where I have the drive to want to tackle welding and paint.

I eventually found something, with the help of Pete. Who I think secretly enjoys planting bad (and sometimes good) ideas in my head :lol: . The deal done, I had to reolcate the Mk1 and in order to achieve that. I hastingly threw the car back together with the help of a lot of cable ties and as many bits crammed into the car as possible. There was still plenty left to ship but they could go up as/when we visited.

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In is new home, where it sat looking sorry for itself :(

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Cut to several weeks later, a new car and new problems (you'll love the next update :lol: ), we needed to relocate the SC from one barn to another. It's new home is a space I'm going to convert into a proper garage space, with a lift and all the bits I really needed to work on these cars properly.

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Note the jolly farmer and Mrs Beans :mrgreen:

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All the various bits stored away in a big pile, which will continue to grow over the coming months

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That's how things stand rght now. It's dry, protected and sat waiting for the day the Eye of Sauron turns towards it. Which for a while was unknown, as I wasn't overly sure what to do with it. However, since getting the new one it's massively increased my desire to the see SC built and back on the road. As such I've green-lit the build for next year, once Mule X is done (I have news on that!) and we've relocated to Yorkshire.

That's all for now. Just another few hours of typing done, with the same needed to write-up the next one!

Toodle pip
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Some good news for the day :cheers:

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The drive over was excellent and the car is feeling great right now. I do love driving an SW, they just feel like home :hug:

To say it's been a journey to get to this point is a huge understatement! There's a few bits I've added to the "to do" list. I'll get to those in future updates...
pistol pete
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by pistol pete »

Looks great on the ramp there, We got there Whoop Whoop!!!

I still glad i convinced you to keep them wheels

as good as a mk2 is, i still prefer the SC and your other project :). But we have yet to strip down my NEX, so too how bad that is! gotta finish that mini :)

Look forward to next up date.. I still need to update mine
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wilkie senior
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by wilkie senior »

Great story, dam wish i had your garage!!!!

Anyway Welcome to gods county when you are here, the air is better here you know!!!! fact :wink:

Regards Brian
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That's a negative, Jim. I do not have the measles.
Hail Cosmos Eagle Rev 5, 1998 -
RIP White Eagle Rev 1, 1991 - 2016
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

pistol pete wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 6:24 am
I still need to update mine


Yes, yes you do :mrgreen:

wilkie senior wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:59 pm
Great story, dam wish i had your garage!!!!

Anyway Welcome to gods county when you are here, the air is better here you know!!!! fact :wink:

Regards Brian


Thanks, Brian :)

Very much looking forward to the move. Still some things to work out to get us the first step. Then the big step happens, which might well be the house build I've been waiting to do my whole life! Depends if we find the right land, get the consents etc. If we find a suitable house to see us through the next decade we might go that route, we'll see...
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

A small update on X, while I continue to do the write-up of XIII.

One of the things that's been bugging me since is geeting the car is the now very tired tint on the driver and passenger windows. At one point I'm sure it looked great but time and wear have definitely taken their toll. The tint now being full of stress and rub marks, as well as being pitted by the elements. Rather than replace it I decided to remove it, see what the glass is like and then decide if I want to replace it in the future.

It's not easy to capture tint film on camera but here's something of an example of what it looked like. Keeping in mind that it's been cleaned!

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The method I chose was to use a heat gun to remove it, which actually worked well.

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Although, one side came off quite cleanly, the other left its entire gluey guts #-o This shot was after about 90 minutes of effort and multiple removal products having been tried.

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Cut to about 4 hours later, removal of both doors cards and a lot of elbow grease, we have this. You also get to see the very tired wing mirror lacquer up close 8-[

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Note: Carb cleaner turned out to be very effective to break down the glue, then glass cleaner finished the job.

Another thing I really wanted to sort was replacing the license plates. The front was illegal and the rear wasn't tue JDM sized and formatted. I also didn't like the visible bolts on the rear so decided to solve that at the same time.

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The replacements

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Replacing the front was fairly routine. I carefully unstuck the plate, cleaned off the residual foam pads, wiped down the whole area, applied plate tape, aligned things and stuck it on.

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The rear was a little more involved. After removing the old plate I decided to go with a similar approach to how I attached the rear plate on Mule I. That being to used a plastic backing piece, countersink the bolt holes, attach it and then tape the new plate over the top.

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In this instance I decided to use the old plate as the mount. Cutting it down at each side, due to the old plate being about 5mm wider on each side.

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I then sourced some countersunk bolts from the massive spare bolt collection, which we all have because of years of cars :roll: These were then cut down (wonkily, as always #-o ) and the ends cleaned up.

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Plate flipped, countersunk holes drilled, tape was applied and the new plate attached. After far too much time spent making sure it was centred and level :mrgreen:

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Again, two minor jobs in terms of scale (but not time!), that all add to the overall vision for where the car is going. The next thing that's coming is a bigger step; I've ordered an ECU...
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Oh, I forgot to mention I'd removed the engine bay stickers! #-o :lol:

We all know I'm not a fan of stickers and I'm especially not a fan of Tein, after they recently quoted me £300 per shock, plus any extras, to service them!

Before:

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After:

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Ok, definitely done now.
pistol pete
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by pistol pete »

looking nice and clean there bud :clap: :clap:
Rob66
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Rob66 »

Love your mk2 and mk1 looking good.

Had my MOT (rev3) and first fail for years on emissions Co2 and small amount of rust on internal sill and behind rear wheels. Hoping the majority is as sound as it appears and that they won't need to remove the rear bumper to weld. Did you get the clips from Mr T?

Cheers
:D
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Rob66 wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:55 pm
Love your mk2 and mk1 looking good.

Had my MOT (rev3) and first fail for years on emissions Co2 and small amount of rust on internal sill and behind rear wheels. Hoping the majority is as sound as it appears and that they won't need to remove the rear bumper to weld. Did you get the clips from Mr T?

Cheers
:D


Hi Rob :)

Definitely worth getting them checkd out ASAP. I suspect they'd want to remove the bumper, to be 100% sure there's not anything back there and to get proper access. It's not a big job to remove it. Far smaller than what it would be if it was left and the rot got worse.

Which clips are you referring to? The repair panels I got from Andy at J-Spec. I've actually got a spare OS outer arch spare, if you need one. I'd bought it but didn't need it in the end.

I must get no.3 written up this week!
Rob66
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Rob66 »

Hi MB

I'm off to a fabricators (CT Fabrications) after work today to get a quote, the hole in the internal sill looks tiny and both external sills are still perfect having been changed a few years ago. I think you're right and the bumper will probably need to come off for the corrosion right at the edge of the bumper (as you put your fingers round the edge if that makes sense, water has no doubt sat there).

Clip wise I know that if the bumper comes off there are a couple of dozen clips that hold it all together (and the carpet and the rear lights etc) and from experience I know these don't always like being pulled apart. MR2 Ben has packs or 10 and plenty on ebay but cant be sure they will fit. I wont to make it as easy as possible for the guys refitting it. The good news is that the wheel arches are solid. Il let you know what they say.

Looking forward to the updates on your cars.
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Ahh, I get which clips you mean now.

I bought these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265732305027 ... 5732305027. They've done the job well and have stood up to being removed on a couple of occassions so far :)

Phil
Rob66
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Rob66 »

Thanks Phil.

I had the wheels off yesterday (and popped my Rev4 ones back on with new tyres) to have a really good look at what's going on.

The inner sill hole is tiny could not get even the tip of my little finger in it, all metalwork around is rock solid. Driver's side just inside the rear bumper right in the corner again small amount of corrosion, passenger's side still solid but looks like toyota added a thin skin over the metal and that as started to chip off. So treated all parts with Rust Killer and will see if I have any other sensible options this morning, the hole in the sill could certainly be filled, bumper possibly a small metal plate 1" x 1/2 ".

I'm happy to get the work done professionally if needed and still booked in. just concerned about removing things that have never been removed before on my OCD clean car :D

Thanks again for your help and sorry to hog your thread :D
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Well that's positive news then! You've hopefully caught it before it goes.
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Ok, onto the last of the carrots and the last of the new car write-ups... For now... ;)

If you've read chapter and verse of my other posts you'll be aware of two things: 1) I take far too many photos and uploads them in a size that makes them a screen rendering nightmare. Sorry, not sorry :mrgreen: 2) I have two MR2s, which at the time buying No.3, were fighting me or were self-lightening... This made things feel like one long treacle wading exercise, affecting my motivation to work on them. So what does someone with what feels like the burden of project cars do to help with the feeling of burden? That's right, buy more project cars! 8-[ Hear me out, though. There is, or was at the time, logical thinking behind this...

The big part of the perceived problem and the thing grinding me down was that I was doing all this work and was still nowhere near having something I could use. Sure, things were moving forwards but there was still a long long way to go. Add in it now being spring/summer, which is the time you want to be out enjoying them, the feeling is amplified. I (felt I) needed something I could use and enjoy, while working away on the others in the background. That enjoyment then motivates you to push forwards and see them all done, ready and being used.

So what did I buy....?

Well, I could ramble on (you know I'm partial to doing that...) about motivations etc but I'll spre you the boring deep dive into my thought patterns (you're welcome) and will just tell you: I bought another AW11. However, not another 4A-based AW, this one has an 3S-GTE engine in it!

The car itself started out as an '87 NA, with the usual tired chassis etc. This then fell into the hands of a coachworks company in Wales called QSR. They took the car back to a bare shell, popped it on a rotisserie and completely restored the whole car. As part of the process the boot was modified in preparation for a Woodsport 3S conversion (a crashed Celica GT4 being the donor car), as well as the frunk and bonnet being modified to provide functional venting/aero. The paint is a mix of Toyota black, I believe a Kia grey and a Hyundai red, or something like that?! At the time I wasn't sold on the combo and planned to get the red deleted or go all black. Since sorting the wheels I'm much happier with the aesthetic.

Here's a few photos I was sent of the build, to give you an insight into the work:

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Arrival day came! The transporter collected the car from deepest Wales and many hours later it arrived at its new home. Before you say it, I also have no idea what was going on with that wheel colour choice?! Don't worry, I correct that later. I only got time to grab a few photos before tucking it away for the evening, as we were heading out. I'd then need to wait a couple of days before taking it out for the first run.

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The time came. It was the weekend, I had some free time and we could see what this thing was like. I knew it was going to need a full service, as it had been sat for a while (the former owner died and his son sold it to me) but I threw in some fresh fuel and we headed out. We then promptly returned after 5 minutes because it clear something wasn't right... The idle was lumpy, which originally I'd put down to it being related to the conversion/exhaust/cams etc. However, after driving just a few metres it was clear something wasn't right. The car vibrated badly on idle, laboured when accelerating and struggled to make boost :(

What was supposed to be an exciting first drive and a step onto the path of process, had just turned into the complete opposite ](*,) As disappointing as it was, the only thing that can be done is begin the process of identifying and rectifying the issue(s). Well, swearing and thinking terrible things about it in your head is also perfectly acceptable in this instance.

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It sounded like it was only running on three cylinders. Which after seem testing, was confirmed as being cylinder 2. The next few hours were spent checking the basics and then pulling known working bits from the SW and seeing if they solved the problem. None of them made any difference. I'd swapped the plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor, checked for spark on all four, checked the ECU, checked the wiring and done some tests to see if the fault moved with the changes. It didn't, it remained with cylinder 2. Defeated the day, I headed to the house and began what became a massive trawl of the internet (and Pete's brain, as always :lol:) to see if I could get any leads on solutions.

The issue was something causing cylinder 2 to not get fuel. After some time and some logical deduction, the next step was to pull the injectors and get them tested/cleaned. Given the car had sat for a while and I didn't knw the full history, it could simply be that the injectors are dirty and no.2 is clogged/dead. On a "normal" car this would be easy enough to sort, but I had to go and buy a mid-engined car with a whacking chargecooler core sat on top of it! :facepalm:

Cut to hours later, lots of cuts on my hands and generally no fun had, the fuel rail was out, the injectors extracted and ready to be sent away for cleaning.

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A couple of days later they were back, along with the before and after test results...

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Yep, pretty much spotless :roll: To be fair though, I had cleaned them myself using carb cleaner before sending them away. Still, while it's good to know they're functional and clean, it didn't give me much hope that it would fix the wider issue.

While the rail etc was out I took the opportunity to clean everything done, then prep and paint a few bits before installation. I'd also ordered new O rings for the top and bottom of each injector, which I fitted and then built the rail ready to be installed back into the car.

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Now back in place, with all the crush washers replaced, hoses/pipes checked for leaks and a long list of other checks completed, it was time to fire up the car and see if all that work was worth it... It didn't make any difference and the exact same issue remained (cylinder 2 was down) :facepalm: I wasn't overly surprised but it was still a bit of a kick notheless. I promptly downed tools, turned off the garage lights and went into the house, then headed away for the weekend.

While we were away my mind continued to churn through possibilities of what the issue could be. Given we know the injectors are clean the only other thing could be that they're not being triggered for some reason. I was praying this didn't mean that the loom needed work, as that would be a nightmare to work on! A couple of suggestions I'd seen in old forum posts across a few sites, was that the injector resistor pack could go bad. I never even heard of it let alone considered it might go be, so I Googled to see what it was. Interestingly, the images returned showed me something that looked familiar. It looked like a thing that JD had randomly included as a spare with the SW! When we got home I headed to the garage and checked to see if I was right... I was! It wasn't in great shape and the wires had been spliced together using a block connector, but I could test the car at least. One of the following was going to happen:

1) It made a positive difference and we'd found the cause
2) It made a negative difference but we'd still found the cause
3) It did nothing at all, meaning it was something else entirely

I connected it up and fired up the car... It appeared to sound different! Better! To check I wasn't just being optimistic I swapped it back and fired up the car agan. Immediately worse! The car idle was too low, it was lumpy and generally sounded bad. I swapped back... it sounded good! The idle was in-line with what a 3S should sound like, the engine revved freely, it was fixed! Or appeared to be at least! :cheers: As a test I swapped the bad one into the SW and the one from the SW in to the AW. The fault carried across to the SW, meaning we had finally found the thing that had caused me weeks (this issue had been chased for at least a month!).

This is why we need to keep forums alive and to keep using them. Without some random posts from a guy in the US back in 2012 I might still be chasing ghosts now! It's also the reason why I docuement like I do in this thread, so another me out there might find the answer to whatever issue is giving them hell!

Given the spare I had had dodgy wiring I bought a used replacement from J-Spec. This thankfully worked as intended!

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It was a few more days before I got to drive the car properly, which was the weekend Pete was up to stay with us. I'll get into that shortly as there were a few other bits going on at the same time. First up was swapping the stock ARBs for the Whitelines I had.

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The next being the one I'd wanted to do since first seeing the car: Powdercoating the wheels! The red/grey colour scheme was a bold choice, not one I'd hve chosen... I did consider replacing the wheels but the key challenge there is that the Celica brakes are huge! There aren't a lot of wheels that would fit, have the right offsets and wouldn't foul the front calipers! There's maybe 5mm of clearance in front and at each side, so they're pretty tight! I opted for "Racing Bronze" which came out well, even if it's a bu88er to capture properly on camera :lol:

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Fitted. Note the house guest in the background :mrgreen: We collected them when Pete came up.

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The time finally came. Pete was here, along with his Mk3. The car was (appeared to be) ready and the sun was out. Let's go and see what this Mk1.5 was actually like to drive!

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Yes, I hate the exhaust too! It's going, don't worry:lol:. It

The photos were actually from the second ride out. The first was a shakedown run with Pete and I, to see if it all worked, how it felt and what snags there still were to sort. Overall it was brilliant! The engine felt great, the clutch was just right, the brakes were surprisingly balanced, no noises or grumbles. It felt like a sorted little car. The only snags were the following:

1) The right-hand turn indicator bulb in the cluster wasn't working - Now resolved
2) The speedo was a bit jumpy and under hard acceleration it read as zero. So the faster you went the slower it read! :lol: While it's a Rev 3 engine it's not the mechnical speedo drive in, because of the Mk1 cluster. We'll get onto that shortly...

Overall a great weekend spent with a great friend :gayfight:

Everyone bored of reading yet? I'm definitely bored of writing! :lol: Grab a fresh brew; there's a few more dramas to go through.

I'd read up on issues with the speedo and the common suggestion was that the cable gets gunked up over the years. Apparently you can pull the core, clean it, lube it and fit it back in, so that's what I did.

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Before reinstalling it I put the cable end into a drill and ran it up to speed, to see if the speedo read properly. It did! I finished the job and left it for the day, feeling satisfied with how easy of a job it was. You know those times where you plan something, it goes smoothly and everything is great. Yeah, that's how it appeared, until I came to test things...

I took the car out and was immediately presented with a speedo that had no reading at all #-o I pulled the cable again, made sure it was all aligned, did the drill test (which gave a speed reading) and put it back together again. Back out I went: still nothing. F.....! In fixing something I've now made it worse, great #-o

Now chasing a fresh ghost I decided to pull the dash cluster out and see if everything was in situ. I got most of the way there and got side-tracked because the rusty cowel was too much for me to deal with. This wouldn't do! I had to remove it, treat/prep/paint it before I could carry on. So that's what I did.

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It might seem like a waste of time, whichh it probably is. However, it's also a good way to get some time away from the bigger issues and come up with plans. That's what I tell myself at least!

I continued to plug away at trying to solve the speedo issue and got nowhere. The next logical step was to pull and check the speedo drive itself on the gearbox. Normlly this wouldn't be too difficult but as this is a 3S in an AW, the job is a little more tricky... The bolt for the speedo drive sits right behind the customer rear engine mount, so the only way to get to it is to remove the whole mount. It's not difficult to do as such, it;s just fiddly as hell. The nuts and bolts are at really awkward angles and I had to get creative with ways to remove them all. In the end I was successful!

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That success was short lived as my next issue was that I couldn't remove the speedo drive, due to it hitting the rear firewall! #-o The only solution was to separate it in situ, which worked but I knew it would be an absolute sod to put back in. It was!

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After checking over the speedo drive I was pleased to find that it was working as intended. The gear was in good shape, the keys were solid and it engaged well. i have no words for the process of putting it back in. Sufficed to say it was not sunshine and rainbows... That would be forgotten if the test then proved a success and the speedo was working again. Yeah, that didn't happen, it's still a dud ](*,)

I'm still nowhere with the speedo now. I was planning on leaving it as it was and dealing with it as part of winter maintenance. The problem being that if the ECU reads zero speed while the car is moving above a certain RPM for a prolonged period of time it throws a code, code 42 to be precise. It then cuts engine performance, applying boost cut at a lower level and generally drives badly: brilliant! #-o I'm now forced to continue the ghost chase and the next thing to try is to check the speedo cable union under the car. Well, it would be but as this is a conversion I can't easily get to it. I'll need to get it up fairly high to do it properly, so for now it's going to have to be what it is.

Next up was MOT time! I had mixed thoughts about this, as the car is super clean but it's also proving to be true to its Mule XIII namesake! I drove to the test centre, getting a 42 along the way, naturally :roll:

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While it was up in the air I checked out the underside. It's clean, very clean! A few bits of prevenative maintenance I'll be doing but it's nice to get some positive news!

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The end result was this!

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The only thing he mentioned was that it was worth me treating the front brake lines as they were getting close to becoming an issue. The next day I did exactly that! So off with the wheels.

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The slightly scabby lines

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Wired brushed, rust treated, prepped and painted, they looked like this.

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While I was there I wire brushed, treated and prepped the surrounding area.

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The repeated the process on the other side.

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Sorted and protected for another few years. I then decided to do another of the jobs I'd decided I needed (wanted) to do. That being covering up the many residual connectors in the engine bay that had no purpose after the conversion. I'm sure they'd be fine but it doesn't take long with cover them and it's another potential issue avoided (hopefully) in the future. The way I chose to do this was to cut the fingers off nitrile gloves, insert the plugs and then cable tie them up, like so:

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Almost finished, I promise!

Despite the speedo issue I have been using the car. Having to rely on an app to read your speed isn't ideal but it'll do. On one run, which was on a particuarly hot day, I was driving it and spent a load of time sat idling in traffic. The car had done well, hadn't given me any issues and the temps looked good. However, about 50m from home, after I'd topped to let oncoming traffic by there was a popping or banging sound from the engine bay! The car drove home fin after that but after pulling onto the driveway I could see that was a puddle underneath it! :pale: Thankfully the finger test showed it to be coolant and not oil, with further investigations identifying it was the collant expansion tank overflowing and weeing on the floor. Why that had happened I'm not sure. It's suggested it could be the coolant cap, the thermostat or even air in the system?! I checked the cap and it appears ok. I have a spare so I'll use that to test. The coolant level was pretty high so it could have been an air/excess coolant issue. I'll pick up a new thermostat, swap it out and flush the coolant system at some point in the future, then see if it has any further issues.

I did pull the SW and AW out to let them get some air and to run for a while. Decided to grab a few phoos while I was at it.

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After pulling the AW back in I saw this #-o

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Which prompted this :lol: Pretty much sums up my experience with this car. Remembering that I bought this one because I wanted something I could just use and enjoy.

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Thankfully, after getting it out again on Monday I'm happy to report no wee puddles. I'm going to assume it was residual from the original blow off.

Well, that's it, I've finally got up to date with this car's journey with me so far! Apologies that it's an epic read. Leaving it so long meant that it became longer and longer due to the fact I was continuing to work on the car! Do shout up if you see any massive grammatical errors, as right now I have no desire to proof read this.

Next up is updates on the SC!
Magic Beans
Posts: 4789
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Oh! I forgot to mention that the main beams no longer work or pop up. Probably something I've done while I have the dash apart #-o

The fuses and relays appear to be ok and the retractable headlight module has been swapped with the one from the SC. The side lights come on, as do the lights in the cluster. The relay can also be heard clicking when I switch to main beams, so I have no idea what's happened?!

Yay, project cars!
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